December 15-17, 2003 -- Dallas, Texas
Workshop Topics 

Lead Instructor: Christopher Pinzone, PhD - Dir of Photonic Materials, Ahura Corporation

It was only a generation ago that semiconductor diode lasers were finally persuaded by Bell Labs scientists to work continuously at room temperature rather than cryogenically. Since then the devices have moved from expensive, hand crafted, exotic novelties to ubiquitous and cheap (sub $1 US) devices shipped in the millions daily. Applications today are dominated numerically by data storage, such as CD-ROM and DVD, but there are many other fiscally significant arenas including telecommunications, data transmission, solid state laser pumping, medical and printing. These utilize different wavelengths, from the infrared down to blue and even ultraviolet, and different structures including VCSELs. Come find out which are the most promising new applications, which technologies will serve them best, and how the current applications are expected to change.

 Workshop Coordinator: Umesh Mishra, PhD - Professor and Chairman, Department of Electrical
       and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara

The Group III Nitride materials and components (GaN for short) are ideal for more than just the blue spectrum LEDs and laser diode components. They have now proved themselves in development centers around the world to be excellent candidates for a variety of leading edge electronic applications. As one of the brightest stars in the wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors, GaN electronic devices do what the WBGs do best... they function reliably at extreme temperatures, make excellent high power devices, as well offering the promise of providing a tremendous amount of diverse functionality into advanced components. At the root of development strides are a growing choice of starting substrates for growing GaN layers, including SiC, AlN, and native GaN. At this workshop, attendees will be presented an objective overview of substrate strides, learn what it takes to grow good GaN layers on top of which kind of substrates (or what can be designed directly on native GaN), and learn about the most exciting, and most promising, device developments and their target applications.