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Non-uniform programmable integrated photonic waveguide meshes

Project description

Uniform 2D programmable photonic waveguide mesh

Photonics technologies and optical hardware are essential to a wide range of applications, from sensors and observatories to telecommunications and digital technologies. This has made their development and research highly promising and sought after by multiple industries and research fields. The ERC-funded NU-MESH project will address the limitations and challenges in developing and validating field-programmable photonic gate array (FPPGA) technology. The project will focus on developing and improving the uniform, 2D programmable photonic waveguide mesh processor core. It will explore technologies and methodologies to overcome the mesh’s limited flexibility and solve spectral periodicity limitations through defect cells.

Objective

Programmable integrated photonics (PIP) is an emerging new paradigm that aims at designing common integrated optical hardware resource configurations, capable of implementing an unconstrained variety of functionalities by suitable programming. The work carried out within the Advanced Grant ERC-ADG-2016-741415 UMWPCHIP of which I was the Principal Investigator, allowed me to lay the foundation for the first technical stages of a novel revolutionary concept, the Field Programmable Photonic Gate Array (FPPGA), developed in the context of a Proof-of-concept Grant ERC-POC-2019-859927-FPPAs. Currently, the core of the processor is a uniform 2D
programmable photonic waveguide mesh, formed by replicating hexagonal unit cells. This layout suffers from limited flexibility in the spectral period and sampling time values. The challenge is to develop and demonstrate solutions that overcome these limitations and which can be easily incorporated into existing mesh designs.
In NP-Mesh I aim to demonstrate and validate the concept of non-periodic programmable photonic integrated waveguide meshes formed by embedding defect cells into the otherwise uniform 2D hexagonal mesh. Including defect cells solves the problem of spectral period limitation through the exploitation of the Vernier effect as well as the as the sampling time resolution limitation of the uniform waveguide mesh.
My working roadmap will include: 1) carrying out the required research activities linked to the development of the proposed technical concepts, 2) validating them through outsourced chip fabrication in an external foundry followed by measurement and characterization experiments carried out in my lab at UPV, 3) generating the new intellectual property rights (IPRs) for the new results via patent writing and application and transferring the new IPR to the spinoff company iPronics, which I co-founded three years ago with the help of ERC-POC-2019-859927-FPPAs.

Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-POC

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Host institution

UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 150 000,00
Address
CAMINO DE VERA SN EDIFICIO 3A
46022 VALENCIA
Spain

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Region
Este Comunitat Valenciana Valencia/València
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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Beneficiaries (1)

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