Periodic Reporting for period 1 - photonixFAB (Building a European industrial supply chain for SOI- and SiN-based silicon photonics, including heterogeneous integration to support emerging markets)
Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2024-06-30
photonixFAB is a newly created consortium initiated from a project to build a European silicon photonics supply chain, which accelerates the transfer from low volume manufacturing to large volume manufacturing and renders it accessible to a wider community.
The photonixFAB partners are covering the entire photonics value chain. These high-profile consortium members include technology and manufacturing service providers X-FAB, LIGENTEC, SMART Photonics, PHIX Photonics Assembly and Luceda Photonics plus application developers Nokia, NVIDIA, Aryballe, PhotonFirst and Thales, as well as the major research organizations CEA-Leti and IMEC.
6 key objectives are targeted by the consortium:
1. Establish an industrial manufacturing capability in X-FAB for Silicon On Insulator photonics building on IMEC’s SOI platform optimized for high speed datacom, telecom, LIDAR and sensing applications.
2. Extend the industrial manufacturing capability in X-FAB for Silicon Nitride photonics building on LIGENTEC’s SiN platform optimized for quantum computing, quantum key deployments telecom, LIDAR, sensing and other ultra-low loss applications.
3. Increase maturity of heterogeneous integration of active devices on both SOI and SiN platforms to be low-volume production ready and with a path to high-volume fabrication
4. Demonstrate industrial pilot lines with six application-driven demonstrators
5. Strengthen the European silicon photonics industrial supply chain on Electronic Design Automation (EDA), packaging and testing, and other essential elements to offer production-ready technology and photonics design capabilities,
6. Enable internationally competitive technology offering and EU sovereign manufacturing capability accessible to European Small and Medium Enterprises, Research centers (RTO), academics and larger companies.
The photonixFAB partners are covering the entire photonics value chain. These high-profile consortium members include technology and manufacturing service providers X-FAB, LIGENTEC, SMART Photonics, PHIX Photonics Assembly and Luceda Photonics plus application developers Nokia, NVIDIA, Aryballe, PhotonFirst and Thales, as well as the major research organizations CEA-Leti and IMEC.
6 key objectives are targeted by the consortium:
1. Establish an industrial manufacturing capability in X-FAB for Silicon On Insulator photonics building on IMEC’s SOI platform optimized for high speed datacom, telecom, LIDAR and sensing applications.
2. Extend the industrial manufacturing capability in X-FAB for Silicon Nitride photonics building on LIGENTEC’s SiN platform optimized for quantum computing, quantum key deployments telecom, LIDAR, sensing and other ultra-low loss applications.
3. Increase maturity of heterogeneous integration of active devices on both SOI and SiN platforms to be low-volume production ready and with a path to high-volume fabrication
4. Demonstrate industrial pilot lines with six application-driven demonstrators
5. Strengthen the European silicon photonics industrial supply chain on Electronic Design Automation (EDA), packaging and testing, and other essential elements to offer production-ready technology and photonics design capabilities,
6. Enable internationally competitive technology offering and EU sovereign manufacturing capability accessible to European Small and Medium Enterprises, Research centers (RTO), academics and larger companies.
The creation of the consortium and the kick-off of activities was done at X-FAB France in May 2023.
Additional face to face consortium meetings were held at IMEC in November 2023 and at SMART in June 2024 to align the progress and further clarify technical details and project risks.
A photonixFAB Customer Engagement Portal (www.photonixfab.eu) providing access point to technologies available for R&D prototyping / low volume production and to the planned high volume industrial pilot line developed during the project was released in March 2024.
IMEC and X-FAB closed the background technology licensing agreement for the IMEC’s SOI technology enabling SOI technology installation within X-FAB France Factory.
A newly developed Design Toolkit was made available to enable early application and demonstrators from partners. First industrial demonstrator application design and tape-outs were done during the reporting period.
First Capital Investments were triggered to support new technology features by partners. SiN Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition furnace required for the LIGENTEC ultra-low loss SiN technology was released for R&D in March 2024 at X-FAB France. 193nm Wavelength lithography tool installation progressed as planned with the goal to be released in October 2024. 193nm lithography tool is required for both SiN and SOI technologies.
Brolis decided to leave the consortium in 2023. Thales Research & Technology was proposed and accepted as a successor to substitute the planned activities, in particular in WP9.
Additional face to face consortium meetings were held at IMEC in November 2023 and at SMART in June 2024 to align the progress and further clarify technical details and project risks.
A photonixFAB Customer Engagement Portal (www.photonixfab.eu) providing access point to technologies available for R&D prototyping / low volume production and to the planned high volume industrial pilot line developed during the project was released in March 2024.
IMEC and X-FAB closed the background technology licensing agreement for the IMEC’s SOI technology enabling SOI technology installation within X-FAB France Factory.
A newly developed Design Toolkit was made available to enable early application and demonstrators from partners. First industrial demonstrator application design and tape-outs were done during the reporting period.
First Capital Investments were triggered to support new technology features by partners. SiN Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition furnace required for the LIGENTEC ultra-low loss SiN technology was released for R&D in March 2024 at X-FAB France. 193nm Wavelength lithography tool installation progressed as planned with the goal to be released in October 2024. 193nm lithography tool is required for both SiN and SOI technologies.
Brolis decided to leave the consortium in 2023. Thales Research & Technology was proposed and accepted as a successor to substitute the planned activities, in particular in WP9.
The Customer Engagement Web portal and active promotion in key events enabled early business development and customer engagement beyond consortium partners.
The project is at an early stage and currently has no impact beyond the state of the art.
The project is at an early stage and currently has no impact beyond the state of the art.