The current research effort within the Electronics Research Institute is focused into two Research Groups:
The Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies has a
well-established track record of innovation in grating devices for
applications in telecommunications, signal processing, optical sensing,
and many other grating applications including many first
demonstrations. The main areas of research are: ultrafast non-linear
phenomena in fibres and fibre devices; high-speed communication
concentrating on solitons and soliton transmission, processing,
generation and control; all-optical switching and processing; ultrafast
all-optical networks; fibre gratings fabrication, design and
fundamental studies; fibre grating devices and their application in
communication and sensors; and microwave photonics.
This research group focuses on a range of networking
architectures from mobile systems to ad-hoc sensor networks. Techniques
involve the design of advanced digital systems for application-specific
embedded systems and advanced algorithms for improving network
efficiency. The Group uses state-of-the-art dynamic field programmable
gate array hardware to examine physical implementations of these
principles.
Both groups have attracted funding from a wide variety
of sources such as EPSRC, the EU, MoD, industry, and overseas
contracts. In addition, the University has made a substantial
investment to enable the School to establish an ultrafast
telecommunications laboratory, laser processing systems for device
fabrication, and a suite of fully equipped photonics laboratories. With
the participation of the regional development agency, Advantage West
Midlands, the School now operates a 100m2 cleanroom for device
processing and surface science. The Department has also made a large
investment in computer workstations.
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