This workshop will focus on providing practical information regarding the design considerations, material choices, and manufacturing processes needed to create Photonic Integrated Circuits. Special attention is given to Multi Project Wafers (MPW) in combination with Process Design Kits (PDK), since these have proven to significantly lower the cost and barrier to entry for PICs.
Integrated Photonics covers the generation, transportation, processing . and detection of light signals at chip scale sizes. Designing photonic integrated circuits leverages existing semiconductor processing infrastructure, providing huge gains in reliability, scalability, performance and power. However, for many companies, large and small, design and fabrication of PICs is not a straight forward path because of initial cost consideration and wide range of material systems and foundries to choose from such as InP, Silicon, or TriPleX.
The aim of this workshop is to bring together all MPW brokering organizations along with EDA tools, photonic design tools, design services, and packaging. This will provide the audience with a good overall picture of the state‐of‐art in PICs as well as how you can take advantage of the existing suppliers.
Zip file of all Workshop presentations: (zip)
Professor Meint Smit, COBRA – TU Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Meint K. Smit graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1974 and received his Ph.D. in 1991, both with honours. He started research in Integrated Optics in 1981. He invented the Arrayed Waveguide Grating, for which he received a LEOS Technical Achievement Award in 1997 and he was closely involved in the development of the MMI-coupler. Since 2000 he is the leader of the Photonic Integration group at the COBRA Research Institute of TU Eindhoven. His current research interests are in InP-based Photonic Integration, including integration of InP circuitry on Silicon. Meint Smit is a LEOS Fellow.
Wim Bogaerts is professor in Silicon Photonics at Ghent University and IMEC. During his PhD research in 1998-2004, he started the silicon photonics developments in IMEC. Based on this technology, he set up the first multi-project wafer services for silicon photonics, which in 2006 became ePIXfab. His current research focuses on design challenges for VLSI photonic. Wim Bogaerts is a member of IEEE Photonics Society, The OSA and SPIE.
(https://www.epixfab.eu/)
Michael Hochberg, Director, OpSIS received his BS (Physics, 2002), his MS (Applied Physics, 2005) and his PhD (Applied Physics, 2006) from Caltech, and was awarded the Demetriades-Tsafka dissertation Prize in Nanotechnology as well as a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. As an undergraduate he received a merit-based fellowship from Caltech and he co-founded two companies: Simulant and Luxtera. In 2007, he joined the faculty at the University of Washington where he received an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigators Program award, as well as a 2009 Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE). He is currently an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware, and has joined the faculty in a joint position at the National University of Singapore, with an attachment at the Institute for Microelectronics, A*Star. He currently directs the OpSIS effort at the University of Delaware. His work has been funded by Intel, AFOSR, DARPA, NSF, and Mentor Graphics, as well as numerous other companies and government agencies. His lab groups at UD and NUS have now produced multiple early-stage spinoff companies. (https://opsisfoundry.org)
Katarzyna Ławniczuk, Coordinator of JePPIX. Katarzyna Ławniczuk graduate pixfabd from Warsaw University of Technology in June 2007 with a MSc. in Electronics and Computer Engineering. In September 2009 she began combined PhD studies at Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, and at Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, as a result of a joint doctoral programme. Her research was focused on Indium Phosphide-based multiwavelength lasers and photonic integrated transmitters for application in optical access networks and fast interconnects. She was awarded for her work at international conferences, and in 2012 she received the Dutch Netelcom Award for the most innovative scientific contribution of a PhD student to the field of communication technology. From November 2013 she is a coordinator of JePPIX at the Photonic Integration group at the COBRA Research Institute of TU Eindhoven. (https://www.jeppix.eu)
Arne Leinse, Project-/account manager Vice President, LioniX, received a M.Sc. degree from the University of Twente in the integrated Optical Microsystems group in 2001. In this same group he started his PhD work on the topic of active micro-ring resonators for various optical applications. His PhD work was carried out in the framework of a European project (IST 2000-28018 “Next generation Active Integrated optic Sub-systems”) and his thesis was titled: ‘Polymeric micro-ring resonator based electro-optic modulator’. In 2005 he joined LioniX BV where he was involved in the invention and development of the TriPleX™ platform from the beginning. He has been involved from the original concept until the exploitation. He is now as a project-/account manager involved in a variety of integrated optical projects and involved in the strategic roadmap of the technology and LioniX. (https://www.lionixbv.nl)
