Department of Electrical Engineering

Photonic Integration

Provide major contributions to photonic integration and the associated applications with a particular focus on indium phosphide technology.

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Harnessing the efficiency, precision and speed of light in a photonic chip

Photonics is a rapidly growing field where the total market volume is comparable to the market of electronics, and growing even faster. Whereas integrated circuits are already dominant technologies in the field of electronics, photonic integration is still taking off. It is a critical enabler for the modern internet and is poised to enable new forms of sensing and imaging. The Photonics Integration (PhI) group performs leading edge research into indium phosphide semiconductor based technology for photonic integration and its applications. This develops along three research lines listed below ('read more') and involves a number of national and international research projects. Our group offers opportunities for Master and PhD students to do leading-edge research on advanced photonic ICs and technology, and to prepare for a job in a variety of high-tech companies that use photonics, semiconductor technologies, and/or photonic integrated circuits in their products. You might even think to start your own business in this rapidly growing field. 

News

September 27, 2023
Improving the active parts of photonic integrated circuits
For his PhD research, Yi Wang explored ways to improve the efficiency of power-hungry photonics parts.
Read more
December 21, 2022
Integrated optical isolators and circulators on an InP membrane platform
Rui Ma defended his PhD thesis at the department of Electrical Engineering on December 20th.
Read more
More news
Bringing integrated photonics to daily life
November 15, 2022
Photo: Bart van Overbeeke
Photonics sector Eindhoven gets major boost with 1.1 billion euro investment
April 22, 2022
PhotonDelta lands €1.1 billion to usher in a new generation of semiconductor technology
April 14, 2022
Printing optical chips as a layered cake
March 30, 2022

Meet some of our Researchers

Associate Professor

Erwin Bente

Doctoral Candidate

Bernat Molero Agudo

Education and Research Technician (Design and Development)

Jeroen Bolk

Associate Professor

Xaveer Leijtens

Full Professor

Kevin Williams

University Researcher

Jos van der Tol

Assistant Professor

Weiming Yao

Full Professor emeritus

Meint Smit

Full Professor
(Part-time)

Daan Lenstra

University Researcher

Sylwester Latkowski

Full Professor emeritus

Mike Wale

Associate Professor

Yuqing Jiao

Assistant Professor

Victor Dolores Calzadilla

Full Professor

Martijn Heck

WORK WITH US!

The Photonic Integration group posts new positions throughout the year. Most of our scientific vacancies can be seen here. Check our projects and publications for our current scope of research.

All scientific as well as non-scientific vacancies are centrally cataloged by the Electrical Engineering department and can be found here.

Projects

ACTPHAST 4.0

Supports and accelerates the innovation capacity of European companies by providing them with direct access to the expertise and state-of-the-art facilities of Europe's leading photonics research centers.

Research Project

ChipAI

ChipAI aims to develop a nanoscale photonics-enabled technology capable of deliver compact, high-bandwidth and energy efficiency CPUs using optically interconnected spiking neuron-like sources and detectors.

Integrated Nanophotonics

Enables the miniaturization and efficiency enhancements for components on the indium phosphide membrane on silicon platform.

Research Project

NewControl

NewControl will develop and deliver virtualized platforms for each vehicular sub-system essential to autonomous operation at SAE Level 3+. Each of these unifies the critical components required to realize a specific function – perception, cognition, control – through vertical integration within an adaptive (not rigid) architectural framework.

Research project

Interreg - OIP4NWE

PIXAPP

Provides the full range of assembly and integration technologies needed to package these multi functional PIC devices, across all stages of manufacturing – from prototyping to medium scale manufacture.

Research Project

Smart optical monitoring for condition based maintenance

Twilight

Towards the neW era of 1.6 Tb/s System-In-Package transceivers for datacenter appLIcations exploiting wafer-scale co-inteGration of InP membranes and InP-HBT elecTronics.

Facilities

The NanoLabTUe offers a unique combination of equipment for developing optical chips and other applications based on compound semiconductor technology.

The cleanroom at the NanoLabTUe offers a combination of equipment that is available nowhere else in the academic world. Here, optical chips based on semiconductive indium phosphide can be fabricated, from substrate right through to the end product.

The NanoLabTUe is an open-access research laboratory, in which both TU/e and other research centers and industrial parties conduct research. This approach ensures that insights and understanding acquired through fundamental research quickly find their way into industry.

Partners

The Photonic Integration group is partnering with industry and start-ups to provide commercial access to leading edge technologies. Our main partners are:

ACTPHAST (Access CenTer for PHotonics innovAtion Solutions and Technology Support) is a unique 'one-stop-shop' for supporting photonics innovation by European companies, which is financially supported by the European Commission under the FP7 framework (Grant Agreement No. 619205). ACTPHAST supports and accelerates the innovation capacity of European companies by providing them with direct access to the expertise and state-of-the-art facilities of Europe's leading photonics research centres (the ACTPHAST Partners), enabling companies to exploit the tremendous commercial potential of applied photonics. There are 23 research institutes who together make up the ACTPHAST Partners. JePPIX participates in ACTPHAST to enable open access to Europe's InP photonic integration capability. More information about ACTPHAST can be found in this video.

EFFECT Photonics (founded in 2010) delivers highly integrated optical communications products based on its Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical System-on-Chip technology.

JePPIX (Joint European Platform for Photonic Integrated Components and Circuits) is partnering with Europe's key players in the field of photonic integration to provide access to advanced photonic integrated circuits. More information about JePPIX can be found in this video 

SMART Photonics offers a generic process developed in collaboration with the COBRA research institute. It allows for fast prototyping and low cost development without compromising performance and functionality. SMART Photonics is the worlds first foundry to commercially offer MPW services on InP. 

 

Eindhoven Hendrik Casimir Institute

By bringing together photonics, electronics and quantum technology, Eindhoven Hendrik Casimir Institute (EHCI) drives exponential computing, communication and sensing technologies, to enable a sustainable information society.

 

Recent Publications

Our most recent peer reviewed publications

Education

Check out all our courses

Projects are offered in the Bachelor College, Graduate School and also within the framework of the EU Erasmus program.
For more information please contact: Prof.dr. K.A. Williams

PHOTONDELTA FAST CAREER TRACK PROGRAM

Integrated photonics will have major impact in areas such as communications, healthcare, agro-food, and mobility. The market is growing fast and thousands of jobs will be created. TU/e is the place to start a career in this field.

Do you want to be part of this future?

Then you should consider the new PhotonDelta Fast Career Track program. This program involves TU/e Master students in Applied Physics or Electrical Engineering in photonics research and applications, together with researchers and companies active in this field. For more information please consult:

PhotonDelta Fast Career Track Program for Electrical Engineering students

Interested? Send an email to photonicscareer@tue.nl

 

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