Welcome! I'm Aitor.
But here I go by
because chip layout can sometimes become art.
Welcome! I'm Aitor.
because chip layout can sometimes become art.
(About Me)
I design photonic integrated circuits — miniaturised optical systems etched onto silicon chips smaller than your thumbnail.
My journey started in telecommunications engineering, wound through a PhD at UPV on programmable photonic processors, and has taken me through industry roles spanning automated layout, AI-assisted design tools, and foundry tapeouts with some of the world's leading fabs.
Have you heard of Ikigai? It's a Japanese concept for one's "reason for being" — the sweet spot between what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. I'm still finding mine, but experience has given me some clear signposts:
All of these, without missing the most important thing to achieve happiness: when personal life and work are in honest balance.
(Career Journey & Education)
Industry
Placeholder — details coming soon.
Axiomatic_AI
Led the successful launch of PIC Designer, the company's first photonic integrated circuit design product. Collaborated with AI and software engineering teams (6 people, remote), defined the product roadmap alongside business development, and coordinated alpha and beta user-testing sessions. Prepared technical presentations delivered at international conferences and handled technical reporting to grant administrations.
Developed a comprehensive parametric circuit library of filter architectures using GDSFactory and SAX for the Cornerstone PDK, enabling integration with AI-driven photonic design tools. Also built a circuit layout benchmark to assess tool performance.
Developed a comprehensive testing pipeline for design layouts. Contributed to circuit tapeouts with three top-10 worldwide foundries, designing subsystems and collaborating on mask layout. Utilised OptoCompiler, IPKISS, and Lumerical for advanced photonic circuit design, simulation, and optimisation. Represented the company at industry events.
Led design of a Looker Studio dashboard monitoring radio-network energy consumption metrics using PySpark, BigQuery, PostgreSQL, and Apache Airflow. Contributed to a generative AI assistant on Microsoft Teams which retrieved information from internal databases. Simulated 5G object-localisation setups using MQTT and Pandas, and helped develop a geolocation algorithm using PostGIS.
Collaboration scholarship at the Department of Signals, Systems and Radiocommunication. Developed C++ software to autonomously pilot a DJI Phantom drone to land on specified landmarks identified via the OpenCV library.
Analysed throughput and power consumption of mobile devices across multiple countries using ANOVA tests. Facilitated bi-annual vendor meetings and compiled reports. Conducted laboratory experiments to evaluate and categorise device performance by vendor.
Academia
Member of the Photonics Research Labs (PRL) group at ITEAM. Research covered automated synthesis of optical filters on photonic waveguide meshes using machine learning and gradient-based optimisation. Published in Nature Communications (2020, 2024), Optics Express (2020), and Journal of Lightwave Technology (2022). Presented at CLEO 2020 and IEEE Photonics Conference 2022. Contributed to the layout of a general-purpose photonic processor — the foundation for a university start-up's first commercial product.
Sole instructor for a laboratory course for 25 second-year Physics students, covering mechanics, thermodynamics, and optics. Guided practical measurements, oversaw data collection, assisted with written reports, and provided mentorship — resulting in highly positive student feedback.
(Projects & Layouts)
A sample of my work — from raw GDSII geometry to electromagnetic field plots and the Python that generates them.
(Tech Stack & Tools)
The building blocks of my work — from simulation to tape-out.
(Side Projects & Hobbies)
Life outside the fab — because the best engineers bring the whole person to work.
Currently pushing my Polish and fascinated by Slavic morphology — it's a different kind of pattern recognition. German is next on the list.
Firmly in the "cooking is applied chemistry" camp. Sourdough, slow-fermented stocks, the occasional over-ambitious Spanish recipe. Reproducible results not guaranteed.
Because work reports are not always the most enjoyable tasks to handle, I became the proud author of a newly registered theater play. Click to learn more!
View more →Navigating life between different cultures has given me a genuine appreciation for diverse professional environments and unique ways of framing problems.
(Let's Connect!)
Whether you want to talk photonics, swap ideas, ask a question that feels too basic (there are none) or answer one from myself, or just grab a virtual coffee — my calendar is open. I'm equally happy to give and to receive advice :)
Opens Google Calendar — pick any free slot, no agenda required (but please, do not use it for spam!)