TNO Optics designs and fabricates high-end optical systems for a broad range of applications, such as space-based atmospheric monitoring, optical satellite communication, medical instrumentation, quantum technologies, structural health monitoring and instrumentation for the semiconductor industry. This work is for customers including Airbus, NASA and ESA, and for projects such as the Sentinel 5 global air quality monitoring satellite and ITER. Our optics technology expertise ranges from large-scale geometrical optics to fibre optics, integrated photonics and sub-wavelength metamaterials.With a background in applied physics or engineering, and a strong interest in integrated photonics, you will be working as an Optical Scientist specialized in Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). TNO develops PICs for applications in opto-acoustics, quantum technology, metrology, lidar and biosensing. Our projects are typically multi-disciplinary, combining PIC expertise with substantial knowledge of the respective application domains. You will work closely with your direct colleagues of the Optics group, with other TNO experts from other domains, and with external stakeholders, suppliers and customers. In addition, you will be collaborating with colleagues at the Holst Centre (Eindhoven) and the Chip Integration Technology Centre (Nijmegen) on hybrid integration and packaging processes.See more of the TNO Unit High Tech Industry and the Optics Group.You will be involved in the development, validation and implementation of PIC-based systems for various markets, including medical instrumentation, opto-acoustics, optical (satellite) communication and quantum technologies. Your work relates not only to optical aspects but also to thermal, mechanical and acoustic considerations. You reflect on manufacturability, cost and optical and electrical interconnect, and analyse power budget, transfer functions and noise performance. You will contribute to the technology strategy, system architectures, chip designs and coordination of fabrication at selected foundries, as well as to experimental characterization and validation of PIC-based devices and systems. You will regularly and intensively discuss results, progress, deviations and possible improvements with teams of other technical specialists, project leaders and system engineers, based both at TNO and at our customers and partners.As an optical scientist you will be responsible for:Providing and maintaining up-to-date technical expertise on PIC technology.Developing and executing measurement protocols for standardized and custom tests, and developing the required measurement setups.Relating PIC performance to the higher-level architecture of the system in which the PIC is one of the components.Successful validation of PIC technology in use cases for a range of applications.Guiding colleagues from various departments, with a range of different expertise, to enable PIC-based systems.Delivering high-quality work to satisfy the needs of our customers.