Twan Korhorst as the CEO of PhoeniX Software Twan Korthorst looks back on an active career in the field of micro and nano technology. During the final stage of his Masters in Electrical Engineering at the University of Twente, he co-founded the Microflown Team, developing world’s first particle velocity microphone. In 1996 he started as product engineer at Twente Microproducts (TMP). A milestone was the step of being in charge as the quality manager for the first implementation of ISO 9001 at a MEMS corporation within Europe. After the acquisition of TMP by Kymata, a Scottish based data communications solutions provider based on integrated optics, he occupied the post of Director Operations at Kymata Netherlands (later Alcatel Optronics Netherlands). After his position as Manager Operations at DEMCON Advanced Mechatronics, Twan joined PhoeniX Software in August 2007. (https://www.phoenixbv.com)
John Ferguson, Director of Marketing for Calibre DRC Applications at Mentor Graphics in Wilsonville, Oregon. He received a BS degree in Physics from McGill University in 1991, an MS in Applied Physics from the University of Massachusetts in 1993, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology in 2000. John has worked extensively in the area of physical design verification for manufacturing of leading edge integrated circuits. (https://www.mentor.com)
Chris Cone has been doing Technical Marketing in Mentor Graphic’s Custom IC Design group for over 8 years. Prior to joining Mentor, Chris did full custom design work on ICs adhering to a number of physical interface standards including USB, 1394 and Spacewire(LVDS). Chris Cone earned his BSEE and MSEE with emphasis in microelectronics design at the University of New Mexico. (https://www.mentor.com)
Kevin Nesmith, Chief Architect of the engineering team at Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2). Kevin graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1995. He has been a professional programmer for 19 years in the semiconductor and financial industries. Over the last 10 years with Si2, he has been involved with many industry efforts. Currently, he personally leads the Si2 oaDebugging Suite for OpenAccess, the extension of OpenAccess into the future with a fully integrated optoelectronic schema for the Silicon Photonics Technical Advisory Board (SPTAB), and the working group charged with translating the Open Process Specification into the OpenAccess Technology Database for the OpenPDK Coalition. He is also actively involved in many other working groups at Si2. (https://www.si2.org)
Iñigo Artundo is Chief Executive Officer of VLC Photonics, He obtained the M.Sc. in Telecom Engineering at the Universidad Publica de Navarra (Pamplona, Spain) in 2005, and received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics and Photonics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium) in 2009. He has been involved in several national and European research projects and networks of excellence focused on reconfigurable optical interconnects, the design, fabrication and characterization of micro-optic devices, and on flexible access and in-building fiber network architectures. He has worked as a reviewer for several scientific journals and national funding agencies. He holds specializations in Business Financing, Commercial Management and Research, and Strategic Marketing. He is a member of IEEE, SPIE and COIT. (https://vlcphotonics.com)
Ronald Broeke received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, on the design, fabrication and characterization of photonics integrated circuits (PIC) for WDM networks. He continued his research at the University of California at Davis on applications like optical cdma and arbitrary waveform generation. This was followed by several years at ASML, engaging in hands-on project management and business intelligence systems. He decided to combine his experiences and founded Bright Photonics B.V. – a PIC design house – to join photonics as the key enabling technology for innovation in this decade. In this light, he takes part in the main European projects that lay the foundation for the foundry model for photonic ICs, such has EuroPIC and PARADIGM, and photonics in data centers, PHOXTROT. (https://www.brightphotonics.eu/)
Eric Bernier, Leader of Advanced Photonics at Huawei Technologies, Canada. Eric is the team Leader for the Advanced Photonic Systems Group at Huawei Canada. Eric is responsible for exploring new and innovative photonic technology areas for Huawei. His portfolio includes all sectors of telecommunications such as: Optical transport network, Datacenter technologies, and radio application. Prior to Huawei, Eric held the position of CTO at CANARIE, the Canadian Advanced Network, and Technology Advisor at Nortel Networks. Eric has a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University. (https://www.huawei.com/en/)
Pim Kat, CEO Technobis Group BV, the Netherlands. Pim Kat started the company Technobis in 1996 after a successful career as a designer and researcher in automotive and steel industry.
