1478 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 15, NO.

5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009
A 2 2 Optouidic Multimode Interference Coupler
Romeo Bernini, Member, IEEE, Genni Testa, Member, IEEE, Luigi Zeni, Member, IEEE,
and Pasqualina M. Sarro, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractThe feasibility of an optouidic 2 2 multimode in-
terference (MMI) coupler based on a liquid-core antiresonant
reecting optical waveguide (ARROW) is proposed. The device
exhibits interesting spectral properties related to the ARROW
structure and the multimodal interference effects that can be eas-
ily tuned by simply changing the liquid core. The device has been
fabricated using standard silicon technology. The experimental re-
sults are in good agreement with simulated ones, and conrm the
possibility of realizing a recongurable MMI coupler.
Index TermsOptical planar waveguide couplers, optical
waveguide components, optical waveguide theory.
I. INTRODUCTION
I
NTEGRATED multimode interference (MMI) devices have
become very useful and popular due to their excellent per-
formances such as large optical bandwidth, compactness, and
relatively easy fabrication [1]. MMI devices are based on the
self-imaging property of multimode propagation in waveguide.
The self-imaging phenomenon permits to reproduce the input
eld in a single or multiple images at periodic intervals along the
direction of propagation in a multimode waveguide. These de-
vices can be easily fabricated and integrated into more complex
platform using standard microelectronic processes. Because of
the high performances, MMI devices have been widely utilized
in the design of low-loss waveguide couplers [2], with applica-
tions such as optical switches [3] or power splitters [4], or as in-
tegrated component into MachZehnder interferometers, modu-
lators, coherent receivers, and ring resonators [5][9]. Typically,
these devices are based on solid-core integrated planar waveg-
uides in which the self-imaging occurs in one dimension [1]
or two dimensions [10], [11]. Recently, multiple-imaging phe-
nomenon in hollow waveguides has been reported [12] and ap-
plied to the realization of optical devices [13]. However, in most
applications, MMI operates as passive component, and only
few examples of their use as active component have been in-
vestigated. In particular, tunable devices have been realized in
semiconductor-based solid-core waveguides by localized refrac-
tive index changes in the MMI region by current injection [14].
As concerning hollow-core waveguides, examples of optical
Manuscript received January 5, 2009; revised March 24, 2009 and March 30,
2009. Current version published October 7, 2009.
R. Bernini and G. Testa are with the Istituto per il Rilevamento Elettro-
magnetico dellAmbiente (IREA), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR),
80124 Naples, Italy (e-mail: bernini.r@irea.cnr.it; testa.g@irea.cnr.it).
L. Zeni is with the Department of Information Engineering, Second Univer-
sity of Naples, 81031 Naples, Italy (e-mail: zeniu@unina.it).
P. M. Sarro is with the Electronic Components, Technology, and Materials
Laboratory (ECTM), Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicrontechnol-
ogy (DIMES), Delft University of Technology (TUDelft), NL-2600 GB Delft,
The Netherlands (e-mail: sarro@dimes.tudelft.nl).
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/JSTQE.2009.2020996
Fig. 1. Hollow-core ARROW waveguide cross section.
switch and lter based on mechanical tuning of MMI geometry
have been proposed [12], [15].
In this paper, we propose optouidics as a different approach
in order to realize tunable MMI devices.
Optouidics is a very promising eld that has seen a signif-
icant improvement over the last few years [16]. Optouidics
is essentially the integration of optics and microuidics. This
permits to realize innovative optical system in which the u-
ids can be used to efciently change the optical properties of a
device [17].
In this paper, we present the feasibility of a 2 2 optou-
idic MMI coupler based on a liquid-core antiresonant reecting
optical waveguide (ARROW) [18]. The device shows interest-
ing spectral properties related to the ARROW structure and the
multimodal interference effects, and can be used both as an
optical lter and as a power splitter. In the proposed devices,
the refractive index of liquid core can be continuously changed
by replacing the uids within the core. In this way, the optical
properties of the device can be easily tuned, thereby allowing
for the realization of a recongurable MMI coupler.
In the following, we recall briey the propagation in an
ARROW waveguide and the principle of the self-imaging the-
ory. We then describe the design of the MMI coupler, the
analysis of the spectral ltering properties, and the tunabil-
ity. Finally, we illustrate the fabrication process and the device
characterization. The experimental results on the fabricated de-
vice show a good agreement with the theoretically expected
behavior.
II. ARROW WAVEGUIDES
ARROW waveguides represent an important implementation
of the interference-based optical waveguides in which the phe-
nomenon of wave interference is used to localize the light in a
low-index core. Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic cross section of
the proposed ARROW waveguide. The light is conned within
the core of the waveguide (height W
y
, index n
c
) by antireso-
nant reection at two cladding layers (thicknesses d
i
, indexes
1077-260X/$26.00 2009 IEEE
BERNINI et al.: 22 OPTOFLUIDIC MULTIMODE INTERFERENCE COUPLER 1479
n
i
, i = 1, 2) surrounding the core. Each layer can be considered
a FabryPerot (F-P) like resonator. In the antiresonance regime
of the F-P, the reectivity is very high, which corresponds to the
transmission maxima of the light propagating in the core. By
considering the equivalent 1-D vertical structure, the required
thicknesses d
i
of the ith cladding layer can be determined ac-
cording to the antiresonance condition [18]
d
1,2
=
(2N + 1)
4n
1,2
_
1
_
n
2
c
n
2
1,2
_
+
_

