Blog
5-year Milestone for JSSL
Harjit Rana promoted to Associate Director, Design, Translation and Engagement
We are pleased to announce Harjit Rana’s recent promotion to Associate Director, Design, Translation and Engagement.
Over the last five years, Harj has made a significant contribution towards developing and executing strategies focussed on harnessing innovative research initiatives within JSSL, ensuring their transformation into practical solutions and products that fortify national security and bolster resilience. Her work helps to drive the success of design thinking initiatives and fosters a collaborative research environment, which enables us to effectively capitalise on the ground-breaking research conducted by the JSSL team, channelling it towards impactful solutions.
Please join me in recognising and congratulating Harj for her passion and dedication to her work.
Photonic chip that ‘fits together like Lego’ opens door to local industry
Integrating photons into electronic chips expands bandwidth and filter control
New semiconductor architecture integrates traditional electronics with photonic, or light, components. Designed by Dr Alvaro Casas Bedoya in the School of Physics, the chip could have application in advanced radar, satellites, wireless networks and 6G telecommunications.
Chip inventor backs ‘Lego strategy’
Researchers at the University of Sydney Nano Institute have invented a compact silicon semiconductor chip that integrates electronics with photonic, or light, components. The new technology significantly expands radio-frequency (RF) bandwidth and the ability to accurately control information flowing through the unit.
Expanded bandwidth means more information can flow through the chip and the inclusion of photonics allows for advanced filter controls, creating a versatile new semiconductor device.
Researchers expect the chip will have application in advanced radar, satellite systems, wireless networks and the roll-out of 6G and 7G telecommunications and also open the door to advanced sovereign manufacturing. It could also assist in the creation of high-tech value-add factories at places like Western Sydney’s Aerotropolis precinct.
The chip is built using an emerging technology in silicon photonics that allows integration of diverse systems on semiconductors less than 5 millimetres wide. Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Ben Eggleton, who guides the research team, likened it to fitting together Lego building blocks, where new materials are integrated through advanced packaging of components, using electronic ‘chiplets’.
The research for this invention has been published in Nature Communications.
Dr Alvaro Casas Bedoya, Associate Director for Photonic Integration in the School of Physics, who led the chip design, said the unique method of heterogenous materials integration has been 10 years in the making.
“The combined use of overseas semiconductor foundries to make the basic chip wafer with local research infrastructure and manufacturing has been vital in developing this photonic integrated circuit,” he said.
“This architecture means Australia could develop its own sovereign chip manufacturing without exclusively relying on international foundries for the value-add process.”
Professor Eggleton highlighted the fact that most of the items on the Federal Government’s List of Critical Technologies in the National Interest depend upon semiconductors.
He said the invention means the work at Sydney Nano fits well with initiatives like the Semiconductor Sector Service Bureau (S3B), sponsored by the NSW Government, which aims to develop the local semiconductor ecosystem.
Dr Nadia Court, Director of S3B, said, “This work aligns with our mission to drive advancements in semiconductor technology, holding great promise for the future of semiconductor innovation in Australia. The result reinforces local strength in research and design at a pivotal time of increased global focus and investment in the sector.”
Designed in collaboration with scientists at the Australian National University, the integrated circuit was built at the Core Research Facility cleanroom at the University of Sydney Nanoscience Hub, a purpose-built $150 million building with advanced lithography and deposition facilities.
The photonic circuit in the chip means a device with an impressive 15 gigahertz bandwidth of tunable frequencies with spectral resolution down to just 37 megahertz, which is less than a quarter of one percent of the total bandwidth.
Professor Eggleton said: “Led by our impressive PhD student Matthew Garrett, this invention is a significant advance for microwave photonics and integrated photonics research.
“Microwave photonic filters play a crucial role in modern communication and radar applications, offering the flexibility to precisely filter different frequencies, reducing electromagnetic interference and enhancing signal quality.
“Our innovative approach of integrating advanced functionalities into semiconductor chips, particularly the heterogenous integration of chalcogenide glass with silicon, holds the potential to reshape the local semiconductor landscape.”
Co-author and Senior Research Fellow Dr Moritz Merklein said: “This work paves the way for a new generation of compact, high-resolution RF photonic filters with wideband frequency tunability, particularly beneficial in air and spaceborne RF communication payloads, opening possibilities for enhanced communications and sensing capabilities.”
