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At this week’s IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM 2014), nanoelectronics research center imec and its associated lab at Ghent University have demonstrated the industry’s first integrated graphene optical electro-absorption modulator (EAM) capable of 10Gb/s modulation speed. Combining low insertion loss, low drive voltage, high thermal stability, broadband operation and compact footprint, the device marks an important milestone in the realization of next-generation, high-density low-power integrated optical interconnects.

Integrated optical modulators with high modulation speed, small footprint and broadband athermal operation are highly desired for future chip-level optical interconnects. Graphene is a promising material to achieve this, owing to its fast tunable absorption over a wide spectral range. Imec’s graphene-silicon EAM consists of a 50mm long graphene-oxide-silicon capacitor structure implemented on top of a planarized silicon-on-insulator (SOI) rib waveguide. For the first time, high-quality optical modulation was demonstrated in a hybrid graphene-silicon modulator, at bit rates up to 10Gb/s. A competitive optical insertion loss below 4dB and extinction ratio of 2.5dB were obtained over a broad wavelength range of 80nm around 1550nm center wavelength. Moreover, no significant changes in performance were observed for temperatures in the range of 20-49°C, implying a robust athermal operation. As such, imec’s graphene-silicon EAM outperforms state-of-the-art SiGe EAMs on thermal robustness and optical bandwidth specifications.

“With this breakthrough result, imec has illustrated the huge potential of graphene optical EA modulators with respect to thermal, bandwidth, and footprint benefits,” said Philippe Absil, 3D and Optical Technologies department director at imec.  “This achievement underscores our dedicated work and industry leadership in R&D on high bandwidth chip-level optical input/output. Future work will focus on further improving the modulation speed of our graphene EAM, similar to the speed obtained in highly optimized Si(Ge) modulators (30-50 Gb/s).”

Imec’s research on high-bandwidth optical input/output (I/O) explores optical solutions for realizing high-bandwidth chip-level I/O. With support by its associated lab at Ghent University it aims at developing a scalable, manufacturable silicon-based optical interconnect technology for the telecom and datacom industry.  Imec’s portfolio includes low-loss strip waveguides, highly efficient grating couplers, 25Gb/s Mach-Zehnder modulators, 25Gb/s Ge photodetectors and more. Imec’s R&D on high bandwidth chip-level input/output is performed in cooperation with imec’s key partners in its core CMOS programs including Intel, Samsung, TSMC, Globalfoundries, Micron, Sony, SK Hynix, Huawei.

Imec recently joined the Graphene Flagship, Europe’s 1 billion EUR Programme covering the whole value chain from materials production to components and system. This will further strengthen imec’s strategic position in exploiting Graphene’s unique properties for optical interconnect applications.

Researchers in Spain have discovered that if lead atoms are intercalated on a graphene sheet, a powerful magnetic field is generated by the interaction of the electrons’ spin with their orbital movement. This property could have implications in spintronics, an emerging technology promoted by the European Union to create advanced computational systems.

Graphene is considered the material of the future due to its extraordinary optical and electronic mechanical properties, especially because it conducts electrons very quickly. However, it does not have magnetic properties, and thus no method has been found to manipulate these electrons or any of their properties to use it in new magnetoelectronic devices, although Spanish scientists have come upon a key.

Researchers from IMDEA Nanoscience, the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Madrid Institute of Materials Science (CSIC) and the University of the Basque Country describe in the journal Nature Physics this week how to create a powerful magnetic field using this new material.

The secret is to intercalate atoms or Pb islands below the sea of hexagons of carbon that make up graphene. This produces an enormous interaction between two electron characteristics: their spin – a small ‘magnet’ linked to their rotation – and their orbit, the movement they follow around the nucleus.

“This spin-orbit interaction is a million times more intense than that inherent to graphene, which is why we obtain revolutions that could have important uses, for example in data storage,” explains Rodolfo Miranda, Director of IMDEA Nanoscience and head of the study.

