Imec scientist awarded ERC Advanced Grant to develop material stacks for video-rate holography

Today, despite many efforts by researchers worldwide, there are no holographic projectors that allow video-rate electronically controlled projection of complex holograms. Optically rewriteable holograms exist, but they are too slow; acoustically-formed holograms can be switched fast but the image complexity is very limited. With a breakthrough combination of smart electronics, optics and materials, imec’s Jan Genoe aims to clear the roadblocks and enable next-generation video holography.

Jan Genoe: “At imec, we have most of the underlying technologies and expertise that are needed to advance holography. Advanced CMOS technologies enable to write huge hologram patterns at data rates beyond 10 Gbit/s, we can design a front end that can control charges and voltage patterns at sub-wavelength resolution. Moreover,  we can grow the necessary waveguides, couple laser light into them, and integrate transparent semiconducting oxides to bring charges close to a waveguide. This grant offers us the opportunity to merge all the necessary technology to make this giant leap in holography.”   

The ERC Advanced Grants are earmarked for scientists who are leaders in their field of research with at least a decade of significant achievements. Imec’s CTO Jo De Boeck comments “Adding to the other ERC grants that our researchers already received, this one again proves that we are investing in long-term, high-quality research needed to solve this generation’s R&D challenges. This radical combination of innovation in architecture, materials and driving schemes will be the driver for many future innovations and applications in domains such as augmented reality, automotive, optical metrology, mobile communication, education, or safety, innovations with a high economic and social impact.”

Jan Genoe is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff of imec’s Large Area Electronics (LAE) department and part-time professor at KU Leuven (ESAT, Technology Campus Diepenbeek). He received an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. from KU Leuven in 1988 and 1994 respectively. Before joining imec, Jan Genoe worked at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Grenoble (France) as a Human Capital and Mobility Fellow of the European Community. His current research interests are with designing circuits with organic and oxide transistors, but also with organic photovoltaics and piezo-electric devices. Jan Genoe is the author and co-author of more than 150 papers in refereed journals. He is reviewer for a broad range of journals and is member of the Technology Directions international program committee of the ISSCC.
 

About imec

Imec is the world-leading research and innovation hub in nano-electronics and digital technologies. The combination of our widely acclaimed leadership in microchip technology and profound software and ICT expertise is what makes us unique. By leveraging our world-class infrastructure and local and global ecosystem of partners across a multitude of industries, we create groundbreaking innovation in application domains such as healthcare, smart cities and mobility, logistics and manufacturing, and energy. 

As a trusted partner for companies, start-ups and universities we bring together close to 3,500 brilliant minds from over 70 nationalities. Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium and also has distributed R&D groups at a number of Flemish universities, in the Netherlands, Taiwan, USA, China, and offices in India and Japan. In 2015, imec's revenue (P&L) totaled 415 million euro and of iMinds which is integrated in imec as of September 21, 2016 52 million euro. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec-int.com.

Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government), imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.) and imec China (IMEC Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.) and imec India (Imec India Private Limited), imec Florida (IMEC USA nanoelectronics design center).

Contact :

imec : Hanne Degans, Press officer and communications specialist, T:+32 16 28 17 69, Mobile :+32 486 06 51 75, Hanne.Degans@imec.be