The work carried within the Advanced Grant ERC-ADG-2016-741415 UMWPCHIP laid the foundations for the first technical stages of a novel revolutionary concept, the Field Programmable Photonic Gate Array (FPPGA). In essence, the FPPGA has a similar rationale as the FPGA in electronics: A common hardware is designed to provide several resources that can be employed to implement different functionalities by means of programming. However, the FPPA is different from the FPGA in the sense that it does not carry digital logic operations rather, it exploits optical interference to perform very high-speed analog operations acting over the phase and amplitudes of optical signals in a controlled environment provided by the chip's reduced footprint.
The demonstration of its innovation potential by taking the first steps towards its technical and commercial viability and subsequent launch of a spin-off company based on this concept were beyond the objectives of the ERC Advanced Grant and with that purpose an application to the ERC PoC call was presented and finally funded as ERC-PoC-2019-859927 Field Programmable Photonic Arrays (FPPAs).
The implementation of the FPPGA is just the first step of a multi-stage process leading to a fully functional device. Its complete implementation involves embedding the core in a hardware structure providing suitable input/output ports and high-performance blocks (HPBs), such as lasers, modulators, detectors, and the development of the required software to: a) automate and optimize its design, b) program the device operation and c) track and control its performance against undesired fluctuations and deviations in the bias settings. The overall aim of the ERC-PoC-2019-859927 FPPA project was to develop the critical first steps of this process, including: (i) the technical and commercial viability; (ii) development of IPR strategy; (iii) establishing connections for later stage funding; and (iv) covering the initial expenses and steps for establishing a spin-off company.
The project targeted outcomes were the following:
1. A first prototype fabricated in Silicon Photonics technology of a FPPA device including its core and several HPB elements and input/output ports.
2. The demonstration of the viability of the hardware concept by suitable experimental characterization
3. The development of a first generation of algorithms based on machine learning techniques to supervise and monitor the operation of FPPA devices.
4. The development of a first generation of open-source software and descriptive languages for the programming and the automated design of FPPAs.
5. The generation of corresponding IPR linked to points 1-4.
6. Launch a spin-off company, developing commercialization, capital attraction and alliance strategies
