News: Optoelectronics
10 August 2021
Vector Photonics appoints process development engineer
Photonic-crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) firm Vector Photonics Ltd (which was spun off from Scotland’s University of Glasgow in March 2020, based on research led by professor Richard Hogg) has appointed Connor Munro as process development engineer. Munro has industrial wafer-processing and high-volume manufacturing expertise, with experience of Fabry-Perot (FP), distributed feedback (DFB) and vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) production across a range of compound semiconductor systems, including aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP), gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium antimonide (GaSb), gallium nitride (GaN) and indium phosphide (InP).
“Connor is the fourteenth member of our team,” says chief technology officer Richard Taylor. “He has extensive dry etch, wet etch and thin-film deposition experience in dielectrics and metals, gained as a process engineer at Sivers Photonics (CST Global). His role spanned both operations and development, optimizing and standardizing processes for increased yield,” he adds. “His experience includes photolithography and electron-beam lithography; oxide and metal deposition; chemical and mechanical polishing; thermal annealing; characterization (SEM) and qualification testing; and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) processing – invaluable expertise in our fabless environment.”
Munro was most recently a research assistant at the University of Glasgow, working on the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)-funded project GaN DaME (Integrated GaN-Diamond Microwave Electronics: From Materials, Transistors to MMICs) developing next-generation GaN-based RF power devices. He was developing processes for ‘flipped’ GaN-on-silicon etching, to enable diamond growth around the active layers of the device, providing a highly effective heat-sink to maximize its power output.
Munro has a Physics degree from the University of St Andrews, where he was based in the Organic Semiconductor Centre.
Vector appoints principal device engineer
