The industry’s most innovative people 2024 Robert Devlin


Organisation: Metalenz Role: CEO


Robert Devlin is proud of the work he has done so far in bringing metasurface optics to the mainstream. “In 2022 we announced the first metasurfaces on the market and in smartphones.” He has a clear view on the effect of both the


technologies and markets developing. “The impact will be smaller cameras and enabling advanced sensing to proliferate to millions of consumer devices by shrinking the size and cost of complex optical systems,” he says. Consumer devices are front and centre in his


Robert Maher


Organisation: Infinera Role: Chief Technology Officer


Robert Maher is driving Infinera’s product roadmap for digital coherent interfaces, including coherent pluggables, DSP ASICs, photonic integrated circuits and embedded transport systems. “These products will provide high-performance, low-cost, and low-power transport for the ubiquitous telecommunications infrastructure of the future,” Maher says. Maher’s biggest research priority for the coming year is in developing very high- bandwidth DSP ASICs and electro-optics sub-components that will enable next- generation 1.6T coherent pluggables: “One of the most interesting dynamics in optical networks today is the disruption of 400G


Based in: San Jose, California, US


Education: PhD, Electronic Engineering, Dublin City University


pluggables in DCI and metro networks, and also coherent point to multi-point at the edge of the network. The introduction of 400G pluggables that can be plugged directly into routers is an incredibly disruptive technology and offers low-cost, low-power transport for DCI and metro networks.”


Maher adds: “From an industry


perspective, I am very proud of the development, deployment, and commercial success of our ICE6 800G coherent technology. More recently, I am very proud of the development and release of the world’s first coherent point-to-multi-point 400G pluggable.”


Robert Todd Organisation: Optalysys


Role: Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder, Director


“Over the next year, the optical transport industry is on the cusp of a revolution that promises to reshape the very foundations of global connectivity,” says Robert Todd. “The relentless expansion of 5G networks


and the explosive growth of bandwidth- hungry applications will compel the industry to engineer optical networks with mind-bending speeds and almost limitless capacity, with data rates like 400G and 800G becoming the new norm. Security will undergo a quantum leap with optical encryption technologies, fortifying data against even the most sophisticated threats.” Optalysys is developing a fully


Based in: Leeds, UK


Education: HNC in Mechanical and Production Engineering


homomorphic encryption (FHE) hardware accelerator that combines CMOS and silicon photonics technologies – one which Todd says is poised to “revolutionise the landscape of data security and privacy". He says: “We aim to provide businesses


and organisations with an unprecedented level of security, ensuring that their sensitive information remains confidential and shielded from potential threats. Furthermore, our efforts are directed at making FHE more practical and accessible, significantly reducing encryption and decryption times to facilitate secure data analysis in real-world applications.”


Based in: Boston, US Education: PhD, Harvard


priorities for the coming year, during which he says he wants “to launch full polarisation sensing into smartphones”. He believes optical quantum computers


are one of the photonics technologies (other than his own) of most significance in the past 12 months because of their long-term applications, but says that challenges remain in photonics generally due to “the downturn in the number of people pursuing PhDs” as well as the impact of the trade war with China.


44 Photonics100 2024


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