To obtain this effect, the scientists laid a layer of lead on another of graphene, in turn grown over an iridium crystal. In this configuration the lead forms “islands” below the graphene and the electrons of this two-dimensional material behave as if in the presence of a colossal 80-tesla magnetic field, which facilitates the selective control of the flow of spins.

Traffic control with two lanes

“And, what is most important, under these conditions certain electronic states are topologically protected; in other words, they are immune to defects, impurities or geometric disturbances,” continues Miranda, who gives this example: “If we compare it to traffic, in a traditional spintronic material cars circulate along a single-lane road, which make collisions more likely, whilst with this new material we have traffic control with two spatially separate lanes, preventing crashes.”

Spintronics is a new technology that uses electrons’ magnetic spin to store information bits. It arose with the discovery of giant magnetoresistance, a finding which won Peter Grümberg and Albert Fert the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007. It is an effect that causes great changes to the electric resistance of fine multi-layer materials and has led to the development of components as varied as the reader heads on hard disks or the sensors in airbags.

The first generation of spintronic or magnetoresistant devices was based on the effect magnetic materials have on electron spin. But a second generation is already up and running, and encompasses this new study, in which electrons’ own spin-orbit interaction acts on them as if there were a real external magnetic field, even if there is not.

The use of graphene as an active component in spintronics is one of the fundamental aims of the large European Union project “Graphene Flagship.” The scientists’ final objective is to wilfully control the type of spin the electrons in this new material have in order to apply it to the electronic devices of the future.

Initially focused on the military, uncooled thermal camera sales have grown significantly due to substantial cost reduction of micro bolometers and growing adoption in commercial markets, including thermography, automotive and surveillance applications. The market research and strategy consulting company, Yole Développement (Yole) confirmed this growth last July: indeed, Yole announced +25% CAGR between 2014 and 2019 in its infrared imaging report, Uncooled Infrared Imaging Technology Market (Ed. July 2014).

In this report, Yole’s analysts also highlighted the consumer applications: this market has moved to a new phase of growth in 2013-2014. Under this context, FLIR introduced in 2014, two disruptive technologies: the LEPTON core and FLIR ONE smartphone plugin.

“A high number of pre-release reservations for FLIR ONE (more than 30K units in July 2014) already confirms the commercial success of this innovation,” said Yole.

System Plus Consulting (System Plus), a sister company of Yole, specialized in technology and electronic components and systems cost analysis, looked into new FLIR’s products and proposes today a complete teardown analysis, entitled System Plus’ report details the bill-of-material (BOM), the manufacturing process flow and related cost analysis, the supply chain evolution and a comparison with FLIR i7 infrared camera and microbolometer sensors. FLIR Systems FLIR ONE & LEPTON Consumer Thermal Imager with Microbolometer. FLIR is the world’s largest long wave IR (LWIR) camera manufacturer and main microbolometer supplier, and as such it drives the price war in the commercial market.

“FLIR’s strategy is to take volume leadership in multiple markets, make economies of scale and further decrease price,” explained Michel Allain, CEO, System Plus, the reverse costing & engineering company. “To achieve this it exploits a vertically-integrated business model and a fabless structure, with manufacturing subcontracted to ON Semiconductor,” he added.

FLIR also boosted that strategy by acquiring Indigo System’s IR imager business in 2004 and Tessera’s Digital Optics wafer-level optics (WLO) division in 2013.

This year, the company released two innovative solutions: the Lepton core and FLIR ONETM smartphone plugin. Plugged into the back of an iPhone 5 or 5S, the FLIR ONETM is the first consumer thermal camera featuring LWIR technology. It contains a visible VGA (640×480) camera and a thermal camera which provide images blended using FLIR MSX Technology.

