Alex Yasha Yi

Director of Research, Connected Systems Institute
Professor, Electrical Engineering

Dr. Yi earned his PhD from MIT and was a Post-Doctoral Associate with the MIT MicroPhotonics Center where he was involved in research on integrated nano optoelectronic devices and systems. He also had extensive research experiences with the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the 3M Corporate Research Laboratory. He is also a Professor Affiliate with the Microsystems Technology Laboratory at MIT.

He has authored hundreds of top journal papers, edited five book/book chapters, and holds 34 issued patents (18 U.S. patents and 16 international patent). He has led numerous government/industry-funded projects, has been at review panel for NSF, DOE and DOD, and has been a reviewer for leading journals.

Education

PhD, Electronics and Optoelectronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2004

Research Interests

Integrated/Intelligent chips, Renewable energy, Smart micro sensors
Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, Solid state on-chip Lidar for autonomous driving/UAVs/Robotics
Telecommunications
Solid state lighting

Google Scholar Link

Selected Publications

Y. Yi 'From 2D to 3D Photonic Integrated Circuits', Springer Nature Publishing, Invited Book on Nano Electronics/Photonics Emerging Engineering Technologies (2025)
A. KHALILIAN, B. YU, K. TSOI, and Y. YI, "High-NA and High-Efficiency Polarization-Based Metalenses with Pitch Size Control Utilizing Silicon-Rich Nitride", Optics Letters, 50, 503 (2025)
M. Ostrowski, P. Pignalosa and Y. Yi, 'Integrated disk micro resonator lasing using low-index ultra thin compound semiconductor thin films', Nature Methods, Accepted (2025)
D. Wu, K. Owen, B. Yu, and Y. Yi, 'Fabrication of a self-aligned multi-waveguide-layer passive Si3N4/SiO2 photonic integrated circuit for a 3-D optical phased array device', Optical Materials Express, 14, 13 (2024)
Y. Yi, D. C. Wu, V. Kakdarvishi, B. Yu, Y. Zhuang, and A. Khalilian, ' Photonic Integrated Circuits for the Optical Phased Array ', Photonics, 11, invited feature review article, 243 (2024)
D. Wu, V. Kakdarvishi, B. Yu, and Y. Yi, 'Photonic integrated circuit with multiple waveguide layers for broadband high-efficient 3-D OPA', Opt. Lett., 48, Editor's Pick, 968 (2023)
D. C. Wu, B. W. Yu, and Y. Yi, 'Phase-Combining Unit for Aliasing Suppression in Optical Phased Array', Optics Letters, 47, 1996 (2022)
M. Ye, V. Ray, D. Wu, J. Lu, J. R. Hendrickson, C. Dass and Y. Yi, 'Subwavelength Grating Lens with Continuous Phase Shifts', IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 33, 844 (2021)
A. Kazemian, P. Wang, Y. Zhuang, and Y. Yi, 'Machine learning based optimization of the aperiodic structure optical phase array antenna on silicon-on-insulator', Optics Letters, 46, 801 (2021)
M. Ye, V. Ray, D. Wu and Y. Yi, 'Metalens With Artificial Focus Pattern', IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 32, 251 (2020)

Community Involvement

Fellow of Optica (Optical Society of America)
Senior Member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
Member of AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)