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Optical waveguides and material platforms for photonic integrated circuits
University microcredential
Language: English
From May 12, 2025 to May 23, 2025
3 ECTS - 30 hours
Mode: Online and hybrid
This course covers the fundamentals of electromagnetic wave propagation in homogeneous and multilayer media, focusing on plane waves. It introduces the concept of optical waveguides, including 2D planar and 3D channel waveguides, and discusses modes essential for understanding propagation.
It also explores loss mechanisms in dielectric waveguides (e.g., leakage, roughness, curved propagation) and techniques to minimize them. Several laboratory exercises, including transitions and crossings between waveguides, are conducted. Key multiplexing techniques, such as wavelength, polarization, and mode multiplexing, are covered, along with materials used in integrated photonic circuits (e.g., silicon, silicon nitride, indium phosphide, lithium niobate).
The course concludes with an overview of integrated photonics, its current applications in fields like telecommunications and biomedicine, and future trends. The goal is to provide a solid knowledge base for future microcredentials and motivate students to explore the challenges and opportunities in the field.
Lecturers
Gonzalo Wangüemert Pérez
Full Professor
David González Andrade
Postdoctoral Researcher
(Ramón y Cajal)
Timeline
The course will start on May 12, 2025 and will end on May 23, 2025. The first week will be online lessons about concept and fundamentals, while the second week will focus mostly on laboratory exercises and simulations that can be made either on-site or online (hybrid mode).
The courses will be funded for up to 10 students who meet the established academic requirements thanks to the Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia 
and the NextGeneration EU 
. Deadlines will be opened to apply for these scholarships. A brief interview or exam may be conducted to gain a better understanding
of the applicant's background and motivations. The registration fee for the rest of the students will be 450 €.
Students who enroll in any microcredential must hold a bachelor’s degree in one of the following areas:
- Engineering (in any of its specialties).
- Physics.
- Chemistry.
- Mathematics.
In exceptional cases, students who are currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in one of the aforementioned fields and still need to complete 30 ECTS (excluding the final degree project and external internships) may be admitted.
Students who complete all the microcredentials (not necessarily in the same courses edition) will receive the Specialization Diploma in Integrated Photonics from the University of Málaga.
- Uniform plane waves: normal and oblique incidence, angular spectrum decomposition.
- Planar (2D) and channel (3D) optical waveguides.
- Approximate methods: the effective index method.
- Waveguide losses: leakage to the substrate, roughness and curvature.
- Transitions and discontinuities between waveguides.
- Fiber-to-chip edge-couplers.
- Waveguide crossings.
- Multiplexing techniques in integrated photonics.
- Material and fabrication technologies.
- Integrated photonics: overview and applications.
The professional software ANSYS ACADEMIC LUMERICAL MULTIPHYSICS will be available for students to perform the laboratory exercises proposed in the different microcredentials from their own computers. This software is widely used by companies in the sector and research centers for modeling, simulation, and design of integrated optical devices.