The thermal camera uses FLIR’s new Lepton core, where costs have been reduced in every element. The most expensive component, the sensor, is an uncooled vanadium-oxide (VOx) microbolometer, featuring an 80×60 pixel resolution with 17μm pixel size. Vox provides a high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and low 1/f noise, resulting in excellent thermal sensitivity and stable uniformity. The microbolometer array is grown monolithically on top of a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) to comprise the complete focal plane array (FPA). An anti-reflection (AR) coated window is bonded above the sensor array via a wafer-level packaging (WLP) process, encapsulating the array in a vacuum. The purpose of the vacuum is to provide high thermal resistance between the microbolometer elements and the ROIC substrate, allowing for maximum temperature change in response to incident radiation.

The system electronics that receive and process the signal is a custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) device mounted in flip-chip on the substrate. Digital Optics’ WLO brings an important part of the cost reduction. The silicon lenses are made at the wafer level with lithography and etching processes. The final cost reduction comes from the core housing, which is a three-dimensional molded interconnected device (3D-MID). Incorporating a conductive circuit pattern inside the housing provides grounding and allows FLIR to integrate a temperature sensor.

“Thanks to its strong integration at the core level with innovative WLO, wafer-level packaging (WLP) and custom ASIC use, the FLIR Lepton is the world’s smallest microbolometer-based thermal imaging camera core,” comments Romain Fraux, Project Manager, MEMS Devices, IC’s and Advanced Packaging, System Plus.

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Intel announces IoT platform


December 11, 2014

Intel Corporation today announced the Intel IoT Platform, an end-to-end reference model designed to unify and simplify connectivity and security for the Internet of Things (IoT). Intel also introduced integrated hardware and software products based on the new platform and new relationships with an expanded ecosystem of system integrators that promise to move IoT from infancy to mass deployment.

The new offerings and relationships will make it easier for solution providers to move IoT from pockets of pilots to mainstream deployments with a repeatable foundation of building blocks that can be customized for limitless solutions. Data will be unlocked faster to extract meaningful information and value for consumers and businesses.

For example, Rudin Management, a New York City real estate company who developed its own system software called DiBoss, has demonstrated that it can intelligently manage energy and other systems in its buildings. In one year, in one building, the company saved nearly $1 million to its bottom line, which would translate to a savings of 50 cents for every square foot of real estate it owns and manages.

“The power of IoT on our company’s business will have significant impact,” said John Gilbert, COO, Rudin Management. “We are a real estate company that used to dabble in technology, but now because of IoT, we are a technology company that dabbles in real estate.”

Horizontal Approach to IoT
The Intel IoT Platform helps deliver innovations to market faster, reducing solution complexity, and delivering actionable intelligence faster by offering a defined, repeatable foundation for how devices will connect and deliver trusted data to the cloud.

“With this platform we are continuing to expand our IoT product family beyond silicon with enhancements to our pre-integrated solutions that make IoT more accessible to solution providers,” said Doug Davis, vice president and general manager, Internet of Things Group, Intel. “IoT is a rapidly growing market but faces scalability hurdles. By simplifying the development process and making it easier to deploy new solutions that address market needs, we can help accelerate innovation.”

Expanding IoT Ecosystem
IoT has enormous potential to drive economic value and social change, but no company can do it alone. A robust ecosystem is needed to scale. To that end, Intel announced new solutions and relationships to boost the IoT ecosystem. Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capgemini, Dell, HCL, NTT DATA, SAP, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Wipro and others are joining together with Intel to develop and deploy solutions using their building blocks on the Intel IoT Platform. These solutions will help provide a repeatable foundation for IoT and free up developers’ time to focus on building solutions that expertly address specific customer pain points.

“Accenture is focused on helping clients realize the business value of the IoT as quickly and easily as possible,” said Mike Sutcliff, group chief executive, Accenture Digital. “Our combined capabilities can help us achieve that, and can also help clients get around some of the biggest roadblocks to IoT adoption by offering a simpler, faster way to roll out end to end IoT solutions than currently exists. Together, we can enable clients to define a clear value strategy for the IoT, and by using Accenture’s industry experience and digital assets to complement Intel’s IoT platform, we can create robust, end-to-end frameworks designed to overcome challenges associated with security, scalability and interoperability in IoT implementations.”