Integrated microwave photonic notch filter using a heterogeneously integrated Brillouin and active-silicon photonic circuit
Microwave photonics (MWP) has unlocked a new paradigm for Radio Frequency (RF) signal processing by harnessing the inherent broadband and tunable nature of photonic components. Despite numerous efforts made to implement integrated MWP filters, a key RF processing functionality, it remains a long-standing challenge to achieve a fully integrated photonic circuit that can merge the megahertz-level spectral resolution required for RF applications with key electro-optic components. Here, we overcome this challenge by introducing a compact 5 mm × 5 mm chip-scale MWP filter with active E-O components, demonstrating 37 MHz spectral resolution. We achieved this device by heterogeneously integrating chalcogenide waveguides, which provide Brillouin gain, in a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) foundry-manufactured silicon photonic chip containing integrated modulators and photodetectors. This work paves the way towards a new generation of compact, high-resolution RF photonic filters with wideband frequency tunability demanded by future applications, such as air and spaceborne RF communication payloads.
Introduction
Radio-frequency (RF) filters play a critical role in maintaining signal fidelity of RF and microwave systems by eliminating unwanted signals and preserving desired signals of interest1. RF filters require fine spectral resolution to operate within crowded RF spectral environments and must also exhibit broadband frequency tunability as operating frequencies of RF systems move toward millimetre wave bands above 30 GHz2. At the same time, they must also achieve small size, weight, and power (SWaP) to meet the demands for operation in future RF applications. However, state-of-the-art RF filter technology fails to simultaneously meet these requirements3. Common RF filter implementations based on surface acoustic waves (SAW) are compact, but face challenges operating at high frequencies. For example, SAW filters have large losses above 3.5 GHz4,5, whereas filters based on bulk acoustic waves can operate into the X-band (8–12 GHz), yet they face fabrication challenges to extend into millimetre wave bands5,6. Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) filters are widely tunable, however their form factor is too large for deployment in SWaP-constrained applications7,8. Another approach is to use switched filter banks which offer compact form factors, although their frequency response cannot be continuously tuned9.
Microwave photonic (MWP) filters overcome the frequency tunability limitations of traditional RF filtering technologies by utilising the broadband tunable and reconfigurable nature of optical components. Moreover, with advances in photonic integration, MWP processors that are fully integrated have the potential to offer the compact footprints required for next-generation microwave systems1,2,10,11,12. Although significant progress on integrated MWP filters has been made, they face difficulties in achieving the fine spectral resolution that is indispensable in RF communication and sensing applications1. One of the most common methods to implement on-chip MWP filters is to use integrated optical micro-ring resonators (MRRs), which exhibit compact form factor, as well as reconfigurable amplitude and phase responses1,13. However, the achievable 3-dB bandwidth of MRR-based MWP filters is typically limited to hundreds of MHz due to waveguide losses10,11,14. Although ultra-high-quality factor (Q) MRRs can be fabricated, they are extremely sensitive to input signal power and temperature fluctuations due to thermo-optic effects15,16, which can add challenges in aligning the laser to the MRR resonance. Additionally, the free-spectral range (FSR) of the MRR can limit the frequency operating range of the resultant MWP processor. MWP filters based on optical tapped delay lines offer highly reconfigurable RF responses, yet are limited in spectral resolution to GHz levels as they require complex amplitude and phase control of many optical filter taps17,18,19. For example, Shu et al. demonstrated an MWP filter that generated an optical comb and processed each comb line on a photonic chip, but due to the limited number of optical comb lines, the filter 3-dB bandwidth was limited to 900 MHz20. Similar to MRR-based processors, the periodic response of tapped delay line MWP processors can limit their frequency operating range.
Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is an optical nonlinearity first introduced in 192221 that has since re-gained interest for use in integrated MWP filters with fine spectral resolution following the first demonstration of SBS in a photonic chip in 201122. SBS is facilitated through a third-order nonlinear acousto-optic interaction2,21,23,24 and exhibits a narrow intrinsic optical resonant linewidth (10’s MHz) due to the long phonon lifetime. In addition to fine spectral resolution, SBS offers several advantages for MWP processing applications as the Brillouin response does not exhibit an FSR, which does not impose any limitations on the operating range of the resultant MWP system1,2. Furthermore, the thermal stability of the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS), ≈ 1 MHz/°C in optical fibres25, can be much greater than the thermal stability of MRRs, for example, a silicon MRR with Q of 107 exhibited a thermal sensitivity of ≈ 12 GHz/°C16. This highlights the advantages of SBS for MWP processing in terms of tunability and stability.
SBS has been generated in a number of chip-scale platforms22,23,26,27,28,29,30 which enable critical chip-scale MWP processing systems, such as high-performance MWP filters30,31,32,33,34,35,36, phase shifters37,38, true time delays39,40, frequency converters41,42, and high spectral purity microwave sources43,44. Silicon photonic platforms, which have the advantage of being compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processes and incorporate an extensive passive and active component library, exhibit large Brillouin gain coefficients23, which is highly desirable for Brillouin-based MWP platforms. Despite these advantages, silicon nanowires on oxide lack intrinsic acoustic guidance, consequently requiring suspended or under-etched structures and exhibit nonlinear optical losses that limit the achievable on-chip Brillouin gain at optical telecommunication wavelengths. On the other hand, silicon nitride (Si3N4) has negligible nonlinear loss, but only offers minuscule SBS gain coefficients30,45 due to the modest elasto-optic coefficient that is intrinsic to Si3N445. Conversely, soft As2S3 chalcogenide glasses offer large Brillouin gain coefficients22 and facilitate more than 30 dB of SBS gain in a compact footprint46, owing to the large elasto-optic coefficient47 and simultaneous confinement of acoustic and optical modes22,46,48. However, chalcogenide waveguides can only be used as a standalone element in MWP filter systems with key MWP components, such as electro-optic (E-O) modulators and photodetectors, remaining off-chip. Previously, we introduced a platform that heterogeneously integrated chalcogenide Brillouin circuits with passive silicon waveguides on a CMOS-compatible SOI platform49. However, the passive platform did not take full advantage of integration with silicon photonics because it lacked an E-O interface. To reduce the SWaP of Brillouin-based MWP processors, integrating chalcogenide Brillouin circuits with the required components of an MWP link, including E-O modulators and photodetectors (PDs), is essential23.
In this paper, we heterogeneously integrate As2S3 Brillouin waveguides in a silicon photonic platform, that includes active E-O modulators and photodetectors, to form the basis of a compact MWP processing platform with fine spectral resolution. We demonstrate an integrated MWP notch filter using on-chip silicon devices and Brillouin gain in As2S3 waveguides for fine spectral resolution processing, achieving 51 dB out-of-band rejection with narrow 37 MHz 3-dB bandwidth and tunable notch central frequencies over 15 GHz. Our demonstration paves the way towards a fully integrated Brillouin-based MWP processor with a reduced footprint and advanced performance.
Click here to read more.
The technology that can safeguard Australia from external threats and natural disasters
Opinion: The current wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are changing the landscape of global stability and leading other countries to examine their own security, with emerging dual-use technology providing a means of securing our national interests, explain Professor Ben Eggleton and Associate Professor Sergio Leon-Saval of the NSW Smart Sensing Network.
The current wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are changing the landscape of global stability and leading other countries to examine their own security.
Australia is at risk of being drawn into conflict between China and Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific in the next 10 years.
This potential conflict could see an adversary launch an incursion in Australia’s north-west shelf or parts of its exclusive economic zone.
Another security threat facing Australia are compounding natural disasters due to climate change. Australia is bracing itself for another vicious bushfire season just as we clean up from devastating floods that swept through northern NSW in early 2022.
These two threats might have little in common. However, both require new, more sophisticated means of understanding the threats and a sharper awareness of the situation around us to protect and enhance our national resilience.
A smart sensing for Australian Resilience Cooperative Research Centre which focuses on multi-disaster capabilities through situational awareness can help both the defence and natural hazards spheres.
Agencies – be they military or civil – require enhanced situational awareness: rich data that provides a full and accurate assessment in real-time of the threat, which provides the intelligence to mount a suitable response and empowers individuals to take action and be in control of their own destiny.
