Roei Aviram Cohen, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO, Integrated Optics
Dr. Roei A. Cohen serves as CEO and leading scientist at Star Photonics.
He received his B. Sc. degree in Physics from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 2007. He continued his graduate studies at Tel Aviv University where he specialized in the field of electro-optic modulators in Silicon Photonics. He earned his M. Sc degree, Cum Laude, in Physics at 2011. In 2020, he received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at Tel Aviv University in collaboration with the Integrated Optics group of Prof. Shlomo Ruschin and Prof. Ofer Amrani. The research involved design, simulations, fabrication and characterization of passive filters and electro-optical modulators supporting RF operation in SOI platform.
​
Dr. Cohen has more than 13 years of experience in electromagnetic theory and charge-carriers mechanism in solid state. He developed and programmed, among others, the simulations software* Doctor Modes™, Lord PICS™ and Circuits King™ and in charge of designing and fabricating many structures of the Integrated Optics family. His fields of expertise include analysis, process-design and manufacture of electro-optic RF modulators and sensors comprised of MZI, ring resonator, and photonic crystal. In addition, he has also gained expertise in non-linear optics, in particular within Four-Wave Mixing, Quasi-Phase Matching and Cavity Resonances effects.
​
Dr. Cohen founded Star Photonics in 2020.
Selected Publications:
​
R. A. Cohen, O. Amrani, and S. Ruschin, "Improving the tolerances in high-performance silicon photonics modulators",
Optics Continuum 1, 934 (2022). [Link]
​
R. A. Cohen, O. Amrani, and S. Ruschin, "Response shaping with a silicon ring resonator via double injection",
​Nature Photonics 12, 706–712 (2018). [Link]
​
R. A. Cohen, O. Amrani, and S. Ruschin, "Linearized electro-optic racetrack modulator based on double injection method in silicon", Optics Express 23, 2252 (2015). [Link]
​
​
* The software were validated in practice within the work presented in the publications and successfully simulated and characterized the various ring resonators of the demonstrated optical circuits.
​
​
Sergey Kontorov, Ph.D.
Photonic Integrated Circuits R&D Expert
Dr. Sergey Kontorov serves as PIC expert at Star Photonics starting from 2023.
He received his first degree in Radio Electronics from MAI in 2009. He earned his M. Sc degree in Optical Communications and Signal Processing from UoB at 2013. He continued his graduate studies at MIREA where he specialized in the field of Integrated Microwave Photonics. In 2022, he received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering at MEPHi in microwave photonics. The research involved design, simulations, fabrication and characterization of fiber-optic and PIC microwave photonics receiver based on optical heterodyne technique.
​
Dr. Kontorov has more than 10 years of projects R&D and labs managing experience in fiber-optic and integrated low- and high-speed photonics. Dr. Kontorov has extensive background in building international (EU, US, Asia) PIC ecosystem (simulation-design-fabrication-testing-packaging) for industry-to-academic needs within various applications, including optical communication, microwave photonics, sensoric, quantum, computing and more. His fields of expertise include ASPIC flow based on various technological platforms such as InP, SOI, SiN and LNOI.
​
sergey.kontorov@star-photonics.com
​
Vincent Immer, Ms.C.
Photonic Integrated Circuits Consultant
Mr. Immer serves as a PIC consultant at Star Photonics since 2024.
He received his M. Sc. degree in Engineering from INSA Lyon University of Villeurbanne, French, in 1998. The thesis involved material sciences of semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing technologies.
​
He then worked for 13 years in an optical communication start-up and handled laser and detectors projects in InP and GaAs planforms. Among others, he also experienced in passive and active components such as switches and modulators in LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 architectures.
Mr. Immer also worked in KLA-Tencor for 5 years as a system design engineer and 6 years in TriEye as a semiconductor tech leader.
​