Integrated Hardware and Software
Intel is also delivering a roadmap of integrated hardware and software products to support the Intel IoT Platform. Spanning from edge devices out to the cloud, the roadmap includes API management and service creation software, edge-to-cloud connectivity and analytics, intelligent gateways, and a full line of scalable IA processors. Security is fundamental to the roadmap with both dedicated security products and security features embedded into hardware and software products.

Intel is evolving and optimizing this product roadmap to work seamlessly together with building blocks from the ecosystem to address the key challenges solution providers are facing when implementing IoT, including interoperability, security and connectivity.

The new products from Intel include:

  • Wind River Edge Management System provides cloud connectivity to facilitate device configuration, file transfers, data capture and rules-based data analysis and response. This pre-integrated technology stack enables customers to quickly build industry-specific IoT solutions and integrate disparate enterprise IT systems, utilizing API management. The cloud-based middleware runs from the embedded device up through the cloud to reduce time to market and total cost of ownership.
  • The latest Intel® IoT Gateway will integrate the Wind River Edge Management System via an available agent so gateways can be rapidly deployed, provisioned and managed throughout the life cycle of a system to reduce costs and time to market. In addition, the gateway includes performance improvements, support for lower cost memory options and a broader selection of available communication options. Intel IoT Gateways are currently available from seven ODMs with 13 more releasing systems in early 2015.
  • To get value out of the data generated in deployments using the Intel® IoT Platform, developers need a powerful yet easy-to-use approach to big data analytics. Intel is expanding its cloud analytics support for IoT Developer Kits to include the Intel® IoT Gateway series, in addition to Intel® Galileo boards and Intel® Edison Modules. Cloud analytics enables IoT application developers to detect trends and anomalies in time series at big data scale.
  • McAfee, a part of Intel Security, announced Enhanced Security for Intel IoT Gateways in support of the Intel IoT Platform. This pre-validated solution adds advanced security management for gateway devices.
  • Intel Security also announced that its Enhanced Privacy Identity (EPID) technology will be promoted to other silicon vendors. EPID has anonymity properties, in addition to hardware-enforced integrity, and is included in ISO and TCG standards. The EPID technology provides an on-ramp for other devices to securely connect to the Intel IoT Platform.
  • The Intel API and Traffic Management solution utilizes Intel Mashery solutions to enable creation of building blocks that make it easy to build new software applications. Customers of the Intel IoT Platform today have access to the Intel Mashery API management tools to create data APIs that can be shared internally, externally with partners or monetized as revenue-generating data services for customers.
INTEL_01_scalingiot-01

Intel is working to create a robust, scalable IoT ecosystem.

OCEASOFT, a global provider of sensor-based solutions for monitoring environmental parameters in the health, medical, life science and cold-chain/transport sectors, today announced a partnership with Internet of Things networking pioneer SIGFOX, along with a new line of Cobalt sensors that can transmit data directly to cloud storage without the need for traditional cellular or Wi-Fi service.

The new Cobalt S3 line of smart wireless sensors is designed to take advantage of SIGFOX’s global network that is dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT). It is designed exclusively for two-way, small-message device communication. This eliminates the cost and energy-use barriers to wide adoption of the IoT and greatly extends the battery and service life of connected devices.

Cobalt S3, slated to ship in January 2015, will offer all the proven monitoring capabilities of OCEASOFT’s existing Cobalt sensors, including temperature, humidity, ambient light and voltage, while providing always-on cloud connectivity via SIGFOX’s IoT network.

This approach greatly simplifies sensor installation and startup, extends battery life, and allows the sensors to maintain connectivity in isolated locations without local network or traditional cellular infrastructure. Local users can also access Cobalt S3 readings from smartphones and tablets using Bluetooth Smart.

