Feature
After coming to the UK from Iran in 2000 – and joining the University in 2001 – Dr Mehdi Banakar is now a key player in the University’s silicon photonics rapid prototyping foundry CORNERSTONE.
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING CORNERSTONE is a facility offering a prototyping service to researchers, both academic and industrial, fabricating silicon photonics circuits for a wide range of applications including data centres for the internet, lab-on-a-chip medical sensors and LiDAR technology for driverless cars. The Optoelectronics Research Centre, which hosts CORNERSTONE, is one of the best of its kind in the UK – and it is this claim to fame, along with the expertise honed at Southampton, that has kept Mehdi at the University. He said: “I like the technical side, and I like the fact that the applications for photonics are helping in a wide range of areas, such as highperformance computing, sensors, and data
1 An example of lithography (a method of printing) provided by CORNERSTONE
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centres. What we’re doing and developing is helping to bring good to society and making a difference.” Arriving in Southampton Just 12 months after arriving in the UK to study at Weymouth College, Mehdi joined the University of Southampton. He embarked on a foundation year in 2001 and continued at the University to complete his Bachelor’s degree and then his Master’s in Microsystem Design, in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, in 2008. He began to hone his fabrication skills during his part-time Master’s studies when he also worked as a research assistant, helping to fabricate designs for PhD students and researchers.
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2 & 3 Examples of spiral waveguide design 4 Inside the clean rooms at the University 5 Stacking wafers, which CORNERSTONE fabricates in the clean room
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