European Network of Excellence on Photonic Integrated Components and Circuits

Project Information

ePIXnet

Grant agreement ID: 004525

Closed project

Start date 1 September 2004

End date 28 February 2009

Funded under

• Information Society Technologies: thematic priority under the specific programme "Integrating and strengthening the European research area" (2002-2006).

Total cost € 0,00

EU contribution € 6 000 000,00

Coordinated by

INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO-ELECTRONICA CENTRUM VZW
Belgium

Exploitable results

Restructuring of Europe’s photonic integration research community

The main mission of the ePIXnet Network of Excellence has been the restructuring of Europe’s Photonic Integration research community from a model of independent research to a model of integrated research based on sharing of expensive and unique technological infrastructure and knowhow. ePIXnet has been very successful in setting up Technology Platforms that offer shared access to unique and expensive integration and packaging technologies (foundry approach), and to advanced measurement and cluster computing facilities. And it has led to state-of-the-art research achievements in a broad range of Joint Research Activities. These were supported by a large scale Researcher Exchange and Doctoral School program, thereby building a skilled and networked community of researchers in the field of photonic integration. The ePIXnet approach has gained broad international visibility and Europe is presently considered as leading the global development toward foundry-based R&D in photonics. The integration of complex or high performance photonic functions will become the key enabler for a cost-effective and ubiquitous deployment of photonics in a wide range of applications, including ICT, sensors and biomedical applications. The technologies needed for photonic integrated components and circuits are characterised by high investment and exploitation cost, however. This calls for more integration of research at an international level, whereby a large number of distributed research actors can contribute to top-level research by relying on complementary facilities and skills of other research actors. The mission of ePIXnet was three-fold. The first - and main - objective was to stimulate the restructuring of the photonic integration research community from a model of independent or collaborative research towards a model of integrated research. It is the ambition of the network to have a strong and durable impact - beyond the duration of the contract - on the quality and quantity of research in integrated photonics through a well organized structural access to the infrastructure and know how of other research actors. The second was to stimulate training activities as well as integration of educational programs. The third objective is to stimulate new opportunities for photonic integration in a wide range of application domains. While the mission of the network relates more to structuring of the research community than to the research output as such, this structuring can only become real in the actual research and its progress is, at least in part, monitored by means of the research achievements. These research activities cover five major interdependent themes, from basic enabling technologies to advanced applications. The scope of the network was focussed on those activities in which photonic integration technologies play a key role in advancing component and system performance. These five themes are briefly described here after. Theme 1 Towards technologies for photonic (very) large scale integration This theme dealt with the core technologies behind photonic integration, including monolithic integration, wafer-scale heterogeneous integration and die-level hybrid integration. Only few labs have a complete range of state-of-the-art technologies for photonic integrated components and the same holds for special technologies such as wafer bonding. Both factors called for integration of research. Theme 2 Nanophotonics for advanced integration schemes Theme 2 focused on wavelength-scale structures with high-index contrast, such as photonic crystal and photonic wire structures as well as microcavities. These nanophotonic structures hold great promise for ultra-compact circuits and new functionalities. However the technologies for nanophotonics require nanometer-scale accuracy and are not widely available. This called for integration of research. Theme 3 Advanced materials for photonic integration New materials, such as quantum-dot materials and self-organised semiconductors, are of key importance in a variety of components with high performance. The demanding technologies needed for research on those materials are the focus of this theme. As in theme 1 and 2 the complexity and cost of those technologies were the key motivation for integration of research. Theme 4 Integrated and integratable light sources Many photonic systems depend critically on a high performance light source: an ultra-short pulse source or a wavelength tuneable source or a single photon source etc. In many cases high performance is achieved by means of integration of sub-components. In other cases the source needed to be integrated with other elements of the system. Integration of research in this field is motivated by the fact that the know-how and/or infrastructure needed to advance this field often surpasses the capabilities of one group. The characterisation – for example - of some of these light sources required very complex measurement set-ups. Theme 5 Ultra-wide band photonic signal processing The last theme dealt with components and circuits for photonic signal processing, including ultra-fast digital optical logic, signal regeneration and conversion and all-optical routing and switching. As in theme 4 the progress in this field called for integration of a variety of capabilities, certainly in those cases where a rather unique technology or characterisation facility was needed.