GRAPH-IC · Silicon-Integrated Graphene Photodetectors for Future Photonic Integrated Circuits – Graph-IC

The goal of the Graph-IC proof of concept proposal is to verify the innovation potential of silicon-technology-integrated graphene photodetectors for high-speed and broadband light conversion. The idea of this PoC is to use such graphene photodetectors as an enabling technology for integrated optoelectronic systems with extremely high data rates. The new technology will be fully integrated and allow the utilization of the entire transmission window of optical fibers. Such systems have the potential to decisively outperform existing systems in terms of data-rate, cost and energy consumption, which are becoming major challenges in large data systems. Within this PoC, we plan to establish the viability and identify technical issues of integrated graphene photodetectors with high electrical bandwidth for optical wavelengths. Graph-IC prepares the PI and his team to embark on a very high-risk, very high-gain endeavor, where the goal is to compete in a multi-billion Euro global market. This proposal is based on the scientific results of the ERC starting grant “InteGraDe – Integrating Graphene Devices (307311)”, where the PI has demonstrated the integration of graphene with silicon technology up to the wafer scale.