About Perceptra

Perceptra is an MIT spin-out based in San Francisco (USA) and Eindhoven (Netherlands), building chipscale Raman sensors. Our proprietary architecture delivers the performance of traditional lab-scale dispersive systems at 100x lower cost and smaller size. We are now integrating our full spectroscopy engine onto a chip, and we are looking for motivated PIC engineers who want to help build this transformative technology. Our team brings 20+ years of experience in integrated optics, with work published in Nature, Nature Photonics, and Nature Electronics.

The Project

The heart of our spectroscopy engine is a tunable semiconductor laser implemented in a hybrid silicon nitride (SiN) / gallium arsenide (GaAs) platform. In this internship, you will develop next-generation integrated tunable lasers for spectroscopy, with the primary goal of building a system-level modelingframework for these hybrid lasers and using it to design a laser that will be fabricated at a photonic foundry.

There is surprisingly little published work on accurate system-level modeling of hybrid lasers: predicting threshold current, side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR), tuning behavior, and mode stability from the combined gain medium and external cavity. This project involves filling this gap by building laser models that will eventually be validated by characterizing the implemented devices. We believe these models will also point to novel laser architectures that have not been explored.

The intern who designs the laser will also be responsible for the PIC layout of the laser structures and test devices for tape-out. Because foundry turnaround takes several months, we would be glad to rehire you in the following year to characterize the devices you designed, closing the full design-fabricate-test loop.

Educational Value

• You will work on an open research problem with clear scientific novelty: system-level modeling of hybrid integrated lasers is a gap in the academic literature.

• You will experience the full industrial PIC development cycle end-to-end: modeling, design, layout, tape-out at a commercial photonic foundry, and (in a follow-up) characterization of your own devices.

• You will work in a small, senior team of former MIT students and research scientists, with direct mentorship from the founders and exposure to how a deep-tech startup takes photonic chips from concept to product.

Your Profile

MSc or PhD student in Integrated Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Optics, or a related field.

Must have

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Photonics, or Optics

PERCEPTRA TECHNOLOGIES

• Familiarity with numerical solvers for simulating integrated photonic devices

• Experience with tape-out at photonic foundries

• Comfort switching between different numerical solvers (Lumerical, IPKISS) and layout tools (gdsfactory, Luceda)

Good to have

• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Photonics, or Optics

• Experience modeling hybrid PIC-based lasers

• Experience characterizing integrated photonic circuits

Practical Details

• Duration: 6 months minimum; longer assignments (up to a year) are possible and welcome.

• Location: hybrid, combining remote work and on-site presence at the High Tech Campus

Eindhoven (HTCE).

• Start date: flexible, in consultation with the student and the university.

• Continuation: possibility to return the following year to characterize your fabricated devices;

strong interns will likely be offered a full-time position.