In 2005 he founded the company Technobis Fibre Technologies (TFT-FOS) and Technobis Group. Technobis was called Technobis Mechatronics from that time on. The companies develop and produce high end equipment and instruments for various demanding markets like medical equipment, pharmaceutical instruments, automotive testing, aerospace and semiconductor industry.
After developing the state-of-the-art Fibre Bragg Grating interrogator on a free space optics basis TFT-FOS joined the Jeppix-Paradigm program and started to experiment with ASPIC designs for FBG sensing solutions.
This resulted in diverse ASPICS for various fields of use mostly based on InP but also making use of SOI and TriPlex technology.
At this moment developments on ASPICS are executed in the field of nano-strain sensing, impact detection, damage detection in composites, shape reconstruction, Eigen mode monitoring.
As packagers for industrial series of ASPOCS are hard to find Technobis Group started to develop and produce their own packaging solutions for the ASPICS and is setting up a packaging facility.
We filled 7 patents for on-chip solutions with integrated optics in 2013. (https://www.technobis-fibre-technologies.nl/)
Dr. Paul A. Morton,a Founder, C.E.O and C.T.O. of Morton Photonics Inc., a photonic component and sub-systems developer focused on RF Photonics for DoD and commercial markets. Dr. Morton has made significant research and industrial contributions in the field of optical components and systems. As a researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories he made fundamental research contributions in the areas of high-speed laser diodes, mode-locked optical pulse-sources and photonic integration, including setting records for high bandwidth telecom lasers. At CIENA corporation, a pioneer in DWDM communication systems, Dr. Morton was a technical leader in the development of ground-breaking commercial high capacity DWDM transmission systems. He was instrumental in introducing new transmitter technologies into CIENAs optical networking products in his role as Director of Active Photonic Components. Later, as a Technology Director in the office of the CTO, he worked on reconfigurable optical core and metro networks.
In 2002, Dr Morton co-founded Morton Photonics (www.mortonphotonics.com), a technology company focused on research and development of photonic technologies at the device and system level. He has supported a number of major photonic component and system companies in technical, marketing and management roles. In recent years Dr Morton has focused on developing photonic components and subsystems for DoD and commercial applications of high performance analog RF Photonic links, and time delay for phased array systems. He has utilized silicon photonics to develop state of the art true-time-delay devices and linearized modulators, planning to integrate these with versions of Morton Photonics Ultra-Low-Noise lasers into complete silicon photonics system-on-a-chip (SOC).
