NEXTCHIP CHAIR
NextChip Chair is a 4 years research Project aimed at alleviating companies of the need to purchase expensive test equipment that use complicated measurement routines, when developing products and prototypes that contain photonic- and electronic chips.
This 4.73 million € project managed by the University of Vigo is integrated on a national grant program aimed at training 1000 professionals in microelectronics and semiconductors. The Ministry for Digital Transformation finances 17 initiatives with a total of 45 million € involving 80 corporations.
The objective of the NextChip Chair is to develop a versatile- and fully automatic measurement tool to characterize electronic and photonic chips, where the users can remotely program and execute a large variety of tests using a so-called Testing Design Kit (TDK).
This project will focus on chip- and wafer handling, electrical- and photonic probing, combined with state-of-the-art test instrumentation to address a wide range of chips for multiple applications in high-frequency electronics, high-power electronics, high-frequency- and high-power electronics, photonics within a wide wavelength range from 400nm to 1700nm, and quantum photonics.
NextChip Chair will additionally guide 60 students through a tailored 5 month training program in integrated photonics on a 7 module course. The University of Vigo aims to achieve the program objectives with the collaboration of Aimen, Aluvia Photonics, Ayscom/Datatec, Gradiant, ICFO, Keysight, Navantia, Sparc Foundry, and Tyndall.
MWP4SPACE: MicroWave Photonic Technologies for Communications and Sensing Applications in Space
HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 N 101073138
The MWP4SPACE Doctoral Network will train the next generation of specialists in Integrated Microwave Photonic (IMWP) devices and systems in the framework of satellite and space applications. They will gain skills to integrate compact photonic and radio frequency (RF) circuits, and cutting-edge knowledge of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design, fabrication, packaging, validation, and qualification, both at the device and system level – competences for which there is a fast-growing demand in the global satellite industry, but that are rarely taught in an integrated training program. Importantly, those skills are deemed essential to achieve the scientific goals of the program, which are to develop, introduce and promote IMWP technologies for secure and reconfigurable networks of LEO- and MEO satellites for telecommunications (SATCOM) and Earth Observations.
DRIVE-In: Integrated Photonics for the next generation of autonomous Vehicles using InP technologies
H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019 N 860763
The DRIVE-In project aims to provide cutting-edge training to young researchers in the emerging field of integrated photonics, fostering its application in the automotive industry through the development of novel generic Indium-Phosphide (InP) Process Design Kits (PDKs) as well as the creation of disruptive simulation tools and modelling procedures for use in optoelectronic (combined integrated photonics and microelectronics) systems. Together the ESRs will combine academic research and industrial knowledge to overcome specific challenges of the integrated photonics sector, related to hybridisation of integrated photonics and microelectronics, increasing Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) complexity, availability of PIC design tools, need for high-performance Free Space Optic (FSO) devices and need for software simulation and fast-generation layout models. DRIVE-In is implemented through secondments of the ESRs between both the academic and industrial participants.
EDIFY: European Doctorate in Indium Phosphide PIC Fabrication Techonology
H2020-MSCA-ITN-2018 N 813467
EDIFY has trained four ESRs at two world-leading European academic institutions – University of Vigo (Uvigo) and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (Tue)- and four state of the art industrial companies SMART Photonics BV, Bright Photonics, Photon Design and Phoenix BV -covering the value chain, from research and design to manufacturing, thereby forming a strong interdisciplinary network between technical sciences an industry to overcome specific barriers in the integrated photonics sector. The progamme provided a coherent training platform that addressed the outstanding engineering challenges of the new field of Integrated Photonics while nurturing technical, creative and entrepreneurial skills. The outcomes are a breakthough improvement in performance, power consumption and predictive methodologies for photonic Integrated Circuits and a cohort of ESRs trained on cutting-edge photonic integration and nanofabrication technology.