Critical to situational awareness is technology and central to such technologies is smart sensing.
A sensor is a device that can detect, diagnose, monitor, and respond to the world around it – including light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure – allowing pre-emptive and predictive responses in a vast range of settings.
Sensors are already part of our daily lives. They are used in everyday objects such as smartphones and fitness trackers where they help to measure how many steps we’ve walked or calculate our heart rate.
But it is the next generation of sensors – smart sensors, connected onto the cloud with advanced edge compute enabled by breathtaking computational power in semiconductor chips – that will help us face big key challenges and change the way we live.
Smart sensing is already driving the automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics that will revolutionise the way we grow food, generate energy, and make things.
For the last seven years, our organisation, the NSW Smart Sensing Network, has provided smart solutions in areas such as energy, resources, manufacturing, the environment, transport, agriculture, space, and health.
We’ve helped the government save water by detecting future leaky pipes; assisted NSW councils to inform their communities about air pollution; and are helping our elderly stay out of care and in their homes longer.
But smart sensing is increasingly being used by the military to help defend our borders – by sea, land, sky, and increasingly, by space.
The use of arrays of smart sensors – which are listening, looking, giving a position via radar, for example – could give our military an advantage by providing supreme situational awareness: the ability to comprehend the environment, anticipate threats, and respond decisively.
A battlefield of thousands of kilometres wide and altitude of hundreds of kilometres could be monitored in real time via sensors on satellites, ships, towers, radar, acoustic surveys, and airplanes.
This innovative technology can help a military detect threats and has evolved to such an extent where we now have the capability to pinpoint a flying bullet.
Situational awareness can help a military understand where a threat is, how severe it is, where it is heading and make better decisions on how to prioritise resources, including the evacuation of our citizens and the deployment of responders.
The same technology has a dual-purpose opportunity in that it can also help Australia deal with compounding natural disasters due to climate change and is an opportunity for Australian industry to diversify and leverage across these sectors.
Using sensors to increase our situational awareness about a disaster, agencies can detect a flood or fire in minutes and mobilise firefighters or responders in real time.
Smart sensor technology can understand fuel loads on the ground: important information that can help us predict the movement and intensity of a bushfire.
These sensors on buildings can detect structures at risk, identify where affected people are, and give information on the state of transportation and communications.
That’s why we are championing a bid to establish a smart sensing for Australian Resilience Cooperative Research Centre: to become a national platform that can integrate across the smart sensor ecosystem to address these emerging threats and enable decision superiority.
Superior decision-making allows our “combat forces” to achieve and retain the initiative, which is a fundamental premise of all successful actions to strengthen national security and national hazards resilience.
We are bringing together businesses, researchers, and government agencies across both the defence and natural hazards sectors, to identify the gaps in our technological capability, share information, and push the boundaries of scientific discovery.
The conversation is being led by industry and government and, in response, we are harnessing the greatest minds in Australia to develop the next generation of smart sensing technology for Australia’s resilience.
By: Benjamin Eggleton
The device that can remotely monitor your breathing: as tested on cane toads
Proof of principle for human vital-sign detection in clinical environments
The research is published in Nature Photonics and was featured on Channel Nine News
Eggleton Research Group Christmas Party 2022
The Eggleton Research Group celebrates the end of a productive and successful 2022 at The Rose in Chippendale.
Ben Eggleton Celebrates the end of his tenure as Director of Sydney Nano
A good time was had by all at @SydneyNano’s Town Hall combined with Ben Eggleton’s Farewell as Director. Ben Eggleton has accepted the position as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research). Duncan Iverson acknowledged Ben’s energetic leadership of Sydney Nano over the past 5 years. A/Prof Alice Motion has stepped in as interim Director.
Benjamin Eggleton wins the Academic of the Year at the Australian Defence Industry Awards 2022
Congratulations to Benjamin Eggleton for winning the Academic of the Year at the Australian Defence Industry Awards 2022 for his outstanding innovation and engagement with Defence Connect.
The Jericho Smart Sensing Laboratory (JSSL), established by Benjamin Eggleton at the University of Sydney is a multidisciplinary initiative sponsored by the Royal Australian Air Force. The JSSL is developing leading-edge smart sensors for real-time situational awareness of future threats.
Click here to read more.
