The Device Research Laboratory (LPD) was founded in 1972 by José Ellis Ripper Filho, a newcomer from Bell Laboratories in the USA. The initial objective of the group was to research the lasers demanded for optical fiber communication in Brazil.
The appearance of the group is inwardly related with the Brazilian government projects about the implementation of a national communication system. Until 1960, the telecommunication market was deeply fragmented, with dozens of small and big companies, national and international. This was a barrier to the national integration projects as well as to the projects involving military government centralization, which took control after the 1964's coup. One of the strategic areas elected by the regime was the integration of the country by means of telecommunications. To achieve this, Embratel was created in 1965 and, in 1972, Telebrás — which then passed to control Embratel itself and the state operators.
In the meantime, semiconductor research was started at IFGW. The trio Ripper, Rogério Cerqueira Leite, and Sérgio Porto, who arrived at Unicamp between 1970 and 1972 (they had all worked at Bell Laboratories — the same lab where the lasers had been improved to the point where they could be used in optical communications), gave a big impulse to solid state physics research at the institute. A program in this area, constituted by three lines of research, was defined: (1) the fabrication of the devices themselves (lasers, transistors, diodes); (2) the study of the basic processes required for device construction (crystal production and derivatives); and (3) the study of the basic physics required (Solid State Physics).
The Solid State Department of IFGW was then founded (currently known as Condensed Matter). Soon after, the Applied Physics Department was founded under the direction of Ripper. For the devices section, Ripper and the Indian physicist Navin Patel founded in 1971 the Research Group of Semiconductor Devices at the Applied Physics Department — afterwards called the Device Research Laboratory.
Telebrás also planned to invest in the development of research involving the formation of a Brazilian industrial park in this area. Knowing about this intention, Ripper got in touch with the company in 1972. From this point on, they started to implement several covenants between the company and Unicamp. One of these was the Project of Communication System by Lasers, coordinated by Ripper. The lasers would be developed by the Group of Semiconductor Devices.
At the same period, Ripper and Sérgio Porto suggested a project to develop optical fibers in Brazil. It was a cutting-edge idea: only two years before, researchers in the United States had reached the necessary degree of improvement of optical fibers and lasers to enable the construction of optical communication systems; and the first optical system of this kind would be installed in the USA in 1978.
Telebrás accepted to finance the project and, in January 1974, a new contract was signed between the company and Unicamp, which included, in the Project of Communication System by Lasers, a sub-project of Optical Fibers, that would be manufactured by the Optical Fibers Group, and then by the Group of Ultrafast Phenomena and Optical Communication (GFURCO). The lasers would continue to be manufactured by the Group of Semiconductor Devices. Moreover, some groups from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Unicamp were involved as well.
The objective was to develop the technology to manufacture optical fibers, lasers, and devices and then transfer it to the national industry. For the transfer, Telebrás founded the Research Center for Development and Telecommunications (CPqD), in Campinas. This center would focus on studies for direct industrial application, while the Unicamp groups would take care of the more academic preliminary stage. Later, in 1981, members of LPD, LED (Laboratory of Electronics and Devices), and MGE (Laboratory of Electronic Degree Materials) — these from the former Faculty of Engineering of Campinas — formed the Center of Semiconductor Components (CCS), at the same university.
In 1980, the technology transfer process to companies was completed, with the contract between Telebrás and ABC-Xtal in 1983 for the manufacture of optical fibers. In 1989, Ripper founded, alongside Francisco Prince, the company AsGa, whose initial objective was to fabricate optoelectronic components.
As of the early 1990s, CPqD began to gradually leave research on optical communications. The government's model for communications development underwent a change that was completed in 1998, when Telebrás was privatized. At this point, CPqD completely abandoned research on optical fibers, lasers, and microelectronics and began to invest only in communications systems per se.
The interactions with companies and other institutions continued, however, like in the case of Mectron, AsGa, Padtec, the Center of Semiconductor Components, and the Brazilian Army (for which an infrared sensor was developed).
The IFGW groups involved with optical communication then diversified their research lines, with a more academic profile, yet always articulating basic research with applied research. Optoelectronics and photonic devices for several applications continued to be researched; new research areas involving optomechanics, integrated photonics, silicon photonics, and nanolasers became the main research themes of the laboratory.
During its existence, LPD has had 7 coordinators:
The section about the group history was based, mostly, on the booklet "The beginnings of the optical communications in Brazil (1964–1984)", written by Verónica Savignano, whose research was done in collaboration with Eliane Valente, Ludmila Maia, and Simone Telles; it was part of the commemorative event about the 30 years of the first Brazilian optical fiber, in 2007, at Unicamp.