Our CSO Chris Roeloffzen presented with Veder Prize for beamformer development

The Veder Prize, which recognizes exceptional contributions to the field of radio or related sciences was last week awarded to LioniX’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Chris Roeloffzen.

Chris was awarded the prize for “pioneering and ongoing work in the field of microwave photonics, from idea to commercial realization of a photonic beamformer”. The accolade celebrates Chris’s eighteen years of achievements in integrated microwave beamforming, which have significantly underpinned the establishment of LioniX International’s capabilities in the same area.

Microwave photonics is a powerful solution for high frequency signal processing challenges. These will more pressing as carrier signals shift to higher frequencies in the ever intensifying hunt for bandwidth.

Microwave photonics systems started life as unwieldy collections of separate optical and electronic components. Chris’s early work pioneered the integration of these components into photonic chips, creating integrated microwave photonics. This pioneering step brought the benefits of photonic integrated circuits to microwave communications systems, resulting in huge improvements in size, weight and power consumption.

Since the development of the first integrated microwave photonic modules Chris has overseen drastic improvement in the maturity of the technology. And now, for the first time, the wireless world is gearing up to deploy integrated microwave beamforming modules in antenna systems for field testing.

The award ceremony last week saw the presentation of two awards from 2019, including that awarded to Chris, having been delayed because of Covid-19 disruptions.