Technologies

Tech With Impact

The Qualcomm Institute’s strategic plan emphasizes the development of four core high-impact technologies—wireless, photonics, cyberinfrastructure, and nanotechnology—that enable progress in many other fields. UC San Diego holds a large number of records in the photonics and wireless research fields, largely based on experimental science carried out at QI. QI has also become known for its advanced visualization techniques and equipment.

Facilities

While some of QI’s work involves development of high-performance, data-intensive cyberinfrastructure across California, QI’s home base in Atkinson Hall fosters a hub of activity in cutting-edge laboratories where researchers advance their fields and QI affiliates tap the institute’s technology expertise and services.

Nanotechnology

QI’s Nano3 Nanofabrication Cleanroom Facility supports advanced research and development on a near-atomic scale, in which quantum effects become more pronounced and can be used to generate materials with special properties. Providing a cleanroom, microfluidics medical device fabrication and high-resolution microscopic imaging, the facility encourages interaction among researchers from different disciplines; in fact, the name Nano3 reflects its synergetic nature integrating nanoscience, nanoengineering (micro-electro-mechanical systems) and nanomedicine. The facility also provides a venue for nanotechnology workforce training, which is in high demand by the many companies using these technologies. QI’s Nano3 was crucial to the formation of the UC San Diego NanoEngineering Department and, more recently, a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center award.

Wireless

From Bluetooth to the Internet of Things and cell phones, wireless technologies continue to change our world. QI researchers build new wireless application code, networking protocols, algorithms and data processing solutions for phones and tablets, embedded (Linux), and software-defined radio. QI initiatives also include facilitating wireless access in underserved communities. The IT Systems for Telematics and Telemedicine at QI supports colleagues across UC San Diego and beyond with research and development of next-generation mobile applications.

Photonics

QI is also a leader in photonics, a field that emerged in the late 1960s that uses light to perform functions that had traditionally fallen to electronics. QI investigators are studying how photonics could benefit areas from telecommunications to environmental mapping and medicine. The Photonics Systems Laboratory contains an advanced 2,000-square-foot telecom-class space with high-capacity testbed that supports research on microlidar (a detection system that works like radar, but with light from a laser) and open inaccessible bands for sensing, imaging and signal processing. QI’s Chip-Scale Photonics Testing Facility supports research on energy-efficient, high-performance computers and data centers, as well as ultra-compact and cost-effective medical devices, implants and systems.

“The Photonic Systems Lab is unique in the nation and perhaps in the world in terms of its capabilities. It’s really important to have the appropriate equipment—lasers, amplifiers and so on—to make profound new discoveries.”

– NIKOLA ALIC, QI ACADEMIC RESEARCHER

QI Programs and Centers

Nano3

Science, engineering and medicine on a near-atomic scale. Learn more »

Circuits Lab

Design and testing of new wireless and mixed-signal (analog/digital) devices and systems. Learn more »

Photonics Systems Lab

Photonics research in an advanced 2,000-square-foot telecom-class space with high-capacity testbed. Learn more »

Information Theory and Applications Center

The study of information theory fundamentals and their relation to communications, computer- and life-sciences, finance, statistics, and related disciplines. Learn more »

People with large abstract images in background

Immersive Visualization Center

Propelling virtual reality and augmented reality into multiple areas of mainstream use. Learn more »

Grants

QI awards and sub-awards for work in QI core technologies.

Zhaowei Liu

National Science Foundation

MRI: Track # 2 Development of a high-speed super-resolution stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscope 9/15/2023 – 8/31/2028

Truong Nguyen

IT ONE CO., LTD.

3D Scene Reconstruction and Dual-Arm Robot Control for Teleoperated Construction 9/1/2023 – 8/31/2026

Riley Need

National Science Foukndation

ExLENT Beginnings: Experiential Semiconductor Training in Emerging Nano-Technologies 1/1/2026 – 12/31/2028

Yuhwa Lo

National Science Foundation via Southwestern Community College District

Southwestern College Micro-Nanotechnology Technical Education Certification Program 8/15/24 – 7/31/2027

Dinesh Bharadia