Christopher Chua

Senior Manager/ Associate Director, Research Engineer

Christopher Chua led multiple commercial and government contracts, technology commercialization programs, and research & development initiatives. He is the manager of the Micro-Technology group, a team performing advanced applied research in optoelectronics, LEDs, lasers, thin film transistor electronics, and microfabrication. He designed and built one of the world’s most densely-packed vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays, and pioneered a VCSEL architecture that is currently used and licensed by leading manufacturers. He also invented and developed an on-chip inductor that resulted in world-record integrated circuit oscillator Q-factors.

He is among the top 1% of USPTO patentees by total productivity in optoelectronics, according to a 2011 study at the Carnegie Mellon University. He authored many technical publications and won the best paper awards at the 2003 ISSCC (International Solid State Circuit Conference) and at the 2009 IMAPS (International Microelectronics and Packaging Society).

Dr. Chua holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University, a bachelors degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and a bachelors in electrical engineering from M.I.T.

Key Technologies

  • Semiconductor optical emitters: VCSELs, LEDs, and III-nitride lasers
  • Chip packaging – heterogeneous integration and high density electronics interconnect
  • Epitaxy, design, and fabrication of infrared (GaAs, InP), red (GaInP), and UV (AlInGaN)
  • optoelectronics devices

Read more from SRI