Eggleton Research Group 2022 Annual Retreat
The Eggleton group had a fantastic day on Cockatoo island in Sydney Harbour for their annual research retreat: connecting, re-energising and strategising for the future.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) congratulates Centre of Excellence teams
Professor Emma Johnston highlights the impressive success of University of Sydney researchers in the recently announced Australian Research Council (ARC) Centres of Excellence round.
University of Sydney researchers will play key roles leading transformational research into pressing areas of national priority that four new Centres of Excellence will conduct.
“Being awarded a Centre of Excellence is an outstanding achievement. This is a clear testament to the excellence of the work of all the researchers involved”, said Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Emma Johnston.
“Centre of Excellence applications require years of strategising, planning and a lot of collaboration and support from academic and professional colleagues across each participating institution. I would like to acknowledge and thank the excellent research services staff based in all the participating institutions whose expertise and support contributed to the success of these applications, and I hope you will all join me in congratulating our colleagues on this tremendous success”, Professor Johnston said.
ARC Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science
The ARC Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science aims to explore the society wide transformations that will flow from optical frequency combs – thousands of highly pure light signals precisely spaced across the entire optical spectrum – by leveraging and building upon the latest breakthroughs in physics, materials science and nanofabrication. Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Ben Eggleton (Faculty of Science) will be Program Leader of the “Microcombs for Information and Intelligence” node and the Centre’s Director of Translation and Impact. Professor Martijn de Sterke (Faculty of Science) will be Chief Investigator for the Comb Science and Technology theme and the Centre’s Outreach Director for Education, as well as leading its University of Sydney node.
Head of Sydney Nano, Prof Ben Eggleton, appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research)
10 November 2022
Professor Ben Eggleton moves to key research role
The University of Sydney proudly appoints Professor Ben Eggleton, as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) to spearhead the University’s leadership in research.
Professor Ben Eggleton has been appointed to the role of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydney, to ensure research excellence and its translation into meaningful impact.
Professor Eggleton is currently the Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute, Co-Director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) and a Professor in the School of Physics where he leads a research group in photonics, nanotechnology and smart sensors.
“I am thrilled that we have attracted such an outstanding research leader to our team. Ben has proven himself as an inspirational, collaborative leader who will be key in shaping and refining our research services and supporting an inclusive culture of research excellence,” said Professor Emma Johnston, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).
“As a highly awarded researcher with a breadth of experience in strategy, external engagement, and commercialisation, Ben will be essential to ensuring our research has tangible impact for local and global communities. Ben is also perfectly placed to strengthen our research support systems and establish new initiatives under the University’s recently announced 2032 Strategy.”
The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) has executive responsibility for pivotal areas of the University’s Research Portfolio relating to research policy, performance and conduct including clinical trials, research reporting and compliance. The role has responsibility for research integrity and ethics management.
In accepting the appointment, Professor Eggleton said, “I’m excited to begin this role as we commit to our strategy for the next ten years and to contribute to the University becoming the national leader and internationally recognised for the influence and excellence of its research. The way we operate and engage is critical to both our research performance and making the University a better place to work.
“As a highly awarded researcher with a breadth of experience in strategy, external engagement, and commercialisation, Ben will be essential to ensuring our research has tangible impact for local and global communities.”
- Professor Emma Johnston, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)
“In my role at Sydney Nano I established a whole-of-university approach to transformational and translational research. This has allowed me to build strong partnerships with all faculties and key internal and external stakeholders. It has given me an appreciation of the challenges in the research and innovation pipeline and how those can be addressed operationally, including streamlining our commercialisation and industry engagement and research grants administration.”
Eggleton Research Group and JSSL Team Host Royal Australian Air Force
Last Friday, Benjamin Eggleton and the JSSL team hosted Air Commodore Phil Gordon, Group Captain Michael Burgess-Orton and Warrant Officer Nicholas Stubbs-Race. The interim DVC-R, Prof Kathy Belov was also in attendance for the tour of the JSSL lab and facilities.
