03 Jul New photonics lab advances European technological sovereignty
The Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS has opened a new photonics laboratory that enables the institute to develop, manufacture and characterize photonic chiplets entirely in-house. According to the institute, the chiplets are fabricated in its own cleanroom on 200 mm wafers under industry-relevant conditions. The photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are implemented on CMOS read-out integrated circuits (ROICs).
EU visit marks opening
Dr. Eric Fribourg-Blanc, Senior Programme Officer at the European Union’s Chips Joint Undertaking, visited the new laboratory. In addition to a laboratory tour, he received updates on collaboration activities, specific contributions to the pilot line and planned procurement measures.
With the new facility, Fraunhofer IMS expands the European pilot line Apecs (Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration for Electronic Components and Systems) by providing a complete infrastructure for the characterization of photonic components. According to the institute, the nearly 50 m² laboratory houses two optical measurement stations that enable characterization at both chip and wafer level.
Measurement technology for photonic integrated circuits
According to Fraunhofer IMS, the first measurement setup is designed for semi-automated characterization of photonic integrated circuits with grating couplers. A six-degree-of-freedom nanopositioning system with an integrated rotary stage precisely aligns optical fibers and fiber arrays with the chip’s optical coupling interfaces, enabling accurate optical coupling to photonic integrated circuits on wafers up to 12 inches in diameter. A second setup, also equipped with a six-degree-of-freedom nanopositioning system, is designed for the characterization of chips with edge couplers.
As laser sources, the institute provides a supercontinuum laser with a tunable wavelength range from 350 to 2,400 nm and a narrow-linewidth precision laser for the telecommunications wavelength around 1,550 nm. Combined with tunable optical filters, the supercontinuum laser enables characterization of photonic wafers and chips from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared spectral range. A spectrometer complements the measurement infrastructure for optical signal analysis.
Supporting Europe’s technological sovereignty
Fraunhofer IMS is one of 15 institutes within the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) and participates in the European pilot line Apecs. Apecs is part of the EU Chips Act initiatives to advance chiplet technologies and expand Europe’s semiconductor research and manufacturing capabilities. The project also aims to strengthen European value chains for advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration.
The pilot line is intended to provide companies of all sizes—from global corporations to technology start-ups—with low-barrier access to photonic chiplet technologies.
According to Fraunhofer IMS, one practical example is a jointly developed multi-material sensor demonstrator. In this demonstrator, photonic chiplets developed by Fraunhofer IMS are integrated together with technologies from other Apecs partners on a common interposer to form a functional heterogeneous system.
Source: www.ims.fraunhofer.de
Image: Fraunhofer IMS / Patrick Schroer
Caption: Visit by delegates from the Chips Joint Undertaking and Apecs