2n
1,2
W
y
_
2
_
1/2
,
N = 0, 1, 2, . . . (1)
where N is the order of interference, n
i
and n
c
are the cladding
and core refractive indexes, respectively, and
0
is the operating
wavelength.
In a paraxial approximation, it is possible to nd an ap-
proximate expression of the (l, m)th mode propagating in a
rectangular-core waveguide, given by [19]

lm
(x, y) = cos
_

xl
x
(2l +1)
2
_
cos
_

ym
y
(2m+1)
2
_
,
l, m (0, 1, 2, . . .), x, y (0, W
x,y
) (2)
where
xl
and
ym
are the propagation constants along x- and
y-directions, respectively, which can be approximated by

xl
=
(l + 1)
W
x
and
ym
=
(m + 1)
W
y
(3)
while W
x
and W
y
are the effective guide widths in x- and
y-directions, respectively. They correspond to the core dimen-
sions in the same directions. In fact, since the lateral penetration
of each mode eld can be neglected in an ARROW waveguide,
no GoosH anchen shift occurs at the boundary interfaces; thus,
the effective thickness is equal to the physical thickness. The
real part of the propagation constant of the (l, m)th mode is
related to the transverse propagation constants [see (3)] of the
dispersion relation, and is approximately given by [19]

r
lm
k
0
n
c
_
1
1
2
_
_

xl
k
0
n
c
_
2
+
_

ym
k
0
n
c
_
2
__
(4)
where k
0
= 2/ is the free-space wavenumber.
The ARROW waveguides belong to a class of optical waveg-
uides called leaky waveguides in which the modes are char-
acterized by a complex propagation constant. To evaluate the
attenuation losses, it is necessary to take into account the strong
polarization dependence of the losses in an ARROWwaveguide.
In fact, the connement of the light in the core results from the
simple Fresnel reection at the interfaces between the core, the
cladding layers, and the substrate. This implies that while the
TE losses are low, the TM losses are very high, since TM reec-
tions are always lower according to the Fresnel formula. In a
paraxial approximation, it is possible to separate the problem of
the ARROW connement into two 1-D problems for the lateral
and transverse directions; in this way, the evaluation of the total
losses can be obtained from the addition of the resulting 1-D
losses [20].
Fig. 2. Schematic top view of the proposed 2 2 MMI coupler.
III. ARROW-BASED 2 2 MMI COUPLER DESIGN
A. Self-Imaging Properties
Fig. 2 illustrates the schematic layout of the proposed 2 2
MMI coupler. The two input (IP1 and IP2) and output ports
(OP1 and OP2) of the MMI device are monomodal ARROW
waveguides with the same fundamental mode
i
, while the
MMI region is designed to perform a single-mode operation in
the vertical transverse dimension (y-direction) and a multimode
operation in the other (x-direction). The theoretical analysis of
the self-imaging will thus be investigated by considering the
structure in the x-direction.
By supposing that the fundamental mode
i
of IP2 can be
expressed as the sum of the guided modes of the MMI structure,
it can be given by [1]

