MERL - Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories

Electronic and Photonic Devices

Pursuing theoretical and experimental research for next generation devices.

We explore various device technologies, material science and device architectures to dramatically improve power and RF device performance to achieve higher efficiency, high linearity and much wider frequency band. We develop novel photonic integrated circuits to improve performance and reduce cost in optical communications applications.

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  • Researchers

  • Awards

    •  AWARD   Toshiaki Koike-Akino elected Fellow of Optica
      Date: November 18, 2021
      Awarded to: Toshiaki Koike-Akino
      MERL Contact: Toshiaki Koike-Akino
      Research Areas: Communications, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Signal Processing
      Brief
      • Toshiaki Koike-Akino's research activities in communications, error control coding and optical technologies at MERL have earned him election as a Fellow Member of Optica (formerly OSA), the foremost professional association in optics and photonics worldwide. Fellow membership in Optica is limited to no more than ten percent of the membership and is reserved for members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics. Koike-Akino is one of 106 members from 24 countries in Optica’s 2022 Fellows Class, elected during the Board of Directors of Optica meeting held on 2nd of November, 2021.

        “Congratulations to the 2022 Optica Fellows,” said 2021 President Connie Chang-Hasnain, University of California, Berkeley, USA. “These members exemplify what it means to be a leader in optics and photonics. Your election, by your peers, confirms the important contributions made within our field. Thank you for your dedication to Optica, and for advancing the science of light.”

        Koike-Akino's elevation to Fellow is specifically “for outstanding and innovative contributions to R&D in enabling technologies for optical communications, including nonlinear equalizers, high-dimensional modulations, and FEC (Forward Error Correction),” said Meredith Smith, Director, Optica Awards and Honors Office. "Again, congratulations on joining this esteemed group of Optica members."

        About Optica

        Optica (formerly OSA) is dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in optics and photonics worldwide. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica’s renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement.
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    •  AWARD   MERL researchers presented 5 papers at the 2016 Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC), including one "Top Scored" paper
      Date: March 24, 2016
      Awarded to: Toshiaki Koike-Akino, Keisuke Kojima, David S. Millar, Kieran Parsons, Tsuyoshi Yoshida, Takashi Sugihara
      MERL Contacts: Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Kieran Parsons
      Research Areas: Communications, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Signal Processing
      Brief
      • Five papers from the Optical Comms team were presented at the 2016 Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) held in Anaheim, USA in March 2016. The papers relate to enhanced modulation formats, constellation shaping, chromatic dispersion estimation, low complexity adaptive equalization and coding for coherent optical links. The top-scored paper studied optimal selection of coding and modulation sets to jointly maximize nonlinear tolerance and spectral efficiency.
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  • News & Events

    •  EVENT   Prof. Melanie Zeilinger of ETH to give keynote at MERL's Virtual Open House
      Date & Time: Thursday, December 9, 2021; 1:00pm - 5:30pm EST
      Speaker: Prof. Melanie Zeilinger, ETH
      Location: Virtual Event
      Research Areas: Applied Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Computational Sensing, Computer Vision, Control, Data Analytics, Dynamical Systems, Electric Systems, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, Robotics, Signal Processing, Speech & Audio, Digital Video, Human-Computer Interaction, Information Security
      Brief
      • MERL is excited to announce the second keynote speaker for our Virtual Open House 2021:
        Prof. Melanie Zeilinger from ETH .

        Our virtual open house will take place on December 9, 2021, 1:00pm - 5:30pm (EST).

        Join us to learn more about who we are, what we do, and discuss our internship and employment opportunities. Prof. Zeilinger's talk is scheduled for 3:15pm - 3:45pm (EST).

        Registration: https://mailchi.mp/merl/merlvoh2021

        Keynote Title: Control Meets Learning - On Performance, Safety and User Interaction

        Abstract: With increasing sensing and communication capabilities, physical systems today are becoming one of the largest generators of data, making learning a central component of autonomous control systems. While this paradigm shift offers tremendous opportunities to address new levels of system complexity, variability and user interaction, it also raises fundamental questions of learning in a closed-loop dynamical control system. In this talk, I will present some of our recent results showing how even safety-critical systems can leverage the potential of data. I will first briefly present concepts for using learning for automatic controller design and for a new safety framework that can equip any learning-based controller with safety guarantees. The second part will then discuss how expert and user information can be utilized to optimize system performance, where I will particularly highlight an approach developed together with MERL for personalizing the motion planning in autonomous driving to the individual driving style of a passenger.
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    •  EVENT   Prof. Ashok Veeraraghavan of Rice University to give keynote at MERL's Virtual Open House
      Date & Time: Thursday, December 9, 2021; 1:00pm - 5:30pm EST
      Speaker: Prof. Ashok Veeraraghavan, Rice University
      Location: Virtual Event
      Research Areas: Applied Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Computational Sensing, Computer Vision, Control, Data Analytics, Dynamical Systems, Electric Systems, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, Robotics, Signal Processing, Speech & Audio, Digital Video, Human-Computer Interaction, Information Security
      Brief
      • MERL is excited to announce the first keynote speaker for our Virtual Open House 2021:
        Prof. Ashok Veeraraghavan from Rice University.

