John E. Bowers

2024
IEEE JUN-ICHI NISHIZAWA MEDAL

Sponsored by the IEEE Jun-ichi Nisizawa Medal Fund, Japan

For contributions to photonic integrated circuit technologies

John Bowers is widely recognized as the world leader in heterogeneous integration technologies for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). His decades-long commitment and focus has resulted in the development of powerful materials and processing techniques that have enabled chip-scale solutions that reliably combine the distinctive optical and electrical functionality of different materials systems previously viewed as incompatible in a practical manufacturing context. Chief among these has been the heterogeneous integration of III-V compound semiconductors with silicon and its associated materials that form the foundation of the very large-scale integration (VLSI) microelectronics industry. The III-V heterogeneous solutions pioneered by Bowers have shown significant impact in multi-chip optical frequency synthesis for precision timing applications, and these broader capabilities hold great potential for enabling agile RF systems, navigation (including chip-scale lidar and laser gyros), and internet data router applications. More recently, Bowers has focused on heterogeneous integration using III-V quantum dots epitaxially grown directly on silicon, and this technology too offers remarkable performance benefits. To translate his innovations to the marketplace, Bowers has co-founded numerous companies, many of which were acquired by large corporations, helping to accelerate the mass deployment and societal impact of his work. The III-V silicon heterogeneous photonic integrated circuit technology developed by Bowers has also been transferred to several major corporations in the datacom industry. Intel has shipped over five million silicon photonic 100Gb/s transceivers using the heterogeneous integration approach initially demonstrated by Bowers’ group. Intel is confident that this technology will be a critical enabler for cost-effective, widespread 5G wireless networking in the coming years. 

An IEEE Life Fellow, Bowers is Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency, a Distinguished Professor of Materials and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and holds the Fred Kavli Chair in Nanotechnology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA.

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