The IMB-CNM collaborates in a project to set the strategic lines of integrated photonics in the industry
Researchers from the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona participate in WOW-2D, an industrial research project in collaboration between companies and research organizations, to set the strategic lines in the field of integrated photonics.
Photonic component integrated into silicon technology.
The Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC) participates in the WOW-2D project, whose general objective is the industrial integration of 2D material optoelectronic devices manufactured on a wafer scale, with standard photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platforms. Carlos Domínguez is the main researcher of the contribution.
“The IMB-CNM will be in charge of making integrated photonic circuits in the visible range using a silicon nitride photonic platform” explains Domínguez.
The WOW-2D proposal unfolds into, on the one hand, developing optoelectronic devices (both photodetectors and light sources and modulators) at the wafer level using 2D material heterostructures. On the other, the integration of these devices on a photonic system, integrated structure fabricated using a PIC platform based on silicon nitride (SiN), by directly growing the 2D devices on the SiN waveguide structure.
The cointegration of PICs and wafer-scale 2D materials will enable the industrial exploitation of a new generation of optoelectronic devices, such as markerless biosensors, energy harvesters, room-temperature quantum devices for computing and communication and sensing; and opens the door to optical communications within a single chip.
The main tasks within the project are distributed among the collaborating members. They are the obtaining of two-dimensional materials with the necessary characteristics for the active components (UGR), the characterization of the materials and correlation with the obtaining methods (ICMM), the integration of the two-dimensional active components on the photonic circuit (Graphenea) and the optoelectronic characterization of the developed circuits (UPM).
Public institutional collaboration for industrial research
Large-scale integration of 2D optoelectronic devices in standard PIC photonic platforms (WOW-2D) is an industrial research project in collaboration between companies and research organizations. The Materials Science Institute of Madrid (ICMM, CSIC) is a part of it, with the researcher Carlos Pecharromán, together with the company Graphenea Semiconductor S.L, with the manufacturing manager Dr. Elías Torres, and the Applied Photonics Group (GFA) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), with professor Ignacio Esquivias.
The project is led by Professor Francisco Gámiz Pérez, head of the Nanoelectronics, Graphene and Two-Dimensional Materials Laboratory at the University of Granada (UGR). This laboratory is dedicated to the manufacture of graphene in its different forms and varieties, as well as to the development of graphene-based systems for electronic applications, including biosensors, electronic nanodevices for IoT (Internet of Things) and flexible electronics applications.
The WOW-2D project, an R+D+i project in strategic lines 2022, is financed within the State Program to Promote Scientific-Technical Research and its Transfer (AEI PLEC2022-009381).