Dr. Morton received his BSc, MEng and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bath in England. He carried out postdoctoral research at the University of California, Santa Barbara before moving to Bell Labs. In 2005 Dr Morton became a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, for ‘fundamental contributions to high-speed optical transmitters and implementationinto DWDM transmission systems’ and in 2011 he became a Fellow of the IEEE for ‘contributions to optical transmitters’. He has authored or co-authored over 100 technical papers and presentations in major international technical journals and conferences. He is the author of two book chapters and holder of 6 patents. (https://mortonphotonics.com)
Martin Guy, Vice-President Product Management and CTO at TeraXion. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Guy worked at INO (Institut National d’Optique) as Head of Technology for the Optical Communications Group where he conducted R&D activities on passive components, optical amplifiers, and instrumentation for WDM communication systems. In April 2000, he co-founded TeraXion and acted as the V-P Product management and CTO. Dr. Guy holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Laval University in Quebec City. He is a member of IEEE, OSA, SPIE and Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ). He has worked in the field of photonics and optical communications for more than 20 years and has over 100 publications in international journals and conferences.Sponsor write-up TeraXion was founded in 2000 and has more than 160 employees, TeraXion’s core competencies are the heritage of more than 14 years of sustained innovation through the well-established FBG and laser frequency control technologies. Over the last years, TeraXion’s abilities to transform complex technologies into manufacturable high-technology products have been applied to Silicon Photonics (SiPh) and Indium Phosphide (InP) platforms. Next-generation 100 Gb/s and above transmitters and receivers with smaller dimensions, lower power consumption and improved performances are currently being developed using photonic integration technologies.(//https://www.teraxion.com/)
Bright Photonics B.V. is a design house for photonic integrated circuits (PICs), also referred to as systems on chip (SoC). Our mission is to make PICs accessible to (small) businesses, research institutes and universities in technologies as SoI, InP, Triplex, glass and polymers. Bright Photonics operates as an intermediate company between foundry services and product developers. We are the commercial design partner in the two largest active European projects in the field of integrated photonics. Our strategy is to be your gateway to photonic ICs from application idea to PIC, at the level where you need it: feasibility, layout, access to multi-project wafer runs and/or packaged prototypes. In addition to design services, Bright Photonics can support you with fab-ready design libraries for photonic components such as AWG multiplexers. These are also adaptable to your custom process and needs. Contact Bright Photonics and find out what PICs can do for your product or research. (https://www.brightphotonics.eu/)
ePixFab is a European alliance bringing silicon photonics closer to reality. ePIXfab offers multi project wafer runs on advanced photonic IC technologies, optical and electrical packaging and package design, and training. Chip technologies include standardized 220nm SOI based platforms with waveguide devices, modulators and photodiodes supporting 25G type applications at 1550nm and 1310nm, as well as a 3um SOI technology for lower birefringence and easier packaging. For offering these technologies, ePIXfab works with service organizations including Europractice, CMC and MOSIS. Training for designers is run every 6 months, and a special program supports European companies from feasibility studies to proof-of-concept and prototype implementations. (https://www.epixfab.eu)
JePPIX is a broker that helps organizations around the globe to get access to advanced fabrication processes for Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). JePPIX aims at low-cost development of application specific PICs using a generic foundry model and rapid prototyping via industrial Multi-Project Wafer runs. The generic approach allows a variety of PICs to be realized using the same standardized processes. JePPIX closely collaborates with Europe’s key players in the field of photonic integration, including manufacturing and packaging partners, photonic CAD software partners, R&D labs and photonic IC design houses. With JePPIX you can get access to the Indium Phosphide (InP)-based monolithic integration platforms of Oclaro, Fraunhofer HHI and SMART Photonics and the low-loss dielectric TriPleX waveguide technology of LioniX. JePPIX is hosted by the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. For more information visit our website: (https://www.jeppix.eu)
LioniX is a leading provider in development and small to high volume production of leveraging and innovative products based on micro/nano system technology (MNT) and MEMS. Our core technologies are integrated optics and micro-fluidics. Our customers operate in telecom, industrial process control, life sciences and space markets and include OEM’s, multinationals, VC start-up companies as well as research institutions from around the world. LioniX offers design to manufacturing and horizontal integration by partnering with MEMS/MST foundries and suppliers of complementary technologies, such as in (food) biotech/genomics, chemistry/pharmaceuticals and water technology. The combination of micro-fluidics and their integrated optics technology (TriPleX™) gives LioniX an unrivalled expertise in the emerging area of Lab-on-a-Chip. (https://www.lionixbv.nl)
