Prof. Alex Yasha Yi Fellow of the Optical Society of America (Optica)

Welcome to Intelligent Optoelectronics Chip Laboratory!

We are  setting up  a dynamic research lab at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The PI had extensive research experience in both academic and large-scale industry settings - including at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the 3M Company (Corporate Research Laboratory).

We have close collaboration with MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratory. 

Our research ( > 150 top journal publications; ~ 34 issued patents; as well as 10 pending patent applications) is focused on chip-scale intelligent & integrated nano optoelectronics, photonics and electronics with applications on: 

Silicon Photonics Chip, Artificial intelligence Chip; Co-Packaged Optics, Renewable energy; Smart chip sensors; VR/AR display chip; Chip-scale Lidar for autonomous driving/UAVs/Robotics; Telecommunications; Solid state lighting; Integrated quantum photonics 

Our lab has been awarded a variety of research projects and have established worldwide collaborations, our licensed patents (from LANL, MIT, 3M, CUNY and UMich) have brought industry more than $300 million revenue, our recent results have been selected by MIT Technology Review as a research breakthrough, potential to revolutionize semiconductor chip-making.

 We are recruiting: We are looking for highly motivated Postdoc Associates/Research Associates/PhD students, please send me an email (yys@alum.mit.edu or yiy@uwm.edu) if you are interested!

Optical Society of America (Optica):

Recent news on our lab:

Prof. Yi will give a short course "3D Photonics and Co-Packaged Optics" in the coming Photonics West conference (2026)

'From 2D to 3D Photonic Integrated Circuits', Springer Nature Publishing, Invited Book published (2025)

As the Primary Guest Editor of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics on Quantum Electronics, you are welcome to submit (Submission deadline June 1st, 2025) your next paper to the coming issue: 3D Horizons in Photonics: Unraveling the Next Frontier of Integrated Circuits

The invited keynote review paper on Integrated Photonic OPAs is highly viewed (2025)

Successful CLEO 2024! 3-D Horizons in Photonics: Unraveling the Next Frontier of Integrated Circuits

Optica (Optical Society of America) Fellow Alex Yasha Yi, shares some of the work he is doing--Intelligent Optoelectronics Chip Laboratory 2023

UMichigan Claims 1st Multilayer 3D Optical Phased Array (2022)

Advances in inorganic LEDs:driving the scientific research in the production of the next generation of inorganic LED technologies

Our Opt. Lett. paper entitled "Photonic integrated circuit with multiple waveguide layers for broadband high-efficient 3D OPA", published in Optics Letters, has been highlighted as an Editor's Pick

https://www.optica.org//en-us/get_involved/awards_and_honors/fellow_members/fellow_profiles/yasha_yi/

https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/best-us-metros-for-electric-cars/#yashayi

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2022/02/04/could-detroit-become-a-hub-to-end-the-computer-chip-shortage/

https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/07/09/238863/why-metalenses-are-about-to-revolutionize-chip-making/

E-mail: yys@alum.mit.edu or yiy@uwm.edu

https://alum.mit.edu/www/yys

Awards and Honors

• Fellow, OSA (the Optical Society of America) 

• Presidential Fellowship, MIT

• Rosenblith Fellowship, MIT

• Excellent student scholarship, Academia Sinica

• Guang Hua Prize (the highest scholarship at Peking University).

•  Excellent student prize of Peking University

• C. S. Wu Prize (the highest scholarship at Nanjing University).

Editorial 

Editorial Board Member for Scientific Reports, a Nature Research journal

Editorial Board Member for Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, a Springer Research journal

Associate Editor for North America region, IEEE Photonics Society Newsletter

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Ph. D., Electronics and Optoelectronics, June 2004 (Ph.D. Advisor: Prof. L. C. Kimerling; Prof. J. D. Joannopoulos; Prof. M. Dresselhaus)

Professional Experiences

Fellow of the Optical Society of America (Optica), 2020 - Present

Full Professor, ECE&Energy Institute&Lurie Nano Fabrication, University of Michigan, MI, 2018 - Present

Co-Founder, INTE OptoElectronics, 2022 - Present

Associate Professor, ECE&Energy Institute&Lurie Nano Fabrication, University of Michigan, MI, 2013 - 2018

Professor Affiliate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 2009 - Present

Asst. Professor, CUNY graduate center, NYC, 2009 - 2013

Senior Research Scientist, 3M Central Research Laboratory, St. Paul, MN  2005 – 2009 

President, MIT Association of Science and Technology, Cambridge, MA 2002 - 2004

Postdoctoral Associate at MIT, Cambridge, MA  2004 – 2005 

Ph.D Research Assistant at MIT, Cambridge, MA 1999 - 2004 

Staff Research Assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM,  1997 – 1999