EU-funded researchers have created a ground breaking platform to meet industry’s need for low-energy, small-size, complex and high-performance circuits.

Photonics technology plays an important role in the European and global economies, driving innovation in sectors such as ICT, medicine, energy, military, manufacturing, agriculture and space. As its use spreads, it becomes increasingly important to find ways to mass produce photonics devices at low cost. This implies merging the technology with standardised production processes that are compatible with advanced electronics integrated circuit technologies. In other words, combining photonic and electronic functionalities in one chip.

The problem lies in incompatible dimensions. While electronic chip sizes are measured in nanometres, photonics chips exist in the order of micro- or millimetres. The EU-funded PLASMOfab project took up - and overcame - this challenge with the help of plasmonic technology. Ten industrial partners and academic and research institutes combined their know-how and expertise in photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and optoelectronics to create a plasmo-photonic chip. Now successfully completed, the project has made the mass manufacture of these high-performance components possible.

The PLASMOfab team's work has brought about great advances in the technology used in optical data communications and biosensing for point-of-care applications. It has developed plasmonics that are compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology already used in electronics, and has used this technology to consolidate advanced PICs with electronic ICs in mass production. Standardised CMOS processes were used to merge CMOS-compatible metals like aluminium, titanium nitride and copper, and photonic structures with electronics.

A major achievement of the project was the development of a novel ultra-compact plasmonic transmitter. The device has a footprint of 90 x 5.5 µm² and transmits 0.8 TBit/s (800 Gbit/s) through 4 individual 0.2 TBit/s transmitters. The project team also demonstrated how low propagation losses can be achieved using CMOS-compatible aluminium plasmonic waveguides co-integrated with silicon nitride photonics. Their findings were published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports'.

“PLASMOfab's main goal has been to address the ever increasing needs for low energy, small size, high complexity and high performance mass manufactured PICs,” said Assistant Professor Nikos Pleros of project coordinator Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in a press release posted on the ‘Synopsys' website. “We have achieved this by developing a revolutionary yet CMOS-compatible fabrication platform for seamless co-integration of active plasmonics with photonic and electronic components.”

The partners expect that by further developing this technology they will be able to demonstrate the marked advantages that CMOS-compatible plasmonics have when applied to PICs. “When the best of all three worlds of plasmonics, photonics, and electronics converge in a single integration platform, PICs with unprecedented performance and functionality will be realized, targeting a diverse set of applications and industrial needs while meeting mass production requirements,” explained lead researcher Dr Dimitris Tsiokos of Aristotle University.

PLASMOfab (A generic CMOS-compatible platform for co-integrated plasmonics/photonics/electronics PICs towards volume manufacturing of low energy, small size and high performance photonic devices) concluded in December 2018. Its research has led to the launch of two new companies whose goals will be to commercialise the new technologies.

AngelTech Online Summit - Tuesday 19th May

The health and well-being of AngelTech speakers, partners, employees and the overall community is our top priority. Due to the growing concern around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in alignment with the best practices laid out by the CDC, WHO and other relevant entities, AngelTech decided to postpone the live Brussels event to 16th - 18th November 2020.

In the interim, we believe it is still important to connect the community and we want to do this via an online summit, taking place live on Tuesday May 19th at 12:00 GMT and content available for 12 months on demand. This will not replace the live event (we believe live face to face interaction, learning and networking can never be fully replaced by a virtual summit), it will supplement the event, add value for key players and bring the community together – digitally.

The event will involve 4 breakout sessions for CS International, PIC International, Sensors International and PIC Pilot Lines.

Key elements of the online summit:

• Covering key topics of the industries
• Live 3 hour online summit
• 10 minute presentations – learn from experts in the industry
• Recorded product demos
• Live audience questions
• Enhanced discussion and audience interaction
• Video panel sessions
• Sponsors digital booth (intro video, company content, lead generator, facilitate one on one video meetings with attendees)
• Live private video meetings between two or more attendees
• After the live event, monthly keynotes to drive traffic to the event 24/7, 365

Innovation is in AngelTech’s DNA and we are leveraging this strength to bring you an immersive and inspiring online event without the risk of travel during this uncertain period.

Register to attend