The photonic chip of the future: at the Polytechnic University of Valencia
UPVfab and the iTEAM Institute will lead the European Pilot Line for Photonic Chips
The Chips Programme of the European Commission has just selected the PIXEurope initiative, in which the UPVfab laboratory and the iTEAM Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia participate under the coordination of Pascual Muñoz and José Capmany, to lead the European Pilot Line for Photonic Chips.
PIXEurope will mobilise investments of around 400 million to offer unique technological capabilities to the industry, with the aim of enhancing its capacity in photonic chips and positioning Europe as a global leader.
The PIXEurope initiative and action plan is co-financed by the European Commission and the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, the State Secretariat for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures (SETELECO) and the Strategic Project for Microelectronics and Semiconductors, known as PERTE Chip.
Coordinated by the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics, the National Microelectronics Centre of the CSIC (IMB-CNM-CSIC), the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), and the University of Vigo also participate in PIXEurope.
Factory at the UPV
The iTEAM and UPVfab will open a PIXEurope headquarters at the UPV for the manufacture of hybrid chips, which constitute the next step in the technological evolution of the sector. Their work will allow companies to develop technologies in this new factory, to later transfer these processes to production environments.
According to Pascual Muñoz, hybrid photonic chips combine the best of several existing technologies in one, opening up unprecedented possibilities for different applications: high-speed communications, autonomous driving, or the development of new equipment applied to biomedicine in the future. “The UPV aims to become one of the world leaders in hybrid photonic chips,” Pascual Muñoz points out.
In the words of José Capmany, “PIXEurope represents a unique opportunity to take a step further the global leadership that the UPV has consolidated in Integrated Photonics through the R&D carried out at the ITEAM Institute and UPVFab, as well as in the transfer of technology through its spinoff companies VLC Photonics, iPronics and Calsens.
“Now – adds Pascual Muñoz – it is now a matter of articulating an environment that makes it possible to advance in pre-industrial development and achieve its future consolidation in a full ecosystem, with the capacity to create highly qualified employment, serve various market sectors where the demand for photonic chips is going to grow considerably, as well as attract new players in the manufacturing and encapsulation ecosystem”.
UPV, leader of the PIXSpain Competence Center
The UPV will also lead the PIXSpain Competence Center, the Spanish consortium for integrated photonics. In addition to the Spanish participants in PIXEurope, the University of Malaga is also integrated into it.
“Our efforts are focused on this great challenge posed by hybrid photonic chips, which we will try to respond to both from PIXEurope and from PIXSpain CC. In this regard, the work we carry out with the Barcelona Microelectronics Institute and the CSIC National Microelectronics Centre stands out, with whom we began working twelve years ago, in a collaboration that is now reinforced with this new challenge,” Pascual Muñoz concludes.
Source: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV)
About Wooptix
Wooptix is a leader in semiconductor metrology through the use of wavefront phase imaging, a technique derived from research in adaptive optics for astronomy. With a multidisciplinary team, Wooptix seeks to revolutionize semiconductor metrology with the highest lateral resolution and fastest measurement technique for in-line factory measurements.
The company has developed Phemet®, a silicon wafer measurement tool that serves as the precursor to its fully automated manufacturing tool expected by 2025. Wooptix has already implemented Phemet® in various customer facilities worldwide. Wooptix is headquartered in Tenerife, Madrid (Spain), and San Francisco (USA).