i
=

l
c
l

l
(x, y) (5)
where
l
(x, y) is the eld distribution of the mode of the order
(l, 0) of the multimode waveguide [see (2)], and
c
l
=
_
+

_
+

l
(x, y) dxdy
_
+

_
+

|
l
(x, y)|
2
dxdy
(6)
are the mode coefcients that are estimated taking into account
the orthogonality relation.
After propagating a distance z in the waveguide, assuming
the implicit time dependence, the eld prole can be written as
(x, y, z) = e
i
0
z

l
c
l

l
(x, y)e
i(
0

l
)z
(7)
where
l
is the propagation constant of the mode of the order
(l, 0), given by (4). By dening L

as the beating length of the

two lowest order modes [1]
L

0

1

4n
c
W
2
x
3
(8)
we can rewrite the eld distribution (7) at a distance z =Lalong
the direction of propagation in the following form:
(x, y, L) = e
i
0
L

l
c
l

l
(x, y)e
i[{l(l+2)}/3L

]L
. (9)
By supposing that the interference mechanisms are independent
of the modal excitation (the so-called general interference), it
is possible to demonstrate that the eld distribution (x, y, L)
at z = L will be a reproduction (self-imaging) of the input eld
1480 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 15, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009

i
if
L = p (3L

) , p = 0, 1, 2, . . . . (10)
In fact, when condition (10) holds, the phase factor
exp (i{l(l + 2)/3L

}L) becomes 1 or 1 for odd or even

p, respectively, and for all ls. By taking into account the sym-
metry of the modal elds, the interference can produce a replica
of the input eld, either mirrored or direct with respect to the
plane x = W
x
/2. It can be easily calculated that direct and mir-
rored images will be formed at distance z that are even and odd
multiples of the length 3L

.
By substituting (8) into (10), it is possible to nd, for p = 1,
the following self-imaging condition:
L =
4n
c
W
2
x

(11)
where L represents the minimum distance at which we get the
mirrored image of the input eld. The expression (11) is very
useful since it permits to accurately design the MMI coupler
with the proper self-imaging performances.
The proposed conguration has L
MMI
= L, so as to repro-
duce an input eld on IP1 (IP2) in a mirrored single image on
OP2 (OP1) by means of the multimodal interference. If we now
consider the monomodal output waveguide OP1, the transmit-
ted intensity can be evaluated using (7). In particular, the eld
in the output waveguide is given by

0
= e
i
0
L

l
c
l
d
l
e
i(
0

l
)L
(12)
where d
l
are the overlap coefcients between the modes of the
multimode
l
ARROW waveguide and the mode of the output
waveguide
i
, which are given by
d
l
=
_
+

_
+

l
(x, y)

