Photonic Integrated Circuits Assembly and Packaging Pilot Line

Project Information

PIXAPP

Grant agreement ID: 731954

DOI

10.3030/731954

Project closed

EC signature date 3 November 2016

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 30 September 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 15 690 921,43

EU contribution

€ 13 407 812,76

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, CORK
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PIXAPP (Photonic Integrated Circuits Assembly and Packaging Pilot Line)

Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2021-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The PIXAPP Pilot Line has been established to address the bottleneck in packaging of integrated photonic devices and is the first of its kind in the world. PIXAPP combines 22 of Europe’s leading research organisations and industry partners to provide users with a complete packaging technology offering, from optical and electrical, to thermal and mechanical assembly and packaging technologies. PIXAPP is a distributed Pilot Line with a single point of contact for all users, called the Pilot Line Gateway.

A key feature of the PIXAPP Pilot Line is the organisation of its wide range of advanced photonic packaging technologies. Packaging of integrated photonic devices can be complex and presents great challenges to users, especially non-photonic experts. A unique feature of the PIXAPP Pilot Line is the development of packaging building blocks, where users can easily select the exact packaging technologies to suit their particular needs, essentially a ‘menu’ of packaging technologies. These technologies will

PIXAPP has three key objectives:

1) Offer users custom solutions through standard packaging technologies
2) Training and educating the future workforce
3) Link the PIC ecosystem through the development of packaging standards and roadmaps

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Although only established in January 2017, PIXAPP has become an internationally recognised brand, generating significant interest and providing a unique technology offering.

Significant achievements during this period (M19 - M36) include:

1) Expanding the consortium to include new technologies to the existing offers
2) Successful launch of the PIXAPP pre-commercial calls
3) Testing, re-design and fabrication of the Reference PICs
4) Assembly and packaging of the 4 technology demonstrators
5) Further engagement with user enquiries coming through the PIXAPP Gateway
6) Growing PIXAPP's photonic packaging training courses and workshops
7) Leading participant in technology roadmapping and design standards activities
8) Participation in numerous international high-profile promotional activities, including invited talks, sponsorship of workshops and exhibition booths, webinars and posters.
9) Preparation of a draft Pilot Line sustainability plan and discussions with regional governments to support Pilot Line sustainability after the (4 year) funded project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

PIXAPP is ambitious, generating significant progress beyond state-of-the-art, resulting in increased innovation potential. To achieve this, advances beyond the state-of-the-art is required across a number of areas. These include:


• State-of-the-Art in PIC Assembly & Packaging Foundry Service
• State-of-the-Art in PIC Assembly & Packaging Technologies
• State-of-the-Art in PIC Packaging Design Rules
• State-of-the-Art in Generic PIC Packages

PIXAPP will contribute greatly to enhancing the innovation potential for a wide group of stakeholders. The innovation potential of all consortium partners will be greatly enhanced by the project results. The industrial technology partners (Argotech, Cordon, LioniX, Chipshop, ficonTEC and PhoeniX) will be more easily able to expand their services, and partner with complementary technology specialists. The innovation potential of the application/end-user partners (Randox, Eblana, IIIV Labs and Technobis) will be enhanced by the availability of demonstrators for their business development efforts along with the strategic experience of using the Pilot Line – particularly its potential for additional new product development.

PIXAPP will deliver a unified Open Access Pilot Line for the Assembly and Packaging of PICs, unleashing the power of photonics across multiple sectors. PIXAPP is a significant step forward in covering missing links in the value chain, and greatly enhances Europe’s industrial competiveness and leadership in advanced photonic technologies. By making the packaging and assembly of advanced PICs accessible to both companies and commercialisation-oriented research users, PIXAPP will galvanise and propel the photonics innovation communities at the regional, national, and EU level, greatly increasing the rate of new product innovation in emerging markets.

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