Forthcoming Research Seminars

All Staff and Students are Welcome
E132, Sir Frederick Mappin Building, unless stated.

Wednesday 9 November - 2pm - 'A Generic Foundry Approach to Indium Phosphide-based Photonic Integration'

David Robbins
Willow Photonics Ltd

Photonic Integration in the indium phosphide (InP) materials system has a long history of research and development. InP technology is capable of supporting all of the required functionality for fabricating photonic integrated circuits but with only a few exceptions, in telecommunications, the huge worldwide investment in this technology has seen little commercial exploitation to date. The technology involved is quite mature, but the entry level costs are prohibitively high. What needs to be done to create a European generic foundry platform process for InP photonics circuits and to move that process out into an industrial context will be the subject of this talk. Following the hugely successful model adopted by the micro-electronics industry in the 1990s, such a generic fab. could offer low-cost access to fab-less companies and designers across Europe. Photonics is much more challenging, however, because of the large diversity in components and available technologies.
The EuroPIC (NMP)  and PARADIGM (ICT) EU-funded research projects address aspects of the new business model. This talk will focus particularly on the work of these two projects and that of the JePPIX organisation, in promoting and establishing a generic foundry capability for photonic integrated circuits.