i
dxdy
_
+

_
+

|
i
|
2
dxdy
. (13)
An analogous analysis can be repeated for the second output
port OP2.
From (11) and (12), we can note that the device exhibits in-
teresting spectral ltering properties related to the wavelength
dependence of self-imaging principle [12], [22]. In fact, ac-
cording to (12), the transmitted intensity at a xed wavelength
depends on the overlap between the eld of the multimode
ARROW waveguide at z = L and the modal eld of the output
waveguides. The maximumoverlap is reached at the wavelength
= 4n
c
W
2
x
_
L [see (11)] for which a single replica of the in-
put eld
i
is obtained, whereas, at different wavelengths, the
coupling coefcient drops.
Furthermore, for a xed length L and width W
x
of the MMI
region, the wavelength that fullls the self-imaging condition
depends on the refractive index n
c
of the liquid core. This im-
plies that these ltering properties can be easily tuned by simply
exchanging the uids within the core.
B. Device Design and Simulation
On the basis of the earlier analysis, the design and the simu-
lation of the proposed device have been performed.
Fig. 3. Simulated light intensity pattern in the MMI region.
Assuming a multimode waveguide width W
x
= 29.25 m
and n
c
= 1.325 as refractive index for the liquid core
(methanol), the length of the MMI region resulting from (11) is
L = L
MMI
7557 m. The design wavelength is = 600 nm.
In order to improve the accuracy of the simulations performed
by using the results reported in the previous section, the atten-
uation losses of propagating modes in an ARROW waveguide
evaluated as per [21] have been taken into account. Furthermore,
the modal properties of liquid-core waveguide composing the
MMI region have been numerically analyzed by nite-element
method (FEM). The results show that only the rst ten modes
can propagate in such a waveguide, and (4) gives an excellent
approximation of the propagations constants. The fundamental
mode of IP2 (width = 10 m) is considered as the excitation
eld. The simulated intensity pattern of the light propagating in
the MMI region is shown in Fig. 3.
For an extensive characterization of the proposed device, we
have also simulated its spectral response. The device spectral
properties are due to both the ARROW structures [23] and the
multimodal interference effects illustrated before. Therefore, in
order to separate these two contributions, we have rst simulated
the spectrum transmitted from the ARROW MMI region by
supposing that the multimode waveguide has been excited by
a spatial uniform eld. This avoids the inuence of the MMI
effect on the results.
The ARROW cladding layers are silicon nitride (d
1
=
266 nm, N = 0) and silicon dioxide (d
2
= 266 nm, N = 1),
according to the antiresonant condition (1) at = 633 nm and
n
c
= 1.330. The simulation has been carried out by taking into
account the dispersion relation of the cladding layers and the
uid within the core (methanol). The result is illustrated in
Fig. 4. As expected, the spectrum is characterized by broad
transmission bands, centered on the antiresonant wavelengths
of the fabricated FabryPerot claddings [23]. In addition to the
peak around the design wavelength = 633 nm (bandwidth
130 nm), another peak is shown in Fig. 4, which is centered at
= 408 nm; it represents an additional antiresonant wavelength
for the fabricated rst cladding layer (d
1
, n
1
), corresponding to
N = 2 in (1).
Finally, the fully MMI coupler has been simulated to obtain
the theoretical transmitted spectrum between input and output
BERNINI et al.: 22 OPTOFLUIDIC MULTIMODE INTERFERENCE COUPLER 1481
Fig. 4. Simulated transmitted spectrum from the ARROW waveguide within
the MMI region.
Fig. 5. Simulated transmitted spectra from OP1 (solid line) and OP2 (dashed
line) of the MMIm device.
ports. The fundamental mode of the input ARROW waveguide
is considered as the excitation eld. The transmitted intensity
from the device has been calculated according to (13). Fig. 5
shows the simulated transmitted spectrum of the proposed MMI
device with methanol as liquid core (MMIm). The solid line
shows the transmitted spectrum at the output port 1 (OP1),
while the dashed line shows the spectral distribution transmitted
at OP2. By comparing the spectra of Fig. 5 with the one of
the ARROW waveguide, which is simulated not including the
MMI effects (Fig. 4), we can state that, as expected, the device
exhibits spectral ltering properties that can be explained taking
into account the self-imaging principle. As shown in Fig. 5, the
MMI effect results in a narrower transmission band (
60 nm) from OP1 and a high extinction ratio (80 dB) between
the two output channels at the design wavelength 600 nm
(I
1
/I
2
= 1.754 10
8
, where I
1
/I
2
is the ratio of the intensity
transmitted from OP1 and OP2, respectively). The analysis of
the simulated spectra reveals further interesting properties; the
spectra transmitted at the two output channels overlap around
= 537 nm and = 665 nm, and, for these wavelengths, the
device acts as a power splitter.
Fig. 6. Simulated transmitted spectra from OP1 (solid line) and OP2 (dashed
line) of the MMIe device.
Finally, to estimate the tunability of the device with the re-
fractive index of the core n
c
, we have simulated the spectral
response of the device with an ethanol-lled core (MMIe), and
ethanol refractive index n
c
= 1.360 at = 600 nm (Fig. 6). The
results show essentially an overall redshift of the spectra. This
shift is related to self-imaging effect and not to the ARROW
structure that exhibits a blueshift as the refractive index of the
core increases (Fig. 4) [23]. This implies a shift of both the lter
wavelength to = 610 nm and the splitting wavelengths to =
547 nm and = 693 nm for the MMIe.
IV. DEVICE FABRICATION
The device has been realized using standard CMOS technolo-
gies, which allows an easy integration with other devices on the
same substrate. The waveguide is composed of two halves of a
silicon wafer (n
s
= 3.87 i0.02 at = 633 nm) joined together.
The fabrication process for the hollow-core ARROW waveg-
uide starts with the realization of the microchannels by means
of a 5-m-deep silicon dry-etching on the bottom wafer. After
this, a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) at a
temperature of 850

