News: Optoelectronics
27 March 2024
Integrated Photonics System Roadmap unveiled, led by PhotonDelta and MIT Microphotonics Center
More than 400 technology, academic and industrial organizations worldwide (including Airbus, Meta, NASA, Dupont Electronics, General Motors, The European Space Agency and VodafoneZiggo) have contributed to a new integrated photonics system roadmap led by integrated photonic chips industry accelerator PhotonDelta of Eindhoven, The Netherlands (which connects and collaborates with an ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations worldwide) and the Microphotonics Center (MphC) at the USA’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Aiming to provide a platform for a unified, global trust-based network of industrial and R&D partners to drive innovation and adoption of photonics, the purpose of the Integrated Photonics System Roadmap — International (IPSR-I) is to provide a technology roadmap and a way forward for building a global, aligned integrated photonics industry with the ability to help solve major societal challenges. This is underpinned by a call to establish and sustain a trust-based global network of industrial and R&D partners, who work together to create photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology and systems requirements. By aligning the entire supply chain from research to end users, the integrated photonics industry should be able to drive volume manufacturing of PICs.
The integration of photonics with electronics is the key enabler for the creation of smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices. The integration has the potential to expand functionality and create many new applications and is helping to unlock major advances in many areas including autonomous vehicles, data telecom and healthcare. Integrated photonics is also the technology that generates, processes and detects light for sensing and communication applications.
IPSR-I summarizes the consensus from more than 400 experts from over 100 workshops and 13 conferences. It includes a comprehensive overview of major technology gaps for volume manufacturing of PICs and a detailed analysis of the challenges that the integrated photonics industry needs to overcome in order to achieve its potential.
The roadmap, which was produced over the past three years, also includes insights into wireless communication and 3D imaging.
“Getting all research and development resources of the integrated photonics industry and academia behind solving the technological gaps identified by the IPSR-I will contribute to solving the large societal challenges in a spectacular manner,” believes PhotonDelta’s chief technology officer Peter van Arkel. “At the heart of the roadmap is a global approach for the integrated photonics industry to rally behind to meet core challenges. Reaching a consensus on these technological gaps has been very challenging with such a diverse group of contributors,” he adds.
“Electronic-photonic integration has the capacity to radically transform a whole host of industries and unlock a range of new technologies that will change our lives,” believes Lionel Kimerling, the Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. “Transitioning this vision to high-volume manufacturing requires a well thought-out plan built on the knowledge of a huge range of experts across different fields, organizations and nations,” he adds. “This is what IPSR-I has achieved — it outlines a clear way forward and specifies an innovative learning curve for scaling performance and applications for the next 15 years.”
Europe’s integrated photonics firms call on EU to support building resilient supply chain for PICs
PhotonDelta gains €1.1bn funding, including €470m from Netherlands’ National Growth Fund
