Europe drives to dominate photonics
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From interconnect to optical computing and even quantum computers, photonics in Europe is seeing a significant boost this month.
By the end of the decade, the global photonics market is expected to exceed €1.5tn, driven by the increasing need to increase the bandwidth of datacentre AI chips while reducing the power consumption.
AI chip designer Nvidia, for example, is working closely with the world’s largest foundry, TSMC, to add optical components such as ring oscillators into the datacentre to tackle the rising power consumption of AI chips and racks.
“As the number of GPUs and AI bandwidth grows, scale-up fabrics will need to transition away from copper to optical-based solutions,” said Alan Weckel, Co-Founder and Technology Analyst at the 650 Group. “AI data centres will move toward co-packaged optics and external DWDM light sources. Scale-up networking is an incremental opportunity for vendors, with the market set to exceed $25 billion by 2029. By the end of the decade, the whole AI networking opportunity will approach $100 billion per year.”
The €18.8m European StarLight project also marks a key step for silicon photonics in the datacentre.
This is using the PIC100 silicon photonics process technology developed by STMicroelectronics with hyperscaler Amazon Web Services and announced earlier this year. PIC100 uses 300mm silicon wafers at Crolles in France, for high volume production of photonic chips, with the option to use the fab at Agrate in Italy. For StarLight, there are 24 partners developing an end-to-end process for optical engines.
Low loss silicon waveguides in the STMicroelectronics PIC100 process
“StarLight is at the crossroads of ST’s strategy in the datacentre business to place Europe as a leader to support the AI and datacentre revolution,” Sylvie Gellida, general manager of the optical and RF foundry division at STMicroelectronics tells eeNews Europe.
“We have a lot of ambition in silicon photonics combined with the BiCMOS and with the StarLight ecosystem and the ecosystem beyond starlight we have the right partners in Europe and outside Europe to be part of this revolution with a high pace of innovation, that’s critical for the next generation of technology,”
“Silicon photonics is becoming pivotal for the coming years,” she said. The first target is for optical engines for datacom modules as this is the biggest portion of the market today for project partners such as Ericsson and startup Sicoya in Berlin, Germany.
Ericsson will focus on two concepts to improve mobile network efficiency. The first involves the development of an integrated switch to enable optical offload within Radio Access Networks, allowing for more efficient handling of data traffic. The second concept explores Radio over Fiber technology to relocate power-intensive processing ASICs away from antenna units, increasing capacity.
Mbryonics in Galway, Ireland, will also develop a free space to fibre interface at the reception of Free Space Optical (FSO) communication, which is a key element in the design of a space-based optical communication system.
But there is also a key focus on photonics for chiplets.
“We will work on different heterogeneous integration and we are also working on the packaging aspects, bumping and microbumping need to be developed,” she said
“We are developing another technology at ST with TSV capability as well as compact modulators and that will improve the power efficiency of the optical engine,” said Gellida.
The baseline is the PIC100 by the end of this year. The stack includes all the elements of the optical engine with Si and SiN waveguides with a very efficient edge coupler, high speed 50GHz modulator, a photodiode with an 80Ghz bandwidth which is very important for the integration of the Rx rather than just Tx and that is very useful for the bill of materials
“Starting from this baseline we will integrate the TSV and modulators on one side,” she said. “Today we are 25G per lane and with research to evaluate different materials to 400Gbit/s.”
“For chiplets we have a roadmap for production in the middle of 2028 so prototyping will start next year and we are already engaged on this
The project is prototyping devices with 200Gbit/s per lane bandwidth today with mass production next year and 400G per lane prototyping in 2027 with production in 2028
“The way we work is we have a PDK that is proprietary that we deliver to StarLight partners and customers and they are designing using the PDK for customised IP,” she said.
“StarLight is very important in the ST strategy to innovate but that’s not the only one and we can also connect with other parties,” she said. “Out of StarLight we are working with a couple of promising startups on innovative solutions.”
