IIT Madras announces two new silicon photonics products
Developed at the institute’s research centre dedicated to PICs, the products include a fibre-array unit attachment tool and a silicon photonics-based quantum random number generator
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has announced that Shri S. Krishnan, secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of the Government of India has launched two silicon photonics products designed and developed indigenously at the institute’s Centre of Excellence – Centre for Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuits and Systems (CoE-CPPICS).
The mission of the CoE-CPPICS is to build capacity in all verticals of the silicon photonics product manufacturing ecosystem through focused R&D, and to nurture the Indian photonics industry for immediate needs in domestic and international markets.
The two new products include a fibre-array unit (FAU) attachment tool for photonic chip packaging and a silicon photonics-based quantum random number generator (QRNG). According to the centre, the novel FAU tool, developed in consultation with izmo Microsystems, could be seamlessly integrated with izmo’s world-class packaging facility for next-generation photonic chip packaging. The facility is now commercially available for miniaturised silicon photonics product development.
The centre notes that the high-speed silicon photonics QRNG has been shown with a live demonstration in which it was successfully deployed at SETS (Society for Electronic Transactions and Security) Chennai. The SETS scientists and engineers integrated the CPPICS QRNG Module into its secured server for customer services.
The QRNG module will be available commercially for potential customers through the CPPICS spin-off start-up “LightOnChip Pvt. Ltd.” The device’s key applications include IT security for military and defence, cryptographic algorithms, quantum key distribution (QKD), and scientific simulations.
“Indigenously developed field deployable silicon photonic-based quantum random number generator (QRNG) module is pride for India,” said Krishnan. “The product has been delivered to DRDO to help in advanced quantum cryptography.”
Speaking earlier, V. Kamakoti, director of IIT Madras, said: “Silicon photonics is an emerging technology that will certainly help design much more efficient and complex hardware for the future. I am very happy that the Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS Centre at IIT Madras has now come out with demonstrable products that can be quickly adopted by the market. We hope that multiple such products will continue to come in the future.”
The Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS also organised an Industry Stakeholders Meeting at the campus on 2 May, which was chaired by Krishnan.
Photonic packaging and assembly is a complex and multi-disciplinary design and manufacturing process. To make a PIC-enabled module perform according to specification, sub-micron precision alignment and bonding processes are required. At the same time, precise thermal management is required to maintain the thermo-optic stability of the signals.
IIT Madras collaborates with izmo Microsystems, a Bangalore-based company that works in the development of packaged integrated circuits, to overcome the existing limitations. SilTerra, Malaysia, is the silicon photonics foundry partner for the centre, while the CoE-CPPICS plans to contribute with component design, characterisations and compact modelling towards Process Design Kit block development.
The immediate focus of the centre is to provide better solutions for microwave and quantum photonics applications such as advanced photonic processors to be used in high-performance RF transceivers, scalable linear optical quantum computing processors for the next-generation qubit computation, and chip level quantum key generation and distribution circuits. CPPICS is actively developing indigenous PIC design rules and hardware infrastructure for precision packaging for system-level applications.