“Working with SIGFOX to offer this new functionality to our customers is a big step forward for OCEASOFT and our commitment to provide unparalleled cloud-based access to mission-critical sensor data,” said OCEASOFT CEO Laurent Rousseau. “This is, to our knowledge, the first industrial IoT sensor-monitoring solution, and it opens new opportunities for our clients in many sectors. It’s of special interest in pollution and environmental monitoring applications, because it makes it possible to get constantly updated information from sensors in off-the-grid locations.”

OCEASOFT, which serves hundreds of clients worldwide, will initially offer Cobalt S3 in areas where SIGFOX has rolled out its network: France, Holland, the UK, and Spain, as well as several major European cities. Additional expansion is planned in Europe and the US, and plans call for extending coverage to ocean regions, which will enable new shipping and transport applications for the Cobalt S3 sensors.

Data generated by all Cobalt sensors is held securely in the OCEACloud data service, and can be instantly monitored and viewed via computer, or OCEASOFT’s ThermoClient Mobile app, which runs on iOS and Android phones and tablets.

Its wireless Cobalt sensor modules can be equipped with a wide range of internal and external sensor options, including temperature, humidity, CO2, differential pressure, ambient light and voltage. All provide continuously updated reporting, and meet demanding requirements for manufacturing, laboratory work, life sciences, cold chain/transport and other advanced industry sectors.

At next week’s mHealth Summit 2014, held Dec. 7-11 in Washington, D.C., nanoelectronics research center imec and Holst Centre will showcase at their booth (#610) a development kit based on an open hardware platform using a highly integrated multi-sensor data acquisition chip. The chip combines on-board digital signal processing with analog interfaces for multiple body sensors, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) and bio-impedance. The development kit is extremely small and light-weight and has an open sensor platform. The sensor platform can be fully customized with different sensors enabling the development of wearable and personal healthcare applications.

The development kit builds upon imec and Holst Centre’s ultra-low power multi-sensor data acquisition chip (MUSEIC). Its unique combination of high accuracy and ultra-low power allows reliable monitoring for several days with only a single battery. Additionally, its high integration enables smaller, more comfortable devices and innovative designs.

“One of the major limitations in the development of innovative personal healthcare applications is the availability of miniature and open hardware platform” said Chris Van Hoof, program director at imec. “Our development kit will offer application developers a miniature, light-weight, and customizable hardware platform, enabling application development and field studies.”

The development kit consists of a customizable sensor layer (including 3-lead ECG, bio-impedance, accelerometer and microphone), the MUSEIC chip, SD card storage, a Bluetooth (4.0) and Bluetooth low-energy compliant radio, and a separate ARM Cortex M4 processor. The MUSEIC chip is capable of collecting data from a wide range of on-body sensors (both analog and digital interfacing) and performing basic signal processing. It features analog interfaces optimized for three-channel ECGs, bio-impedance and tissue impedance. Additionally, a two-input general-purpose analog and six digital (SPI and I2C) interfaces allow the chip to connect to other sensors biomedical and physical sensors. A compact, low-power ARM Cortex-M0 processor is included to control the sensors and perform basic signal processing. Dedicated hardware accelerators handle matrix operations and motion artifact reduction, off-loading these tasks from the Cortex-M0 processor to improve performance and reduce power consumption.

In a typical use case collecting ECG, bio-impedance and 3-axis accelerometer data, the complete evaluation kit consumes on average only 10 m W – low enough for at least a few days of monitoring on a single battery charge.

Holst Centre and imec’s MUSEIC chip is available for interested parties through IP licensing. A ready-to-use development kit, comprising the chip, sensors and powerful off-chip processor for advanced feature extraction, is available to application developers for wearable health monitoring applications.

imec health

Scientists have developed a new light-sensitive film that could one day form the basis of a prosthetic retina to help people suffering from retinal damage or degeneration. Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers collaborated with colleagues from Tel Aviv University and Newcastle University in the research, which was published in the journal Nano Letters.

The retina is a thin layer of tissue at the inner surface of the eye. Composed of light-sensitive nerve cells, it converts images to electrical impulses and sends them to the brain. Damage to the retina from macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and other conditions can reduce vision or cause total blindness. In the United States alone, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects as many as 15 million Americans, with over 200,000 new cases diagnosed every year.