But the opportunities for photonics in Europe cover more than just communications. “We don’t forget emerging markets including sensing and lidar, working with Steerlight for silicon based lidar,” she said.
The project is also working on new materials with : various advanced materials will be explored with SOITEC, CEA-LETI, imec, Universite Paris-Saclay, III-V LAB and Lumiphase exploring Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI), Lithium Niobate (LNOI), and Barium Titanate (BTO).
Photonics startup
Near to Crolles, a French photonics startup has raised €50m in a Series B funding round that includes Nvidia as well as Bosch Ventures for world-leading datacentre technology.
The Scintil Heterogeneous Integration Photonics (SHIP) process technology developed by Scintil Photonics enables the integration of multiple optical devices, including lasers, photodiodes, and modulators, on a single chip. This allows Scintil, a spin out of Grenoble-based research lab CEA-Leti, to replace dozens of traditionally separate parts with a single-chip. Leti is also part of the StarLight project.
The SHIP technology enables low-power, high-density optical connectivity for chiplets, with 6.4 Tbps/mm edge bandwidth density at roughly one-sixth the power consumption of conventional pluggable designs. The technology is designed for scale-up GPU clusters and emerging AI systems, with reference packaging and integration support to accelerate deployment.
The funding enables Scintil to expand its staff in France and internationally, including the US, and accelerate production of its single-chip DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) light engine, integrating multi-wavelength lasers with silicon photonics for next-generation co-packaged optics (CPO).
“Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) co-packaged optics is a differentiator that supports connecting thousands of GPUs at the bandwidth density requirements of next-gen AI infrastructure,” said Daryl Inniss, Optical Components and Advanced Fiber lead at analyst Omdia. “Scintil’s single-chip DWDM laser source, based on a heterogeneous integrated photonics process, demonstrates how this can be delivered in a manufacturable and scalable platform. This capability is important as AI factories push toward larger clusters and higher throughput.”
“This marks a pivotal moment as we move to full-scale deployment,” said Matt Crowley, CEO of Scintil. “Our SHIP technology enables integrated photonics with the scalability, energy efficiency, and integration density required to power next-generation compute infrastructure. This efficiency not only reduces data centre operating costs but also contributes to lowering the carbon footprint of AI infrastructure.”
Cornerstone photonics
At the same time, the UK is pushing photonics as a key differentiator for the semiconductor industry, There are over 1400 firms working on the technology in the UK with the £18bn market growing at 20 to 25% a year.
The Cornerstone project at the University of Southampton has been capitalising on this growth since 2014, working with universities and over 100 industry partners on multi-project wafers, shipping 800 batches of photonic chips to 24 countries. The project is launched an opensource process development kit (PDK) this week to provide more access to the technology to researchers and companies.
The newly launched Cornerstone Photonics Innovation Centre (C-PIC) is funded as the UK’s technology hub for silicon photonics to build a pipeline of silicon photonics enabled companies serving multiple industry sectors by 2030. It offers seven photonics technology platforms for applications such as telecoms, sensing, LiDAR and quantum. Each platform has a standard component library and open-source PDK, helping to lower entry barriers and help with the development of early-stage R&D projects and build proof-of-concept prototypes.
The University of Southampton is also one of two UK universities that are part of the €380m PIXEurope photonics pilot line that started in June this year. This is led by ICFO of Spain and is bringing together 18 partners from 11 countries to build an ecosystem for integrated photonics with design, fabrication, packaging and test. This includes silicon on insulator as well as silicon nitride (SiN) and Germanium on Silicon as well as indium phosphide (InP) and even graphene.
“PIXEurope is the first photonic chip pilot line in Europe that unifies diverse materials, processes, and integration techniques that will allow the development and demonstration of devices and systems for all applications where Photonics is a key technology,” said Valerio Pruneri, ICREA Professor, ICFO Group Leader and Director of the pilot line.
Europe needs to scale-up its integrated photonic capabilities and the PIXEurope consortium is set to address this grand challenge,” said Peter O’Brien, Head of Packaging at the Tyndall Institute in Ireland.
