Consortium

IMEC is a world-leading independent research centre in nano-electronics and nanotechnology. Its research focuses on the next generations of chips and systems, energy, electronics for healthcare and life sciences, sustainable wireless communication, imaging and future 3D visualization, and sensor systems for industrial applications. IMEC’s research bridges the gap between fundamental research at universities and technology development in industry. Its unique balance of processing and system know-how, intellectual property portfolio, state-of-the-art infrastructure with fully equipped 300 mm and 200 mm process lines and its strong network worldwide position IMEC as a key partner for shaping technologies for future systems.

The Photonics Research Group at imec-Ghent is specialized in photonic integration and more specifically in silicon photonics. With 8 professors (of which 5 ERC grantees) and about 90 researchers the group works on new device concepts and technologies, new system architectures and design methodologies, new application domains and proof-of-concept demonstrations, all building on the capabilities of silicon photonics. This encompasses not only telecom and datacom applications at 1.3 and 1.55 micrometre but also sensor and biomedical applications spanning a wavelength range from the visible to the mid infrared. With respect to technology the group builds on the silicon and silicon nitride photonics platforms developed by imec (iSiPP50G, BioPIX) as well as on heterogeneous integration approaches, e.g. based on transfer printing, in its own clean room facilities at Ghent University. The group has an involvement in various European projects, including for example FP7-SWIFT, H2020-PIXAPP and FP7-Plat4M.

The Silicon Photonics Team is responsible for the development and application of imec’s world-class implementation of a full silicon photonics platform in a CMOS compatible environment on 200mm and 300mm wafers. The team has generated state-of-the-art demonstrations of optical transmitters and receivers, and has been involved in several European projects, including H2020-TERABOARD, FP7-SOFI  and  FP7-Plat4M.

The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is one of the two Swiss Federal Polytechnical Schools. A multi-cultural institution at the cutting edge of science and technology, EPFL fosters innovation and excellence. (http://www.epfl.ch). EPFL has a unique organisation that stimulates interdisciplinary research
and fosters partnerships with other institutions and companies, with both theoretical and applied research being carried out. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is a higher education and research organisation with about 4’500 employees, 10’000 students, and a total annual budget of approximately 800 million Euros. EPFL has participated and is currently taking part in a very large number of EU projects and initiatives, in a wide variety of scientific and technological field.
With more than 330 laboratories and research groups on campus, EPFL is one of the Europe’s most innovative and productive technology institutes and is also renowned for the quality of its teaching and training programs.

KTH Royal Institute of Technology is Sweden’s largest technical university. KTH education and research covers a broad spectrum – from natural sciences to all branches of engineering. There are 12 400 full year-equivalent undergraduate students, over 1 900 active research students and 5 100 full time-equivalent
employees. KTH is involved in more than 200 ongoing EU projects, of which more than 50 are coordinated by KTH. Extensive support and competence exists at KTH for EU project participation and coordination.

KTH Micro and Nanosystems (KTH-MST) employs 36 senior and graduate researchers with a research focus
on Micro- and Nanoelectromechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS). KTH-MST has five general fields of research: optical systems, telecom and remote-sensing THz technology, bio-micro-nanofluidics, 3D-MEMS integration, and medical technology. Much of the device fabrication takes place in the KTH ELAB cleanroom
laboratory, which comprises 1300 m2 of class-100 cleanroom area for fabrication and characterization of microelectronics, photonics and microsystem devices. 3 KTH-MST research leaders have ERC grants: Advanced Grant in 2010 to Göran Stemme, Starting Grant in 2011 to Frank Niklaus and Consolidator Grant
to Joachim Oberhammer in 2013.

Commscope helps operators around the world to design, build and manage their wired and wireless networks. The vast portfolio of network infrastructure includes the most robust and innovative wireless and fibre optic solutions. The goal of the company is to help customers to increase bandwidth and maximizing existing
capacity. Moreover, Commscope strives to improve network performance and availability, increase the energy efficiency and to simplify technology migration. Commscope solutions can be found in the largest buildings, venues and outdoor spaces, data centres, wireless cell sites, telecom central offices, cable headends, FTTx deployments and in airports, trains and tunnels.
The company is split up in three segments: wireless, enterprise and broadband. The wireless division is a global leader in providing merchant RF wireless network connectivity solutions and small DAS cell solutions, providing capacity and coverage of carriers 3G and 4G networks. Commscope is also the global leader in enterprise connectivity solutions for data centres and commercial buildings, composed of voice, video, data and converged solutions that support mission critical high bandwidth applications, including storage area networks, streaming media, data backhaul cloud applications and grid computing.
The broadband division is supplying cable and communications equipment including coaxial and fibre optic cables, fibre-to-the-home equipment, amplifiers,  plitters, taps, conduit and headend solutions for the network core.

VLC Photonics is a 2011 spin-off company from Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV, Spain), specifically from the Optical and Quantum Communications Group, worldwide reputed in the fields of Optical Communications, Quantum optics and Microwave Photonics. The technical team of VLC involves professionals with expertise in photonic systems, optical signal processing and photonic integrated circuits, developed for more than 10 years within the industry and competitive European research programs. VLC Photonics offers several solutions in the field of integrated optics: techno-economical feasibility studies and consultancy, in-house PIC design, characterization and test, and full PIC prototyping through external manufacturing and packaging/assembly partners. VLC Photonics, as a pure-play fabless design house, works with multiple foundries embracing the generic integration model, and makes use of these fabrication platforms to always chose the most suited substrate material (Silicon-on-insulator, Silica/PLC, SiN/TripleX, InP/GaAs) for the application at hand. VLC Photonics also works closely with foundries to contribute in the building of their Process Design Kits (PDKs), allowing external users to easily access their manufacturing capabilities.
The main relevance for VLC to join this project is the alignment of the company’s large expertise on photonic integration and microwave photonics, with its strategic objectives on reinforcing their design libraries and application-/foundry- specific PDKs.

The Tyndall National Institute is Ireland’s largest research centre. The institute is part of University College Cork and is located in the southern part of Ireland. Tyndall has a very strong track record in both coordinating and partnering in European projects over many years. The institute also has very strong links with industry, through working on European and Nationally funded research projects and programmes directly funded by industry. Tyndall has a large business development, contracts and legal team to support all stages of industry engagement, including contract negotiation, IP management and project management. The institute also has an industry-in- residence programme to encourage industry partners locate their key R&D personnel in its laboratories and to collaborate with
Tyndall’s researchers. Tyndall’s key areas of research include; photonics, microsystems, nanotechnology, advanced theory and modelling. The institute has state-of-the-art compound semiconductor materials growth (MOVPE) and device processing processing facilities, and a full CMOS fabrication facility which specializes in the development and manufacture of advanced MEMs components. The institute hosts the recently funded 30M€ Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Photonics Integration Centre (www.ipic.ie), which includes a large number of industry partners across a wide range of application areas. Photonics is the largest research centre at Tyndall, with over 130 fulltime researchers and students. The centre supports research from theory and design, through to device fabrication, packaging and advanced system test and characterization.