C, on both wafers of the silicon dioxide
(TEOS) (n
2
= 1.457) and silicon nitride (n
1
= 2.227) cladding
layers, has been realized. The cladding layers thicknesses are
d
1
= 266 nm (N = 1) and d
2
= 266 nm (N = 0), according to
the antiresonant condition (1) at = 633 nm and n
c
= 1.330.
An SEM picture of the bottom wafer of the fabricated devices
is illustrated in Fig. 7.
To ensure a monomodal behavior of the input and output
waveguides, the core dimension is chosen to be 10 m5 m,
where the dimension x is wider to take into account the polariza-
tion dependence of the losses in an ARROW waveguide [20].
Due to the tolerance in the fabrication process, the width of
the MMI region has been accurately measured, resulting in
W
x
= 29.25 m. In fact, it must be highlighted that the width
of the MMI region represents a key parameter in the evaluation
of the spectral response of the device. The total length of the
device is 15 mm.
For simplicity, the two wafers are not bonded, but they are
temporary sealed by means of a mechanical system that presses
1482 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 15, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009
Fig. 7. SEM picture of the bottom wafer of the fabricated devices.
Fig. 8. Measured transmitted spectra from OP1 (solid line) and OP2 (dashed
line) of the MMIm device.
the upper and the lower wafer together during the measurement.
The structure can be completely lled with uids through cap-
illary action. If each wafer is perfectly cleaned before sealing,
there is no leakage problem of the liquid from the core of the
waveguide between the two wafers.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The fabricated device has been characterized by coupling an
unpolarized light from a white lamp into the input waveguide
(IP2) using an optical ber (10 m core diameter). A collect-
ing ber with a core diameter of 10 m has been used for the
transmission measurements. The transmitted light has been sent
to a charge-coupled device (CCD) spectrometer (range: =
350800 nm) for the spectral characterization. Since the change
in the input power from the lamp depends on the wavelength,
the recorded spectra have been previously normalized using the
input power at each wavelength. Three-axis micrometer posi-
tioners have been used to accurately control the excitation and
collection bers. The experimental results for the MMIm are
shown in Fig. 8. The spectra are normalized by the larger value
of the maxima of two curves. A comparison of the measured
transmitted spectra with simulated ones shows a good agree-
ment, and the device demonstrates spectral ltering properties
as predicted by numerical simulations. Fromthe measured spec-
tra, we have estimated an extinction ratio of 25 dB between
the two output waveguides at 600 nm, whereas the device
Fig. 9. CCD captured output intensity distribution from OP1 and OP2 of the
MMIm for an excitation wavelength of (a) = 405 nm; (b) = 545 nm;
(c) = 600 nm; and (d) = 665 nm.
Fig. 10. Measured transmitted spectra from OP1 (solid line) and OP2 (dashed
line) of the MMIe device.
behaves as a power splitter at = 405 nm, = 545 nm, and =
665 nm (see Fig. 8). These wavelengths are in qualitative agree-
ment with the expected theoretical values. From these results,
we can conclude that at 600 nm, the replica of the input
eld is obtained on OP1. In order to fully evaluate the split-
ting performance of the device, we have captured the images of
the eld prole transmitted from the output waveguides at dif-
ferent excitation wavelengths. The transmitted intensities have
been imaged through a microscope objective on a CCD camera.
The recorded direct output images from MMIm are depicted in
Fig. 9(a)(d), which correspond to an excitation wavelength of
= 405 nm, = 545 nm, = 600 nm, and = 665 nm, re-
spectively. The ratio of the transmitted intensity from OP1 (I
1
)
and OP2 (I
2
) has been measured for the power splitting wave-
lengths, resulting in (I
1
/I
2
)
m
1. Such measurements provide
