Over the last two decades photonic integration has unleashed the potential of optical technology in many application fields leading to technical breakthroughs with a strong commercial impact. Although telecom and datacom sectors has been benefited from photonic integration technology reaching its maturity level, the case is not the same for a broad range of optical applications like optical switching and remote sensing applications.
Therefore, a powerful integration platform that can offer low optical loss and high integration density in order to facilitate a very large number of processing components on-chip, a very broad range of optical functionalities, and very high purity and quality in the generation, processing and detection of light is obligatory. The combination of these requirements is very challenging, and the conclusion is very clear: The necessary photonic integration technology that could exploit the aforementioned functionalities and could enable the commercial uptake of optical switching and remoting sensing is still missing. 3PEAT will develop a powerful photonic integration technology with all size, functionality and quality credentials in order to help a broad range of optical applications like optical switching and remote sensing, to achieve a strong commercial impact. To achieve these goals, 3PEAT will focus on the following objectives:
- Develop a disruptive 3D photonic integration technology based on a multilayer PolyBoard platform
- Develop an integrated optical circulator and Optical FlexLines for single-mode PIC-to-PIC interconnects
- Use heterogeneous integration of PZT films on TriPleX and develop polarization insensitive phase shifters and switches with 20 ns response time, low power consumption and large integration scale (>1000 elements)
- Develop an integrated laser source with ultra-narrow linewidth (< 1 kHz)
- Develop a hybrid integration engine for seamless integration of PolyBoard and TriPleX sections
- Develop 3D PICs for large-scale optical switches with 20 ns switching time inside data center networks
- Develop 3D PICs for the interrogation and optical beam scanning unit of Laser Doppler Vibrometers
- Develop methods and tools, and proceed with the packaging, system integration and performance evaluation of the switching and sensing (LDV) modules of 3PEAT
- Explore the spectrum of application fields for 3PEAT integration technology and prepare a trial for its provision as a foundry service to external customers