Labs

Both the Experimental Lab and the Simulation Lab of Photonics Group are located on the fifth floor of the building of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile.

Currently, the group is formed of around 10 people who hold positions in the different projects.

Undergraduate, master's, doctoral and postdoctoral students from the same House of Studies, from other universities, even from regions; by Ernest Michael, Ph.D., research in Photonics, develop, manufacture and characterize optoelectronic devices in the projects listed below.

The Millimeter Wave Laboratory (MWL, for its acronym in English) was founded in 2008 and was located in Cerro Calán, Las Condes, Santiago, the same place where the National Astronomical Observatory (OAN) operated for more than 150 years.

MWL is directed by professors Dr. Patricio Mena and Dr. Leonardo Bronfman. Along with them, two other teachers, recently incorporated; two engineers, undergraduate and doctoral students and a mechanical technician. Its objective is to design, manufacture and experimentally test both analog and digital heterodyne components and systems for radio astronomy.

Centers and houses of studies in Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Holland and Taiwan collaborate in the different projects that develop the laboratory.

The Millimeter Wave Laboratory is a national reference in astronomy that has managed to amalgamate a group of engineers and researchers who develop cutting-edge radio astronomical instrumentation.

Space and Planetary Exploration Laboratory (SPEL) was built in 2011 in the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Chile to serve as the headquarters of the design, construction, development and test of the first chilean nanosatellite, SUChAI. Since that year, many students have contributed to the SUChAI project and others, extending the areas of the laboratory. Currently, SPEL has strong relations with the Radio Astronomy Instrumentation Group, Physics Department, Geophysics Department, Astronomy Department and Mechanical Engineering Department at Faculty of Physics and Mathematical Sciences (FCFM), Univeristy of Chile and Physics Department at University of Santiago of Chile.