Case Summary:

“[The client’s] work on high negative dispersion waveguides is crucial for 5G-related applications of integrated photonic devices, including on-chip pulse compressors, dispersion compensators, and photonic filters. Given the importance of high-speed data communications technologies for maintaining America’s leading global position, [the client’s] electrical engineering research is highly valuable, and will become only increasingly so with time, making it readily apparent that his research aligns with national interests.”

“[The client], a pioneering researcher in the field of electrical engineering, has earned widespread acclaim for his achievements in waveguide design, which have enabled huge gains in photonic chip density… it is clear that he is conducting research in the top ranks of electrical engineering, and, by advancing progress in the design of integrated photonic circuits, he is providing the American technology sector with the innovations it relies on to ensure continued prosperity. He therefore ought to be given every opportunity to further pursue his research.”

A senior silicon photonics design engineer came to us from Bangladesh seeking help with his NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition. He provided us with his academic and professional documents along with 5 letters from recommending experts in the field. The 2 statements above are select passages taken from these letters to illustrate the value of our client’s work for the United States.

As an expert in the field of electrical engineering, our client’s proposed endeavor was to build on his expertise in subwavelength anisotropic and bianisotropic metamaterials and chip design, modeling, and characterization to design, develop, model, and fabricate cutting-edge photonics devices, employing high-density integration to render them smaller, more energy efficient, better performing, and cheaper. He wanted to develop support for optical communications, biochemical sensing, metrology, high-precision spectroscopy, and optical storage. His research was clearly of great importance because it provides the foundation for the replacement of copper wiring in electronic systems. This is particularly notable due to the fact the world’s supply of copper is dwindling, driving up the cost of electronics immensely.

He has devoted his career to designing, developing, modeling, and fabricating photonics devices, which rely upon silicon materials rather than copper. These materials allow for greatly improved capacity and efficiency in comparison to traditional copper materials. As such, his research provides an especially efficient, more powerful, and cheaper option for the foundations of renewable energy, data storage, medical devices, and an exceptional range of other contexts—an effort that is particularly important given projected global copper deficits. He has been working on this for the past 4 years already making him very knowledgeable and experienced.

On the other hand, due to its clear national importance, his research has been supported with funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. He has also completed at least 7 reviews to date and his research has resulted in 9 peer-reviewed journal articles (3 of them first-authored) and 8 peer-reviewed conference articles (5 of them first-authored). These publications have been cited a total of 93 times according to Google Scholar.

All of these factors weighed in on his case and proved his ability to continue the work he has undertaken, thus winning him the approval in just 3 months and 5 days. We are proud of having been a part of his success story.