Details:
Event: Royal Australian Air Force Visit
Date: 8 April 2022
Guests: Air Commodore Phil Gordon, Group Captain Michael Burgess-Orton, Warrant Officer Nicholas Stubbs-Race, and Prof Kathy Belov (interim DVC-R)
Venue: Jericho Smart Sensing Lab (JSSL), Sydney Nanoscience Hub, University of Sydney
The Royal Society of NSW 1302th OGM and Open Lecture
New Frontiers in Smart Sensor Technology for a Healthier, Safer and Sustainable Future
Professor Benjamin Eggleton FRSN FAA FTSE FOSA FIEEE FSPIE
Director, University of Sydney Nano Institute and Co-Director, NSW Smart Sensing Network
Sensor devices that detect events or changes in their environment are used in everyday objects such as smartphones and ubiquitous applications of which most people are never aware. Recent advances in device physics, nanotechnology, AI, and sensor fusion are leading to a revolution in smart sensor technology that will provide multi-faceted interfaces to the three-dimensional physical, chemical, and data environment, enabling high-performance information gathering and real-time situational awareness. My talk overviews recent examples from industry and end-user sponsored projects, including research from the NSW Smart Sensing Network where we are exploring how smart sensors can forecast air pollution and urban heat, reduce the maintenance costs associated with leaks and breaks of water pipes, and remotely monitor soil moisture; from Sydney Nano we will see how single-molecule sensing and wearables are providing for the rapid testing of infectious disease, underpinning a robust roadmap to COVID-19 recovery and beyond; and finally from the Jericho Smart Sensing sponsored by the Royal Australian Air Force, how smart sensors are providing the Air Force with enhanced, advanced situational awareness that enables smart, timely decision-making.
Click here now to register.
Using radar to monitor burn victims and babies? It’s now possible
Low-cost, high-res radar developed at University of Sydney.
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University of Sydney scientists have achieved a technology breakthrough with potentially life-saving applications – all using an improved version of radar.
Click here to read more.
Just What is Nanotechnology?
A primer on building tools the size of atoms.
Just what is nanotechnology? Where is it being used in our day-to-day life, and where could it be used? Cosmos chatted to Professor Benjamin Eggleton, director of the Nano Institute at the University of Sydney, about what’s exciting him in nanotechnology, where he sees the field going – and why it’s so hard to test a new type of radar on a cane toad.
Click here to see more.
An “Incredibly Precise”, Low-Electronics Radar System
The Photonic Radar System can see things in high detail.
We use radar to spot aircraft and thunderstorms, but what if it could be used for smaller-scale things?
A team of researchers from the University of Sydney have figured out a way to collect radar data with resolutions of centimetres. They say their invention could (among other things) be used to monitor breathing and movement in hospitals, instead of uncomfortable physical straps or privacy-invading cameras.
Click here to read more.
We’re hiring a Data Theme Leader
Reporting directly to the NSSN Co-Director Prof. Benjamin Eggleton, the Data Theme Leader for the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) is responsible for leading business development activities relating to the sensing data theme. Drawing on their expertise in data and data analytics, they will translate industry and government partner needs into defined research projects and develop new business development opportunities. The role will lead the data theme, providing strategic advice to the network and key stakeholders.
Key responsibilities
- manage the Network’s Data Theme, incorporating sensing, data analytics, signal processing, networked systems, advanced programming, information, and communication technology (ICT)
- proactively identify and pursue new opportunities leading to research contracts and grants pertaining to data analytics and related fields
- engage with industry and government partners to enable the transformation and translation of knowledge and technology
- provide strategic advice, operational management, expert technical advice and guidance to the Co-Director, Chief Operating Officer, and team colleagues. Undertakes the translation and implementation of strategy
- lead multi-institution Theme and Project working groups
- develop and maintain relationships with a range of external research stakeholders in universities, companies, government, and publicly funded research agencies.
How to apply
Applications (including a cover letter, CV, and any additional supporting documentation) can be submitted via the University of Sydney’s careers website, please click here to apply!
Click to view the Position Description for this role.
Closing Date: 13 October 2021
Capturing data faster than a speeding bullet | Defence News
A sensor that has shown potential to measure the speed and predict the trajectory of incredibly fast-moving objects has been developed in a partnership between Air Force and university researchers.
The prototype MANTIS (Mutual-Axis Neuromorphic Twin Imaging System) sensor is the result of the work of the University of Sydney Nano Institute and Air Force’s Jericho Disruptive Innovation.
