TOPTICA to create chip-integrated lasers for quantum PIC project
The QUPICS initiative, which has been selected by the US Department of Defense to receive $8.5 million, plans to develop a 300 mm foundry fabrication platform for quantum technologies spanning from the ultraviolet to the infrared
Rochester-based TOPTICA Photonics Inc., a developer and manufacturer of optical components, has announced it will partner with the Quantum Ultra-broadband Photonic Integrated Circuits and Systems (QUPICS) team to develop a novel foundry fabrication platform for quantum technologies.
The QUPICS project – a coalition among multiple academic institutions, government labs, and technology manufacturers – has been selected to receive substantial support from the US Department of Defense to accelerate the lab-to-fab transition in quantum technologies. This project, announced by officials from the Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTECH) on 18 September with an award of over $8.5 million, is one of four initiatives receiving a total of $30 million in funding through the hub under the Microelectronics Commons programme. NORDTECH is a regional consortium of government labs, defence contractors, academic institutions, and technology manufacturing organisations in New York State and one of eight Microelectronics Commons Hubs composing the US Microelectronics Commons programme.
The QUPICS team consists of AIM Photonics, Cornell University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Yale University, Air Force Research Laboratory, NIST, Quantinuum, Xanadu, and TOPTICA. Led by the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) and Cornell University, the team plans to develop a novel 300 mm foundry fabrication platform for quantum technologies which will span the ultraviolet to the infrared.
QUPICS intends to specially address the foundry gap for trapped ion, neutral atom, and photonic quantum technologies incorporating broadband photonics, electro-optic devices, multi-metal layer electrical functionality, and lasers into a single broadly available technology offering. QUPICS also aims to develop and incorporate passive photonics, active components, and laser sources from the ultraviolet to the infrared geared to the use of quantum technologies.
Integrated systems spanning this broad wavelength range are critical for a variety of photonics-heavy quantum systems for commercial and DoD priority applications in quantum sensing, networking, computation, and position navigation and timing. In later years QUPICS plans to open to multi-project wafer runs and will be actively searching for partners from government laboratories, academia, and businesses.
“TOPTICA Photonics, Inc. is proud to partner with AIM Photonics, Cornell University and all the other great organisations that will contribute to this project,” said Mark Tolbert, CEO of TOPTICA. “For more than two decades, TOPTICA has enabled quantum technologies and pushed innovation. We will do the same by developing chip-integrated lasers for the QUPICS project.”
