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29 September 2009

 

Infinera’s senior director of Optical Component Technology named IET Fellow

Digital optical network system maker Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA says that Dr Radhakrishnan (Radha) Nagarajan, its senior director of Optical Component Technology, has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) in recognition of his pioneering work in photonic integrated circuit design.

Infinera says that Nagarajan is one of the key architects in the development of its large-scale indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs). He is also a fellow of the Optical Society America (OSA) and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The firm’s commercial PICs integrate more than 50 optical components on a single chip less than 5mm across. Meanwhile, its next-generation devices have demonstrated monolithic integration levels of well over 400 components. The devices are at the heart of Infinera’s Digital Optical Networks architecture, which has delivered improvements in density, scalability, reliability, and power consumption, the firm claims. Infinera has won 62 customers worldwide, including some of the largest service providers. Nagarajan has been a member of the engineering team developing PICs since the firm was founded in 2001.

The IET has 150,000 members in 127 countries. Fellowship is awarded to members who have demonstrated superior individual responsibility, sustained achievement and significant professionalism during their careers. Applicants must clearly demonstrate successful leadership or outstanding service to the profession over an extended period.

Nagarajan says that the Fellowship is also recognition for the PIC engineering team at Infinera. “It has been a pleasure working in such an environment, from the days when there were two dozen of us in one building, up to and including the present, when Infinera is a company with nearly 1000 people around the world.”

Nagarajan has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Singapore, a Masters in Electronic Engineering from the University of Tokyo, and a PhD from the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). After further work as a research faculty at UCSB, he joined optical components manufacturer SDL, where in 2000 his team won the Photonics Circle of Excellence award for the design of a high-power, single-mode pump module for EDFA (erbium-doped fiber amplifier) applications. In 2006, he was awarded the IEEE/LEOS Aron Kressel award in recognition of work on the development and manufacturing of large-scale PICs.

“Radha’s individual contributions and leadership have been essential to the realization of the world's most advanced indium phosphide PICs,” says Dr Fred Kish, Infinera’s VP for Optical Integrated Components.

“The technical excellence of our people, and their willingness to take risks and pioneer new solutions that others in the industry did not think possible, has been a key factor in Infinera’s success,” reckons chief operating officer Tom Fallon. “Nagarajan epitomizes those qualities.”

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