Mao brings expertise in optical telecommunication networks to ESL

The Ohio State University’s ElectroScience Laboratory (ESL) is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Chongchang Mao as a research professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. At ESL, Mao is building a group that will explore research in microelectronics, free-space optics, fiber optics, and liquid crystal materials that lead toward next-generation (6G) telecommunication networks.

“We’re developing technologies and products for high-speed and low-latency optical telecom networks, including reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADM) and wavelength selective switches (WSS),” Mao said. “ROADM and WSS systems can be widely deployed at fiber network nodes and data centers to increase network capacity, reduce signal delay, and lower operating costs.”

The technologies developed will play important roles in future 5G and 6G networks, Mao shared.

Throughout his career, Mao has bridged the gap between academia and industry, driving toward technology advancement and commercialization. He started his career as a research scientist at the Center for Optoelectric Computing Systems at the University of Colorado at Boulder before working with startup and mature companies for more than two decades.

Transitioning to Ohio State, Mao plans to first target liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) technology and product development for optical networks and display applications. LCOS panels are the core sub-systems of ROADM and WSS systems.

“We plan to build an optical test laboratory and a liquid crystal device assembly clean room at ESL,” Mao shared. “We’ll also work closely with other research institutes at The Ohio State University, including Nanotech West Laboratory.”

At the University of Colorado at Boulder, Mao built a research foundation in liquid crystal display, very-large-scale integration (VLSI) design, and free-space optics. He worked on several projects for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Defense while collaborating with industry partners to advance optoelectronic technologies and products.

“At CU Boulder, I was very interested in technology commercialization,” Mao said. “In 1997, Motorola initiated a free-space optical communication project that attracted my attention. I then joined its research center in Chicago to work on network technology development.”

After serving as a senior staff engineer at Motorola, Mao worked as the principal engineer and engineering director at Chorum Technologies, Inc. He led research and production teams doing optical component development for optical fiber networks.

Mao’s path then took him to a startup company, Southeast TechInventures, Inc., where he guided an interdisciplinary team of experts focused on commercializing university breakthrough technologies.

“Prior to joining Ohio State, I led several teams in developing world-class advancements in optical fiber networks, medical imaging, and liquid crystal modulators. Especially, when I was working with Southeast TechInventures in North Carolina, we successfully helped in transforming several university breakthrough technologies into industry applications.

While we do technology development (in an academic setting), I am very interested in working with industry partners to further advance technologies and products.”

Most recently, Mao was the director of the free-space optics department at Futurewei Technologies in San Jose, California. In his role, he focused on ROADM and WSS systems that could be deployed in telecommunication networks to increase capacity and flexibility.

“We also successfully developed core devices for such systems, including liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) phase modulators, polarization grating (PG) arrays, and liquid crystal switches,” Mao said.

Mao is looking forward to collaborating with researchers at ESL and the extended Ohio State community interested in free-space optics, optical networks, and quantum networks. He is currently inviting doctoral students to join his newly formed Optical Telecommunication Research Group at ESL.

Interested collaborators can connect with Dr. Mao via email at mao.550@osu.edu.