The associated tasks will exploit the properties of thin-avalanche-region APDs for the development of high-performance array of detectors operating in photon-counting mode. These APD arrays will be used to improve the maximum count rate in free-space optical communications by reducing the blocking probability due to afterpulsing effect and to provide imaging capabilities. The realization of APD arrays will involve the investigation of the material inhomogeneity aspects and the underlying mechanisms behind the cross-talk effects associated to interpixel coupling, as well as the design of suitable electronics to operate both the devices and arrays for the required applications.

Flavio will enroll in the PhD program at Autonomous University of Madrid and will work towards a PhD degree within the Electronics and Semiconductors Group. Flavio will be co-supervised by Prof. Jose Luis Pau at UAM and high-skilled professionals in Sgenia. He will also work closely with researchers at University of Sheffield (UK) with a number of secondment visits to this partner.

Flavio graduated at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" receiving a Bachelor degree in Electronic Engineering. The BSc Thesis was developed at the Micron Technology factory (Italy, Avezzano) and it concerned the process and physics of optical lithography related to electronics microfabrication.

He completed his MSc degree in Nanotechnology thanks to which he got a solid knowledge on fabrication, simulation and optimization in the development of innovative industrial devices (such as nanostructured, self-assembly, nanoelectronic and nanophotonic structures). Moreover he examined the solid-state physics, organic chemistry and several investigation methods (AFM, EDX, TEM, and SEM). He focused on studying most of the optoelectronic devices and their related operations such as: laser, different types of waveguides, optic couplers, LED, APD, photonic crystals.

Flavio’s PhD project will be focused on the development and device applications of APD for operation in a photo-starved regime.

Mon 21 December 2015