another means to conrm the good performance of the device.
The captured image of the transmitted intensity from OP1 and
OP2, corresponding to an excitation wavelength of = 600 nm
of IP2, is shown in Fig. 9(c).
Fig. 10 illustrates the measured transmitted spectra from the
two output ports for the MMIe device. Also, in this case, a good
agreement between the measured spectra and the simulated ones
BERNINI et al.: 22 OPTOFLUIDIC MULTIMODE INTERFERENCE COUPLER 1483
Fig. 11. CCD-captured output intensity distribution from OP1 and OP2 of the
MMIe for an excitation wavelength of (a) = 405 nm; (b) = 563 nm; and
(c) = 610 nm.
Fig. 12. Measured transmitted spectra of the MMIm device (dashed line) and
MMIe device (solid line).
is observed. In this conguration, the device shows splitting
capability at 405 nm and 563 nm, while at 610 nm,
the device behaves as a lter, with an extinction ratio of 23 dB.
These wavelengths agree qualitatively with the predicted ones.
Fig. 11(a)(c) illustrates the recorded images corresponding to
an excitation wavelength of = 405 nm, = 563 nm, and =
610 nm, respectively.
In order to highlight the tunability of the device as a func-
tion of the refractive index core, the spectra transmitted fromthe
MMImand the MMIe have been shown in Fig. 12. As can be ob-
served, at =545 nm, the ratio of the transmitted intensity from
the two output waveguides of the MMIm, measured from the
spectra, is (I
1
/I
2
)
m
1, while for the MMIe at the same wave-
length, the ratio is (I
1
/I
2
)
e
0.2. Conversely, at = 563 nm,
the ratio of the transmitted intensity from the two output waveg-
uides is (I
1
/I
2
)
e
1 and (I
1
/I
2
)
m
9. These results show
that the power splitting ratio into the two output ports can be
tuned in a large range by simply replacing the uid lling the
core. The images in Fig. 13(a) and (b) illustrate the eld prole
of the transmitted intensity from OP1 and OP2 of the MMIm at
= 563 nm and MMIe at = 545 nm, respectively.
Fig. 13. CCD-captured output intensity distribution from the OP1 and OP2 of
(a) MMIm at = 563 nm and (b) MMIe at = 545 nm.
VI. CONCLUSION
We have demonstrated the feasibility of an optouidic MMI
device based on a liquid-core ARROW waveguide. We have
illustrated the design method, the fabrication process, and the
optical characterization of the proposed device. First, the spec-
tral response, and hence, the tunability of the device has been
investigated by a numerical method, indicating that the opti-
cal properties depend on the refractive index of the uid in the
core. The theoretically expected behavior has been conrmed
by an optical characterization of two different congurations for
the MMI device, which is realized by introducing two different
uids into the hollow core.
The results are very encouraging, and we believe that with
an optimization of the design, the device performance can be
greatly improved.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank C. de Boer and the IC
Process Group, Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submi-
crontechnology (DIMES), for technical assistance in the device
fabrication.
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Romeo Bernini (M01) received the Laurea degree (summa cum laude) in elec-
tronic engineering from the University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, in
1995, and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the Second Univer-
sity of Naples, Naples, in 1999.
During 1999, he was with Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicron-
technology (DIMES), Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands. During
2000, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Second University of Naples. He is
currently a Research Scientist at the Istituto per il Rilevamento Elettromagnetico
dellAmbiente (IREA), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Naples. His
current research interests include optoelectronic, optouidic sensors and de-
vices, and ber sensors and nondestructive characterization of semiconductors
