SC525 - Photonic and electronic packaging - materials, processes, equipment and reliability
16 Mar 2026
13:30 - 17:30
Short Course Level
Advanced Beginner
Short Course Description
Error-control coding, the technique of adding redundancy in a controlled fashion to transmitted data so as to correct errors introduced by noise or other channel impairments, is a key component of modern optical communication systems. This course introduces basic concepts in coding and information theory: channel models and channel capacity (the Shannon limit), with an emphasis of optical channel characteristics important for FEC. Encoders and decoders (hard-decision and soft-decision), linear block codes, code rate and overhead, Hamming distance, net coding gain, generator matrices, parity-check matrices, and syndromes. Specific families and constructions of error-correcting codes will be described, including single parity check-, Reed-Muller-, Hamming-, Reed-Solomon-, and BCH codes. These basic concepts are then extended to more advanced product and product-like codes like the OFEC code used in recent optical transceivers. An overview over the FEC landscape in optical communication is provided. The course material is complemented by python code offering the participant hands-on experience in FEC analysis.
Short Course Benefits
Short Course Audience
-
Peter O'Brien
Tyndall, Ireland
Dr. Peter O’Brien obtained his PhD in Physics from University College Cork in 1999. He has a Masters in Electronic Engineering and Degree in Physics from Trinity College Dublin. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (Micro Devices Laboratory) where he worked on the development of millimetre wave devices for remote sensing applications. Dr O’Brien co-founded one (Biosensia) and founded a second company (Epi-Light). His second company, Epi-Light limited, developed speciality photonic systems for medical device and pharmaceutical applications. He successfully sold the company in 2009 and returned to the Tyndall National Institute to establish a research activity in advanced photonic packaging. Dr O’Brien is now head of the Photonics Packaging Group and is involved in a wide range of both academic and industry research projects, across the telecoms and medical device sectors. Dr. O’Brien is also deputy director of the Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Photonic Integration Centre.