OpSIS – Optoelectronic Systems Integration in Silicon is a non-profit Silicon Photonics foundry access and state-of-the-art PDK MPW design service operated by the University of Delaware, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. We provide the latest high-performance silicon photonics cells and design tools, and enable our users with affordable access to fabrication. Our mission is to advance the state-of-the-art in the silicon photonics community by removing the technical and financial roadblocks that make it hard to design and build high-performance silicon photonics chips and systems. In support of that goal, we provide the following services: OpSIS makes silicon photonics device prototyping affordable by enabling users to share fabrication costs in a technique known as Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) shuttle runs, reducing the otherwise prohibitively expensive fabrication cost by as much as 10x. Users pay a greatly reduced fee to purchase a portion of an integrated photonics mask set, and receive a set of diced chips in return, allowing them to rapidly and cost effectively prototype new design ideas and systems, as evidenced by our more 50 active subscribers over our last 4 MPW runs. OpSIS provides our advanced Process Design Kit (PDK) with some of the world’s highest performance active, passive and thermal photonic devices. It includes tools for layout generation, and DRC error correction. We enable affordable, global access to design and prototyping of silicon photonic (SiP) IC’s for engineers and researchers from Industry, Research and Academia. OpSIS hosts and supports the entire design and development environment on our Servers. OpSIS educates users in photonics device and system design. We have trained over 100 researchers and students at our 5-day intensive training workshops. OpSIS, along with our partners, provides an eco-system of service and equipment providers (design, simulation, fabrication, and packaging) for our users, simplifying the development & testing of silicon photonic device & system prototypes. Our industrial partners include: ; Chiral Photonics; Mentor Graphics; Lumerical; and Micronix USA Testing Platform. (https://opsisfoundry.org)
PhoeniX Software, Based on a history going back to 1991, provides an unique mask lay-out, process flow design and simulation environment for the integrated photonics marketplace. Headquartered in Enschede, the Nethearlands, PhoeniX Software supports customers around the globe through its subsidiaries and network of sales representatives to improve quality, reduce time to market and enhance research by offering unique and highly integrated software solutions, training and customer support. Customers are ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, universities and research institutes, active in integrated photonics, microfluidics, MEMS, printed electronics and other micro and nano technologies. Furthermore PhoeniX Software is supporting Multi Project Wafer runs at various foundries with dedicated PDKs for TriPleX, InP and silicon photonics. (https://www.phoenixbv.com)
Mentor Graphics – Building an EDA Environment for Silicon Photonics: Silicon photonics has a huge potential for signal processing applications ranging from communications to biosensors and opto-MEMS devices. However, the expansion of available photonic components is currently limited by the large amount of engineering effort required to accurately design known reliable components in a system. Mentor Graphics, a leading supplier in the Electronics Design Automation industry, is working to extend the tools and best practices that have enabled the rapid design of high-volume CMOS application-specific integrated circuits to the silicon photonics design community. In this session, we will provide a brief overview of the solutions available and future roadmap in this area. (https://www.mentor.com)
Si2 is the largest organization of industry-leading semiconductor, systems, EDA and manufacturing companies focused on the development and adoption of standards to improve the way integrated circuits are designed and manufactured, in order to speed time-to market, reduce costs, and meet the challenges of sub-micron design. Now in its 25th year, Si2 is uniquely positioned to enable timely collaboration through dedicated staff and a strong implementation focus driven by its member companies. Si2 represents over 100 companies involved in all parts of the silicon supply chain throughout the world. (https://www.si2.org)
VLC Photonics was born as a spin-off company from the Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications Institute (iTEAM) located at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain), where we developed our work in optical systems, photonic signal processing and photonic integrated circuits for more than 20 years. The company is devoted to the design and fabless manufacture of custom photonic integrated circuits, that would allow anyone to access theg advantages of photonic integration without the need of a deep expertise and investment in the field. (https://vlcphotonics.com)
PIC ARCHIVE
For more info, please check out the archived earlier photonic integration events. Material for these events has been posted and is available on request.