The industry’s most innovative people 2024 Hongbin Zhang


Organisation: Cisco Role: Principal Engineer


Hongbin Zhang is currently working on high-speed coherent technology and his priority over the next year is in applying coherent technology into short-distance and data centres. Zhang says the most surprising thing he


found in the course of his latest research “is that Moore's law is becoming slow but still alive, and combining with new material technology, optical transponder capacity is continuously ramping up”. He believes that both 200G direct-


detection and 800G/1.6T coherent technology have a great opportunity in the


Hooman Banaei


Organisation: Everix Role: CTO


Hooman Banaei developed the underlying technology for the ultra-thin optical filters sold by Everix in a storage shed workshop in 2013. He went on to found the company in Florida in January 2015, which now holds over 30 global patents and has more than 20 employees. The idea for the technology came


from Banaei combining his experience operating vacuum chambers (typically used for optical filter manufacturing) with his knowledge of optical fibre fabrication for the telecommunication market. Identifying a connection between the two and seeing a gap in the optics market, Banaei sought


Based in: Orlando, FL, US


Education: PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Central Florida


to develop high-performance optical filters with a similar level of scalability and cost to optical fibres. He consequently invented a new manufacturing process that involves no sputtering and is not unlike the drawing of plastic optical fibres. Everix’s filters serve the medical


(wearable/swallowable sensors and endoscope probes), consumer electronics (wearables, smartphones, AR/VR), automotive (lidar, head-up display) and industrial/commercial markets across a broad range of applications. Banei is on LinkedIn at: https://www. linkedin.com/in/hooman-banaei-03537541/.


Ian Blasch


Organisation: Jabil Role: Senior Director of R&D


“I am designing 3D cameras capable of operating in all environmental lighting conditions, from the darkest of moonless nights to the brightest of sunny days,” says Ian Blasch, a senior director at Jabil. In the past year, his R&D team has designed the world's first 3D camera operating at 1,130nm, as well as a camera operating at 1,380nm. The research, Blasch says, proved that a camera, operating in short-wave infrared (SWIR) wavelengths, can operate in all lighting conditions, dramatically improving the quality and reliability of depth data used for object detection, collision avoidance, localisation, and navigation.


Based in: Boise, Idaho, US Education: MBA, Stanford University


Over the next 18 months, Jabil and


its partners plan to introduce affordable 3D cameras, accelerating the growth of autonomous platforms such as lawnmowers, mobile robots, automobiles, tractors and forklifts.


Blasch, also an ultra-runner, says: “Ultra-


runners have a saying: ‘Embrace the suck!’. I take the same mindset from ultrarunning into my role in R&D. We tackle problems in R&D that may or may not have a solution or perhaps the solution we are targeting is less than adequate. Along the way, there are challenges and setbacks so you have to expect them and 'embrace' them.”


Based in: New Jersey, US Education: PhD


data centre when switch capacity is scaled up to 51.2 and 102.4 Tbps. However, Zhang says “further reducing power consumption of optical modules is very challenging and requires innovative technology”. Looking beyond simply the technical, Zhang believes Chinese researchers and companies face difficulties “due to political reasons” and that American and European companies will see a challenge in exploring the Chinese market. You can connect with Zhang via LinkedIn


(www.linkedin.com/in/hongbin-zhang- 2a55b86) and he plans to attend OFC 2024.


28 Photonics100 2024


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56