News: Optoelectronics
6 August 2021
SemiNex hires VP of marketing & business development
SemiNex Corp of Peabody, MA, USA has hired Daniel Chu as VP of marketing & business development to drive business growth across its full portfolio of high-power indium phosphide (InP) and gallium antimonide (GaSb) semiconductor lasers for light detection and ranging (LiDAR), medical, military and industrial markets.
Educated as a laser physicist at Northwestern University with a PhD degree, Chu has extensive experience in product management, applications engineering, and business creation. His career spans more than 25 years in the laser and optics industry, with tenures at companies such as Osram and SDL Inc.
Chu brings his technical laser expertise and market experience to assist customers in developing best-in-class laser systems. As an example, he leads the SemiNex commercial team in supporting customers to pursue long-range LiDAR with patent-pending Triple Junction laser diodes. This new technology at the eye-safe wavelength of 1550nm allows LiDAR manufacturers to achieve three times the distance and 24 times the detection probability compared with a 905nm emitter. Chu developed a benchmark calculator based on LiDAR physics to deliver the target performance for high-speed autonomous vehicles (AVs) and works directly with LiDAR customers to optimize their designs for both performance and cost.
“Daniel has a strong knowledge in semiconductor lasers and extensive experience in the photonics industry,” comments CEO & founder David Bean. “He will deliver the highest level of technical support and service to our customers for design wins,” he adds.
“We not just have the most powerful 1550nm laser diode for ToF [time-of-flight] LiDAR but also semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) for FMCW [frequency-modulated continuous wave] LiDAR and GaSb 1940nm laser for medical and many other applications,” comments Chu. “We offer unparalleled performance,” he adds. “I look forward to working with our customers in designing in our best product offerings as cost-effective solutions.”
Besides working at the SemiNex office near Boston, Chu will also work closely with customers in Asia Pacific, where the firm established a regional office in the Chinese city of Liaoyang in 2020. As well as English, Chu speaks Mandarin fluently and understands Cantonese and Taiwanese well.