The Jericho Smart Sensing Lab (JSSL) at the University of Sydney developed the prototype in three months, and Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute Professor Ben Eggleton led the team.
He said the MANTIS prototype integrated a neuromorphic and traditional camera side by side in a portable unit that is interfaced with artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide advanced situational awareness.
The dashboard and on-board processing enable a direct comparison of the images they produce and allow for rapid exploration of the neuromorphic sensor capabilities.
The JSSL team recently tested MANTIS at the RAAF Base Richmond small arms range to capture imagery of small arms’ engagements, including rounds from a 9mm pistol and 5.56mm rounds from an F88.
The activities were designed to help better understand MANTIS’ capability in detecting fast-moving objects or events.
MANTIS showed promising signs of being able to predict the trajectory and velocity of incredibly fast-moving objects.
The 4kg small-form carry-on design allows the camera to be easily used on aircraft, ships and vehicles to detect challenging targets in any environment.
While a traditional camera is constrained by frame rates, each pixel in a neuromorphic camera functions independently and is always ‘on’.
This means the imaging system is triggered by events.
If it’s monitoring a static scene, the sensor sees nothing and no data is generated.
Head of Air Force Capability Air Vice Marshal Cath Roberts attended the demonstration of the sensor.
“There are many things that excite me about MANTIS,” Air Vice Marshal Roberts said.
“The level of detail that it provides and being able to track high-speed events is very impressive.
“It’s an amazing sensor fusion that has really strong applications across Defence.”
The Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) was also involved in the collaboration, providing early guidance and input.
Vladimir Perejogin from DSTG said event-based sensors represented an affordable and innovative, yet highly capable and resilient electro-optic sensing technology that leveraged millions of years of evolutionary process.
“In partnership with Jericho Disruptive Innovation, we are engaged in event-based sensor research to rapidly assess and demonstrate its utility in addressing a number of priority Defence needs,” he said.
Despite being developed through an Air Force partnership, MANTIS will be tested by all three services to explore how additional sensor diversity can provide Defence with an edge.
Future iterations of MANTIS could also see it combined with a robotic eye to allow for surveillance of large portions of airspace looking for air vehicles passively driving around.
Source: Kitchener, S. (2021). Capturing data faster than a speeding bullet. Retrieved 19 May, 2021 from https://news.defence.gov.au/technology/capturing-data-faster-speeding-bullet
AUSTRALIA INNOVATES – THE VIDEO SERIES
Professor Benjamin Eggleton and his team are excited to be part of the ‘Australia Innovates’ video series launched by Business Events Australia. This series aims to demonstrate Australia’s wide-ranging expertise across several knowledge sectors to position the nation as a world leading association destination.
The video series showcases Australians pursuing world firsts in research, discovery, invention, innovation and intervention to better the world across several knowledge sectors. The series aims to demonstrate Australia’s wide-ranging expertise to position the nation as a world leading association meetings location.
Australia is a world leader in nanotechnology. At the University of Sydney, internationally acclaimed optical scientist, Professor Benjamin Eggleton specialises in photonics – the science and technology of light waves.
Click here for Australia Innovates- Benjamin Eggleton video
Photonics has given us energy efficient lighting and displays, solar cells, modern medical diagnostic tools and is the basis of the world’s internet.
Now, Eggleton and his team are building a ground-breaking photonic chip that could revolutionise the world’s communication systems by making it even faster and more energy efficient.
Eggleton, The Director of the world-class University of Sydney Nano Institute (Sydney Nano), has made major contributions towards nanophotonics, which is the science of photonics at the nanoscale. Most recently, he and his team have discovered a way to harness light to significantly increase the speed of the internet – using ‘a bit of magic’.
This has opened the door to a new world. Eggleton and his team at Sydney Nano have been building a revolutionary photonic chip that is the size of a thumbnail and has unprecedented processing power. This scientific breakthrough has launched a new field and is poised to contribute to the thriving photonics industry that is responsible for tens of thousands of jobs in Australia. It has the power to transform global communications as well as the basis of new sensor technologies.
Eggleton and his team are working towards taking this world-first technology out of the lab and into real world outcomes. They hope society will benefit from this exciting and innovative technology.
Click here for the full series.