Dr Jim Tatum
Co-Founder and CEO
Dr. Tatum brings 22 years of proven expertise in the field of VCSELs with innovation, leadership, technology socialization and successful commercialization.
Prior to co-founding Dallas Quantum Devices, Dr. Tatum started at Honeywell in 1996 as a design engineer where he was instrumental in the development of the first commercial VCSELs. He led the design engineering team that introduced VCSELs at speeds up to 4.25Gbps using oxide isolation technology. He then transitioned to strategic marketing for several years where he led the development of many optical communications standards and drove the use of VCSELs into more diverse markets.
The Honeywell VCSEL group was acquired by Finisar in 2004, and in 2008 he took over the responsibility for development and productization of all VCSELs and SW Detectors at Finisar. Under his direction, Finisar has introduced VCSELs and detectors operating up to 28Gbps, single frequency VCSELs for atomic clock applications, and more recently high power 2D arrays used in gesture and facial recognition in consumer electronics. Many hundreds of millions of VCSELs have been shipped using design and manufacturing processes developed by his team.
Dr. Tatum received his PhD in electrical engineering for the University of Texas at Dallas in 1995 and has authored many technical papers and application notes and holds more than 50 patents.
Dr. Luke Graham
Co-Founder and CTO
Dr. Graham brings 20 years of expertize in VCSEL design and is well recognized in the industry for his skills and demonstrated success.
Dr. Graham earned BS in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 1990 and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999. His thesis work at UT Austin was on enhanced spontaneous emission in quantum oxide aperture micro-cavity structures.
Prior to co-founding Dallas Quantum Devices in 1999, Dr. Graham joined VCSEL startup Picolight in Boulder, Colorado where he drove the development of 10Gbps 850nm communications VCSELs and parallel optical module design. He then led a team of epitaxy and process engineers as Director of Technology in the development of 1300nm VCSELs and optical subassemblies. Dr. Graham joined Finisar in 2010. As Staff Engineer at Finisar he was instrumental in the design and commercialization of high reliability InGaAs VCSELs for 14Gbps and 28Gbps. Dr. Graham was the lead designer on 2D VCSEL arrays for high power consumer electronics applications like 3D sensing and LiDAR. His work on VCSEL design and characterization was instrumental in bringing Finisar to a leadership position in high power VCSEL array space.
Dr. Graham holds several key patents in VCSEL design, has been author of many technical papers, and currently serves as committee chair in the VCSEL section at SPIE.
Pritha Khurana
Co-Founder and COO
Pritha brings 20 years of marketing and business leadership experience with proven success in technology socialization and driving profitable growth in diverse markets.
She joined Honeywell in 1998 as a VCSEL Application Engineer where she was instrumental in securing design wins for Honeywell VCELs in Datacom and sensor applications. She was part of the team that created the business plan and strategy for future growth in new markets resulting in the purchase of the Honeywell division by Finisar in 2004. In the early years at Finisar she transitioned to marketing and profitably grew the VCSEL product line by developing and maintaining relationships with customers that were also Finisar module competitors.
Ms. Khurana then channeled her focus and energy in the development of a new business and market segment for Finisar. She engaged directly with strategic global customers, “selling” them on the Finisar value proposition and promoting the proliferation of VCSEL technology in 3D sensing, facial recognition, LiDAR, gesture recognition and other similar applications. Ms. Khurana has evangelized the use of VCSELs in consumer and automotive applications through technical workshops overcoming concerns about the use of LASERs in these new applications. She is well known to the technical and sourcing community worldwide in the 3D sensing industry and was instrumental in the business negotiation and successful design win with a major consumer electronics manufacturer. This design win resulted in a strategic shift and transformation of Finisar.
Ms. Khurana received a Master’s in Electrical Engineering in Photonics from McGill University in 1998.