19 July 2013

Tyndall National Institute’s Brian Corbett wins Intel Outstanding Researcher Award for 2013

Brian Corbett of Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork (UCC) has received an Intel Outstanding Researcher Award for 2013. He is the third Tyndall researcher to win the annual honor. Tyndall has now won three of the 11 Intel Outstanding Researcher Awards given to date.

The award is in recognition of outstanding contributions that Corbett and his team have made in photonics and material science over a number of years funded by Intel’s Semiconductor Technology Council.

Corbett’s research aims to investigate the critical light source for fiber connections to the CPU in a computer. Tyndall says that he and his team have delivered practical results consistently over the last few years and the team’s expertise in device fabrication and characterization have enabled the project to meet its milestones. In addition, through regular contact with Intel experts in Portland, OR, USA, Corbett has provided insight and understanding into the behavior of fabricated photonic devices and associated assembly challenges, while working on ways to improve the design and process flow, the insitute adds.

Picture: Brian Corbett holding the award, with (to the left) Intel fellow Kelin Kuhn, and the Tyndall team supporting the research.

The award was presented by Dr Kelin Kuhn (an Intel fellow and director of Advanced Device Technology at the Technology Manufacturing Group), joined by Anita Mcguire (VP of Research at University College Cork). “In making these awards we give careful consideration to both the excellence of the research and its practical applications... Corbett has excelled in both categories,” Kuhn commented. The award is “a strong endorsement of the quality and breadth of the research in the Cork facility,” adds Intel Ireland’s research manager Leonard Hobbs.

In 2009 Corbett also won the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Award for his work on the applications of photonics devices. In particular, the research by Corbett and his III-V Materials and Devices group on Micro LEDs (μLEDs) led in 2010 to the formation of InfiniLED, an LED development and production portfolio company of ScienceWorks Ventures plc (a London-based IP commercialization company with an operations centre in Cork). InfiniLED develops LED light source modules based on patented μLED technology (licensed from Tyndall), which is said to have performance benefits over conventional LEDs (mainly a significant reduction in the illumination area and in battery power required to run the LED).

“He has made substantial contributions to both the fundamental understanding of photonic materials and the applications of photonic devices,” commented InfiniLED’s chief commercial officer Bill Henry. “The range of both academic and industrial collaborators that the III-V Group has worked with over the years highlights the breadth of their work,” he adds.

InfiniLED continues to have a strong on-going relationship with Corbett’s research group and Tyndall. As well as an access agreement with Tyndall, InfiniLED has research project focused on new developments and industrial applications of the MicroLED technology. InfiniLED says that it also has development contracts with international customers. Applications range from diagnostic testing devices to consumer products.

See related items:

InfiniLED announces access agreement with Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute

Ireland’s Tyndall National Institute spins out InfiniLED

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