and dielectric materials. He is a reviewer for a number of technical journals.
Dr. Bernini received the Best Doctoral Thesis Award in Optoelectronics by
the IEEE Photonics Society (LEOS) (formerly known as the IEEE Lasers and
Electro-Optics Society), Italian Chapter, in 2001.
Genni Testa (M09) received the Laurea degree (summa cum laude) in solid-
states physics from the University of Naples, Naples, Italy, in 2005, and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Second University of Naples,
Naples, in 2008.
She is currently a Research Fellow at the Istituto per il Rilevamento Elet-
tromagnetico dellAmbiente, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Naples. Her
current research interests include integrated optoelectronic sensors.
Luigi Zeni (M98) was born in Italy in 1962. He received the Laurea degree
(summa cum laude) in electronic engineering from the University of Naples,
Naples, Italy, in 1988, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics and computer science
from the Italian Ministry of University, Rome, Italy, in 1992.
From 1993 to 1998, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of
Naples Federico II. In 1994, he joined Delft Institute of Microelectronics
and Submicrontechnology (DIMES), Technical University of Delft, Delft, The
Netherlands, where he was also a Visiting Scientist. Since 1998, he has been an
Associate Professor of electronics at the Second University of Naples, Naples,
where his teaching activity includes analog/digital electronics and optoelec-
tronics. He has also been a coordinator of research projects nanced by the
Italian Ministry of University and Scientic Research. His current research in-
terests include optoelectronic devices and sensors, materials characterization
for microelectronics and optoelectronics, wide-band contactless techniques for
electronic circuits characterization, and laser beam characterization. He has
been a referee for international journals. He is the author or coauthor of about
40 papers published in international journals and presented more than 50 pa-
pers at the proceedings of international conferences. He is also a reviewer for
research projects of the Italian Ministry of University and Scientic Research
and the European Union.
Dr. Zeni is a member of the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Inter-
national (SEMI) and the Associated Electrical Industries (AEI).
Pasqualina M. Sarro (S84M87SM97F06) received the Laurea degree
in solid-states physics from the University of Naples, Naples, Italy, in 1980, and
the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Delft University of Technology,
Delft, The Netherlands, in 1987.
From 1981 to 1983, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Photovoltaic
Research Group, Division of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI,
where she worked on thin-lm photovoltaic cell fabrication by chemical spray
pyrolysis. Since 1987, she has been with the Delft Institute of Microelectronics
and Submicron Technology (DIMES), Delft University of Technology, where
she became an Associate Professor and a Full Professor in the Electronic Com-
ponents, Materials and Technology Laboratory in April 1996 and December
2001, respectively, and is engaged in research on integrated silicon sensors
and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. She has authored or
coauthored more than 300 journal and conference papers. She is a reviewer for
a number of technical journals.
Prof. Sarro received the Eurosensors Fellow Award in September 2004 for
her contributions in the eld of sensor technology. In April 2006, she became
a member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Science (KNAW). She is a tech-
nical program committee member for several international conferences (IEEE
MEMS, IEEE Sensors, Eurosensors, Transducers). She was also the Technical
Program Chair for the rst three IEEE Sensors Conferences (20022004). She
will be the General Co-Chair of the IEEE MEMS 2009 Conference.