PrintDr. A.P. Knights
Dr. A.P. Knights
Associate Professor
Department of Engineering Physics
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West, Hamilton
Ontario, Canada L8S 4L7
office: ABB/450
email: aknight@mcmaster.ca
voice: (905) 525-9140 x 27224
fax: (905) 527-8409
B.Sc. (DeMontfort), Ph.D. (Univ. of East Anglia)
Courses Taught
3A03 Applications of Photonics
4Z03/6Z03 Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology
4U04 Solid State Laboratory
Research Website
For information on SIlicon Photonics click here.
Research Interests
Since the invention of the bipolar transistor in 1947, the growth of the semiconductor industry has been a catalogue of continuous success. Researchers have been able to maintain pace with the demand for exponential growth in both capacity and complexity, primarily through the shrinkage of device dimension. However, the next few decades will witness a series of major challenges for both device and process engineers if this trend is to continue.
Utilizing the excellent facilities in Engineering Physics housed
in the CEMD, we intend to explore novel device systems and investigate
the microscopic phenomena which limit current processing strategies.
Much of the work will concentrate on silicon as the industry workhorse
material. In particular, we are interested in the interaction of
light with silicon (exploiting the high bandwidth of optical devices)
and intend to develop chips which combine optical and electrical
functionality. This is somewhat challenging (silicon is not a natural
material for use in optoelectronics) but necessary because silicon
provides the most cost-effective route for integrated optical solutions.
The ambitious goal of such research is the monolithic integration
of functions such as switching, modulation, (de)multiplexing, emission,
amplification and detection, together with control electronics
and environmental sensing, using (sub)micron optical waveguides
on a single silicon chip.
The fabrication of devices will be via technologies fully compatible with standard
silicon processing, including photolithography, layer deposition, ion implantation
and wet and dry etching capitalizing on links with industrial and academic
collaborators.
Publications
I have over 70 refereed publications in international research journals, 5 active patents, and I am the co-author of the first text to deal specifically with silicon photonics. A selection of these publications is listed below:-
G T Reed and A P Knights, Silicon Photonics- An Introduction, Wiley (2004), ISBN: 0-470-87034-6.
A P Knights, A P Vonsovici, D Brady, A A House, G F Hopper, An In-line light sensor, Patent number WO03060599 (2003).
A P Knights and G F Hopper, Effect of ion implantation induced defects on optical attenuation in silicon waveguides, Electronics Letters, 39, 1648 (2003).
P. G. Coleman, C. P. Burrows, and A. P. Knights, Simple expression for vacancy concentration at half ion range following MeV implantation of Si, Appl. Phys. Lett., 80, 947 (2002).
C. M. Johnson, N. G. Wright, M. J. Uren, K. P. Hilton, M. Rahimo, D. A. Hinchley, A. P. Knights, D. J. Morrison, A. B. Horsfall, S. Ortolland, and A. G. O'Neill, Recent progress and current issues in SiC semiconductor devices for power applications, IEE Proc. -Circuits Devices Syst., 148, 101 (2001).
T. Sukova, A. Pantane, L. Eaves, P. C. Main, M. Henini, A. Polimeni, A. P. Knights and C. Jeynes, Indium interdiffusion in annealed and implanted InAs/AlGaAs self-assembled quantum dots, J. Appl. Phys., 89, 6044 (2001).
R. J. Curry, W. P. Gillin, A. P. Knights, and R. M. Gwilliam, Silicon-based organic light emitting diode operating at a wavelength of 1.5um, Appl. Phys. Lett., 77, 2271(2000).
A. P. Knights, M. A. Lourenço, K. P. Homewood, D. J. Morrison, N. G. Wright, S. Ortolland, C. M. Johnson, A. G. O'Neill, P. G. Coleman, K. P. Hilton, and M. J. Uren, Low temperature annealing of 4H-SiC Schottky diode edge terminations formed by 30keV Ar+ implantation, J. Appl. Phys., 87, (2000), 3973.
P. J. Hughes, A. P. Knights, B. L. Weiss, and S. Ojha, Optical characteristics of photosensitive Ge-doped SiO2 planar waveguides implanted with protons at 800oC, Electronics Letters, 36, 427 (2000).
A. P. Knights and M. J. Kelly, Laterally stacked varactor formed by ion implantation, Electronics Letters, 35 ,846 (1999).
A. P. Knights, R. M. Gwilliam, and P. G. Coleman, Ion implantation dosimetry method and apparatus, UK patent no.9818330.4 (1998).