PLAT4M · Photonic Libraries And Technology for Manufacturing

Silicon with its mature integration platform has brought electronic circuits to mass-market applications - our vision is that silicon photonics will follow this revolution. Over the last years silicon photonics has seen a tremendous increase in research output, leading to commercial exploitation potential. Most of these efforts have been devoted to the development of elementary building blocks, rather than the fabrication of complete Photonic Integrated Circuits which are needed to support the large potential markets. Upgrading existing platforms to become compatible with industrialization is now essential and requires efforts on streamlining and stabilizing the design and process flows, by taking into account design robustness, process variability and integration constraints.Europe's silicon photonics community has demonstrated a worldwide leadership with both new scientific discoveries and excellent CMOS photonics R&D facilities.PLAT4M's objective is to bring existing silicon photonics research platform to a maturity level which enables seamless transition to industry, suitable for different applications fields and manufacturing volume levels.Progress on three fronts is needed:1 Mature technologies and tools- Establish scalable Electrical-Optical co-design capability- Stabilize elementary building blocks, focus on process integration and common testing procedures- Develop packaging processes that support high volume manufacturing2 Validate each platform with application-driven test vehicles- Fabricate representative demonstrators in various applications fields3 Prepare and evaluate the next generation platform- Assess advanced processes with future technology nodes and scalability to high integration complexity<br/>PLAT4M gathers leading European R&D institutes and CMOS companies, key industrial and research players in design, packaging as well as end-users in different application fields in order to build the whole supply chain.