Pre-registration open (closes on April 24). Check out the microcredential website of University of Málaga to register. You can let us know your preferences by filling in the form below. Download our FAQ to know more about the course inscription.
Passive building blocks for photonic integrated circuits
University microcredential
Language: English
From May 26, 2025 to June 6, 2025
3 ECTS - 30 hours
Mode: Online and hybrid
This course builds on the microcredential “Optical waveguides and material platforms for photonic integrated circuits” and introduces more complex systems. It begins with the study of the coupling phenomena through coupled mode and supermode theories, laying the groundwork for understanding basic photonic devices.
The course then moves to multimodal interference couplers based on the Talbot effect, covering optimal image formation and design techniques for high-performance couplers. It also covers ring resonators, focusing on the racetrack configuration and its resonant effects, and applies these concepts to the design of simple filters. Next, it introduces the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, discussing its implementation using directional or multimodal couplers, and explaining its output interferogram, which is the basis for many modulators and sensors.
The course also explores tuning and reconfiguring integrated optical devices, with an emphasis on thermal tuning, and briefly covers other techniques like electromechanical and electro-optical tuning.
Finally, the course includes generating layouts and masks using tools like Nazca or GDS Factory, highlighting the relationship between GDS layers and the manufactured structure, and the importance of considering the later experimental characterization when designing layouts.
Lecturers
Robert Halir
Associate Professor
David González Andrade
Postdoctoral Researcher
(Ramón y Cajal)
Timeline
The course will start on May 26, 2025 and will end on June 6, 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.
In the specific case of this microcredential, knowledge and skills associated with the previous microcredential “Optical waveguides and material platforms for photonic integrated circuits” are also required.
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.
- Directional couplers.
- Multimode interference devices.
- Ring resonators.
- Mach-Zehnder interferometers.
- Tuning techniques: thermal, electro-optical, electro-mechanical.
- Applications: filters, wavelength/mode/polarization (de)multiplexers, power dividers, polarization beam splitters, sensors, switches, photonic unit cells, modulators.
- Mask generation software (Nazca Design).
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.