Imec announced that it will participate in the consortia of European research and development projects, as part of the European Silicon Photonics Cluster. The 10 project consortia are collaborating to enable the transfer of technology and knowledge in electronics field.
The company has contributed to seven of the consortia that comprise companies, universities, and research institutes. The consortia will improve the capability of the electronics industry of Europe to compete worldwide. The 10 research projects included in the cluster are Boom, Sabio, Wadimos, UK Silicon Photonic, SOFI, Platon, PhotonFAB, Intopsens, Helios, and Historic.
The European Silicon Photonics Cluster and the research consortia will work together to create awareness of the silicon photonics’ potential among the start-ups, end-users, chip foundries, and other companies. These projects will train novice researchers, engineers, and scientists in the silicon photonics field. The research projects will also distribute their project results to the public and industry, and will conduct a silicon photonics workshop in 2011.
Silicon photonics applies CMOS techniques for integrating chips with optics technology. In contrast to other photonics technologies, silicon photonics can significantly minimize the power consumption, size, and cost of the components, while enhancing their performance. CMOS photonics technology will help produce cost-effective solutions for different applications such as biological, optical sensing, optical signal processing, and optical communications.
Source: http://www2.imec.be