        Our virtual open house will take place on December 9, 2021, 1:00pm - 5:30pm (EST).

        Join us to learn more about who we are, what we do, and discuss our internship and employment opportunities. Prof. Veeraraghavan's talk is scheduled for 1:15pm - 1:45pm (EST).

        Registration: https://mailchi.mp/merl/merlvoh2021

        Keynote Title: Computational Imaging: Beyond the limits imposed by lenses.

        Abstract: The lens has long been a central element of cameras, since its early use in the mid-nineteenth century by Niepce, Talbot, and Daguerre. The role of the lens, from the Daguerrotype to modern digital cameras, is to refract light to achieve a one-to-one mapping between a point in the scene and a point on the sensor. This effect enables the sensor to compute a particular two-dimensional (2D) integral of the incident 4D light-field. We propose a radical departure from this practice and the many limitations it imposes. In the talk we focus on two inter-related research projects that attempt to go beyond lens-based imaging.

        First, we discuss our lab’s recent efforts to build flat, extremely thin imaging devices by replacing the lens in a conventional camera with an amplitude mask and computational reconstruction algorithms. These lensless cameras, called FlatCams can be less than a millimeter in thickness and enable applications where size, weight, thickness or cost are the driving factors. Second, we discuss high-resolution, long-distance imaging using Fourier Ptychography, where the need for a large aperture aberration corrected lens is replaced by a camera array and associated phase retrieval algorithms resulting again in order of magnitude reductions in size, weight and cost. Finally, I will spend a few minutes discussing how the wholistic computational imaging approach can be used to create ultra-high-resolution wavefront sensors.
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  • Internships

    • MD1696: Advanced RF Technologies

      Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (Cambridge, MA) is seeking a highly motivated, qualified individual to join our 3 month internship program of research on advanced RF technologies. The ideal candidate should be a senior Ph.D. student with good experience in microwave power amplifier/RF active circuit design and experiment, RF front end systems. Familiarity with ADS and Matlab is required. Knowledge of radio system architecture and FPGA (signal processing) would be an asset.

    • SP1753: Algorithms for Coherent Imaging Systems

      MERL is seeking an intern to work on estimation algorithms for coherent optical imaging. The ideal candidate would be a senior PhD student working in coherent imaging. The candidate should have experience in statistical modeling and estimation. A detailed knowledge of optical interferometry and imaging with a focus on either optical coherence tomography, optical coherence microscopy or FMCW LIDAR is also preferred. Strong programming skills in MATLAB or Python are essential. Publication of the results produced during our internships is expected. Duration is anticipated to be 3 to 6 months.

    • MD1648: THz Electronic Sensing

      MERL is looking for a senior Ph.D. student to join our team to conduct application-motivated research and experiments. The candidate must have hands-on practical lab experiment experience on millimeter-wave, sub-THz, or THz for sensing, radar, and other applications. Skills of using RF/Microwave Lab equipment are necessary. Knowledge of solid-state device physics, high frequency, and high speed integrated circuit (IC) chip design, and signal processing is desired. The internship is expected to be 3-6 months, starting date is flexible after September. This internship requires work that can only be done at MERL.


