Department of Engineering Science

Research | Electrical and Opto-electronic Engineering

Introduction to Electrical and Opto-electronic Engineering.

This area includes researchers in a wide variety of electrical, electronic and optical topics. It is supported by facilities such as optical darkrooms, clean rooms, anechoic chamber for RF measurements, hardware and software for circuit design and testing.

Working on Electrical power topics involves fundamental studies on plasmas, and electrical power systems for renewable energy, with applications like the high efficiency hydrogen car (with BOC and OSC ar Automotive). In Circuit design and testing we focus on testing integrated circuits, and designing analogue interfaces to sensors, particularly for optical detectors for digital cameras, optical communications, MEM's and microphones.

In the Communications Group we are developing novel wireless communications schemes exploiting ultra-wideband technology with multiple input multiple output architectures. Very active work is being pursued in optical communications techniques for indoor wireless systems. Device development work is actively pursuing applications of metamaterials in communications systems and for radar technologies. Medical applications of radar and ultrawideband imaging techniques are being developed in conjunction with colleagues from the medical sciences. We are also beginning to make use of nanotechnology to develop radio like receivers for Terahertz and optical frequencies.

Sponsors of Optoelectronic Engineering research include manufacturers of liquid crystals, and liquid crystal devices who are interested in our work on novel materials for both display and non-display applications. We are also developing methods to measure properties such as twist elastic constants and flexoelectric coefficients. In Applied optics we are researching novel microscopy techniques including adaptive and diffractive optics and electromagnetic systems.

This area has strong collaborations with many other Universities in the UK and abroad, and is funded by Research Councils and other Government agencies, frequently in joint projects, which also involve industrial funding. There are spin-off activities, and collaborations with Samsung, Nortel, Bookham, Hathaway, E2V, Thorn Microwave Devices, Dynex Semiconductors, BOC, Sharp, Merck, Philips, Dow Corning, Kingston Chemicals, Qinetiq, Unilever, Zeiss, Sharp and others.

Last modified 28 January 2010 by WEB.ADMIN.