X-FAB Leads EU-funded Consortium to Industrialize the European Silicon Photonics Value Chain Jun 14, 2023
Their objective is to establish a European photonics device value chain and initial industrial manufacturing capabilities. Thus, providing a path to scalable high-volume manufacturing for innovative product developers.
A comprehensive set of photonics foundry and assembly capabilities will be covered by photonixFAB. These will include:
Industry-scale silicon photonics manufacturing services with low entry barriers and fast turnaround times for both low-loss SiN and SOI based PICs. Enablement of microtransfer printing and direct bonding technologies for InP, LNO and germanium based active and passive component heterogeneous integration on SiN and SOI based PIC platforms. Development of scalable packaging and testing solutions in alignment with the (heterogeneous) PIC platform developments. Process design kit based design automation enablement for the photonic platforms. As a part of the project, six demonstrators are being built to validate the implemented photonics value chains. These include applications such as datacom and optical switches, coherent optical transceiver, IR spectrometer for sensing, digital olfaction sensor for consumer healthcare and a health monitoring demonstrator.
A multitude of prospective opportunities for the cutting-edge photonic devices fabricated via the photonixFAB project have already been identified. Among them are data communication, telecoms, biomedical sensors/detectors, quantum computing and vehicle LiDAR.
“Seeing huge potential emerging there, traditional semiconductor vendors, OEMs and start-ups are all now exploring photonic-enabled applications,” states Rudi De Winter, CEO of X-FAB. “Consequently, this is the right time for companies to work together on building an extensive Europe-centric silicon photonics ecosystem that will help drive the continent’s competitiveness in this exciting new market.”