Fast Additive Manufacturing for Enhanced Photonic Integrated Circuits

ongoing

The wide-range deployment of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) is hindered by high costs and design constraints, a large fraction of which is assigned to the packaging process. FAMEPIC will address these head-on. Our breakthrough approach leverages the potential of volumetric grey scale lithography via Two-Photon Polymerization for 3D-print photonic connections between and to PICS. The process enables on-the-fly alignment thanks to the fabrication of a variety of optical components directly onto the PICs’ substrates, realizing fabrication and chip-mounting in a single-step. Such a breakthrough in PIC packaging is of strategic importance. Integrated photonics is a fast-growing market set to cope with future lack of progress in miniaturisation of electronics and with the exponentially increasing demands on optical data loads in the context of data- and tele-communication applications. Our process- and software-driven approach reduces fabrication time by a factor 10 while allowing precise control of optical modes combined with record-low bending radii of less than 10 µm. Building on very promising results obtained in the past 5 years, including impressive performance and functionality of new types of optical components and wire bonds, the project aims to apply our unique knowhow to unsolved integration problems put forward by our numerous industrial and academic partners. FAMEPIC will demonstrate key characteristics (low optical losses, fast design iterations, low production costs) for accelerated photonic integrated circuit prototyping. This will result in new industrial capabilities supporting the whole European ecosystem of Integrated Photonics.