“PIXEurope will facilitate the wide adoption of advanced photonic integrated circuits produced using the standardised design kits and foundry processes pioneered in Europe. Advanced photonic chips will offer game changing advances in speed, power efficiency and precision,” said Kevin Williams, Chair of the Photonic Integration group at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
Quantum computing
Photonics has also been key for PsiQuantum in building a quantum computer with millions of qubits. The company has integrated Barium Titanate (BTO) into its manufacturing flow on 300mm wafers. BTO is one of the world’s highest-performing electro-optic materials and can be used for ultra-high-performance optical switches to scale the optical network. The BTO wafers are processed at the PsiQuantum fab in California and then integrated with wafers manufactured at GlobalFoundries.
The BTO-enabled optical switch also has potential in next-generation AI supercomputers, an area of increased interest given rapidly-growing AI workloads—where low-power, high-speed optical networking is increasingly important.
The PsiQuantum Omega chipset includes SiN waveguides with losses as low as 0.5 ± 0.3 dB m−1, splitters and crossings with 0.5 ± 0.2 mdB and 1.2 ± 0.4 mdB loss, respectively, and fibre-to-chip coupling losses as low as 52 ± 12 mdB.
The manufacturing flow with GF includes more than 20 photolithography levels and hundreds of processing and in-line measurement steps. Critical process modules developed include passive silicon-on-insulator photonic waveguides, a niobium nitride (NbN) superconducting layer for single-photon detection, deep metal-filled trenches for optical noise reduction, resistive heaters for phase control and optical circuit reconfigurability, grating couplers for optical input/output, back-end-of-line copper electrical interconnects and aluminium redistribution layers.
Photonics education
Making sure Europe has the skills to take advantage of the growth is photonics is also key.
The €5m Phortify project launched in September is looking to cover the full photonics value chain – from fundamentals to design, fabrication, packaging, testing, and deployment. The initiative is offering a shared photonics curriculum as electives within local Master’s programmes, with a certificate awarded to students who complete 30 ECTS. The programme is directly aligned with the EU’s Digital Europe mission to build strategic digital capacities.
“Europe needs photonics talent, such as engineers who understand the entire chain from design to deployment,” said Tino Eidam, Chief Technology Officer at Active Fiber Systems, Germany, which makes femtosecond laser systems.
“Phortify’s curriculum, stackable modules, and hands-on projects help build exactly those skills. For companies, this means access to well-prepared professionals who can contribute to innovation and support the development of advanced photonics solutions in a more targeted and efficient way.”
Coordinated by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) with a dozen partners across Europe, Phortify also looks to boost diversity and inclusion, with financial aid, mentoring and targeted outreach to top students from underrepresented groups. This will include a comprehensive support framework that includes scholarships, fee waivers, cost-of-living support, and mobility/travel grants.
“Phortify is more than a project, it is a strategic investment in Europe’s digital future. By building a harmonised photonics education network, we are equipping the next generation with the innovation mindset and digital skills excellence that industry and society urgently need. This launch marks the beginning of a powerful collaboration across borders, disciplines and sectors,” said Professor Heidi Ottevaere at VUB in Belgium.
This is backed up by the senior management at ST. “Silicon Photonics technology is critical to put Europe at the crossroads to the AI factory of the future and the STARLight project represents a significant step for the entire value chain in Europe, driving innovation and collaboration among leading technology companies,” said Remi El-Ouazzane, President, Microcontrollers, Digital ICs and RF products Group at STMicroelectronics.
“By focusing on application-based results, the project aims to deliver cutting-edge solutions for datacentres, AI clusters, telecommunications, and automotive markets. With well-recognized pan-European partners, the consortium is set to lead the next generation of silicon photonics technologies and applications.”
With the PIXEurope open foundry and the UK’s Cornerstone photonics foundry, coupled with the Phortify education programme, there is a strong pipeline of development of photonics technologies and components, with support for both large national champions and startups that can be the next leaders in the technology.
www.st.com; www.scintil.com; www.starlight-h2020.eu; www.phortify.eu
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