INSPIRE: InP on SiN photonic integrated circuits realized through wafer-scale micro-transfer printing

INSPIRE will sustain Europe’s industrial leadership in photonics by combining the generic integrated foundry technology at the pioneering pure-play foundry SMART Photonics, and the silicon photonics pioneer imec, with the micro-transfer printing technology developed at X-Celeprint. This will be a world-first platform combining the strengths to create best-in-class photonic integrated circuit (PIC) manufacturing. Furthermore, INSPIRE will strengthen the European manufacturing base by developing and implementing processing steps that are key to removing expensive assembly steps in PIC-based product realization. The methods will be developed for silicon nitride – indium phosphide integration. Since the optical coupling happens through a silicon intermediate layer the developed technology can be further ported to silicon, CMOS-compatible, photonics as well. INSPIRE will connect state-of-the-art manufacturing capability to leading-edge applications, and also to industry clusters through JePPIX, ePIXfab and the EC manufacturing pilot lines.