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  • Recent Publications

    •  Teo, K.H., Zhang, Y., Chowdhury, N., Rakheja, S., Ma, R., Xie, Q., Yagyu, E., Yamanaka, K., Li, K., Palacios, T., "Emerging GaN technologies for power, RF, digital and quantum computing applications: recent advances and prospects", Journal of Applied Physics, DOI: 10.1063/​5.0061555, December 2021.
      BibTeX TR2022-002 PDF
      • @article{Teo2021dec,
      • author = {Teo, Koon Hoo and Zhang, Yuhao and Chowdhury, Nadim and Rakheja, Shaloo and Ma, Rui and Xie, Qingyun and Yagyu, Eiji and Yamanaka, Koji and Li, Kexin and Palacios, Tomas},
      • title = {Emerging GaN technologies for power, RF, digital and quantum computing applications: recent advances and prospects},
      • journal = {Journal of Applied Physics},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = dec,
      • doi = {10.1063/5.0061555},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-002}
      • }
    •  Kojima, K., Tang, Y., Wang, Y., Koike-Akino, T., "Machine Learning for design and optimization of photonic devices" in Machine Learning for Future Fiber Optic Communication Systems (Elsevier Book), November 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-142 PDF
      • @incollection{Kojima2021nov,
      • author = {Kojima, Keisuke and Tang, Yingheng and Wang, Ye and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki},
      • title = {Machine Learning for design and optimization of photonic devices},
      • booktitle = {Machine Learning for Future Fiber Optic Communication Systems (Elsevier Book)},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = nov,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-142}
      • }
    •  Furuichi, T., Ma, R., Koike-Akino, T., Komatsuszaki, Y., "Full-Range Three-Stage 16GSa/s Riemann Pump RF-Power DAC in GaN HEMT", Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC) 2021, November 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-141 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Furuichi2021nov,
      • author = {Furuichi, Tomoyuki and Ma, Rui and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Komatsuszaki, Yuji},
      • title = {Full-Range Three-Stage 16GSa/s Riemann Pump RF-Power DAC in GaN HEMT},
      • booktitle = {Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC) 2021},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = nov,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-141}
      • }
    •  Li, X., Kojima, K., Brand, M.E., "Predicting Long- and Variable-Distance Coupling Effects in Metasurface Optics", IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC), DOI: 10.1109/​IPC48725.2021.9593086, October 2021, pp. 1-2.
      BibTeX TR2021-140 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Li2021oct,
      • author = {Li, Xinhao and Kojima, Keisuke and Brand, Matthew E.},
      • title = {Predicting Long- and Variable-Distance Coupling Effects in Metasurface Optics},
      • booktitle = {IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC)},
      • year = 2021,
      • pages = {1--2},
      • month = oct,
      • doi = {10.1109/IPC48725.2021.9593086},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-140}
      • }
    •  Koike-Akino, T., Wang, Y., "Evolution of Polar Coding", IEEE International Symposium on Topics in Coding (ISTC), August 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-104 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Koike-Akino2021aug,
      • author = {Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Wang, Ye},
      • title = {Evolution of Polar Coding},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Symposium on Topics in Coding (ISTC)},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = aug,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-104}
      • }
    •  Li, K., Yagyu, E., Sato, H., Teo, K.H., Rakheja, S., "Compact modeling of gate leakage phenomenon in GaN HEMTs", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, DOI: 10.23919/​SISPAD49475.2020.9241666, June 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-079 PDF
      • @article{Li2021jun,
      • author = {Li, Kexin and Yagyu, Eiji and Sato, Hisashi and Teo, Koon Hoo and Rakheja, Shaloo},
      • title = {Compact modeling of gate leakage phenomenon in GaN HEMTs},
      • journal = {IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = jun,
      • doi = {10.23919/SISPAD49475.2020.9241666},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-079}
      • }
    •  Tang, Y., Kojima, K., Koike-Akino, T., Wang, Y., Jha, D.K., Parsons, K., Qi, M., "Nano-Optic Broadband Power Splitter Design via Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Deep Learning", Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), DOI: 10.1364/​CLEO_SI.2021.SW4E.1, May 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-045 PDF Presentation
      • @inproceedings{Tang2021may3,
      • author = {Tang, Yingheng and Kojima, Keisuke and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Wang, Ye and Jha, Devesh K. and Parsons, Kieran and Qi, Minghao},
      • title = {Nano-Optic Broadband Power Splitter Design via Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Deep Learning},
      • booktitle = {Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO)},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = may,
      • doi = {10.1364/CLEO_SI.2021.SW4E.1},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-045}
      • }
    •  Fujihashi, T., Koike-Akino, T., Watanabe, T., Orlik, P.V., "HoloCast+: Hybrid Digital-Analog Transmission for Graceful Point Cloud Delivery with Graph Fourier Transform", IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, DOI: 10.1109/​TMM.2021.3077772, May 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-043 PDF Presentation
      • @article{Fujihashi2021may,
      • author = {Fujihashi, Takuya and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Watanabe, Takashi and Orlik, Philip V.},
      • title = {HoloCast+: Hybrid Digital-Analog Transmission for Graceful Point Cloud Delivery with Graph Fourier Transform},
      • journal = {IEEE Transactions on Multimedia},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = may,
      • doi = {10.1109/TMM.2021.3077772},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-043}
      • }
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