Scientists are currently designing a variety of medical devices to counter the effects of retinal disorders by sending visual signals to the brain. But these silicon-chip based solutions are typically hampered by their size, use of rigid parts, or requirement of external wiring such as to energy sources.

Carbon nanotube-semiconductor nanocrystals film for light stimulation of the retina. Absorption of light by semiconductor nanorods attached to carbon nanotube film (upper right) results in retina stimulation (upper left). Reused and adapted with permission from Bareket, Waiskopf et al, Semiconductor Nanorod–Carbon Nanotube Biomimetic Films for Wire-Free Photostimulation of Blind Retinas. Nano Letters, 2014; 14 (11): 6685 DOI: 10.1021/nl5034304. Copyright (2014) American Chemical Society

In the new study, Hebrew University researchers collaborated with colleagues from Tel Aviv University and Newcastle University to develop a novel approach for retina stimulation. Their device absorbs light and stimulates neurons without using wires or external power sources.

The Hebrew University researchers are Prof. Uri Banin, the Alfred & Erica Larisch Memorial Chair in Solar Energy, and his graduate student Nir Waiskopf, at the Institute of Chemistry and the Harvey M. Krueger Family Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

The researchers combined semiconductor nanorods and carbon nanotubes to create a wireless, light-sensitive, flexible implantable film. The film transforms visual cues to electric signals, mimicking the function of the photo-sensitive cells in the retina. Therefore, it could potentially form part of a future prosthetic device that will replace the damaged cells in the retina.

The researchers tested the new device on light-insensitive retinas from embryonic chicks and observed a neuronal response triggered by light.

According to the researchers, the new device is compact, capable of higher resolution than previous designs, and is also more effective at stimulating neurons. While much work remains until this can provide a practical solution, with additional research the researchers hope their carbon nanotube-semiconductor nanocrystals film will one day effectively replace damaged retinas in humans.

Prof. Uri Banin of the Hebrew University said: “This is a pioneering work demonstrating the use of highly tailored semiconductor nanocrystals in activation of biomedical functionalities. We hope this can lead to future implementation of this approach in retinal implants.”

The researchers received funding from the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology, the European Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

The research was published in Nano Letters as “Semiconductor Nanorod-Carbon Nanotube Biomimetic Films for Wire-Free Photostimulation of Blind Retinas.”

AXSEM, a developer of lowest-power radio microcontrollers, and SIGFOX, a developer of cost-effective, energy-efficient Internet of Things connectivity, today announced that AXSEM’s system-on-chip (SoC) with an AX8052 microcontroller has been certified SIGFOX Ready for two-way connectivity.

AXSEM’s IC, library and development system enable IoT developers to easily use SIGFOX’s long-range, two-way wireless Internet-dedicated network with AXSEM’s superior lowest-power radio technology. This combination of low costs, lowest-power consumption and international coverage makes it the ideal solution for environmental sensors, smart meters, patient monitors, security devices, streetlights and many more applications.

The SIGFOX network eliminates the cost and energy-use barriers to wide implementation of IoT and M2M solutions by providing small-message communication and greatly extending the battery and service life of connected devices.

“AXSEM was very early to recognize and respond to the demand for transceivers that provide extremely low-power, wireless connectivity for the Internet of Things,” said Stuart Lodge, executive vice president of global sales at SIGFOX. “Our network requires a reliable supply of high-performance, low-cost and extremely energy-efficient integrated circuits, and our collaboration with AXSEM helps assure those solutions will be available to our customers.”

“AXSEM is focused on enabling IoT developers with easy-to-use development tools to bring their SIGFOX devices quickly to the market,” said Dr. Thomas Wolff, CEO of AXSEM. “Our AX8052F143 lowest-power radio microcontroller solution gives those developers robust and reliable two-way connectivity to the SIGFOX global network.”

The AXSEM AX8052F143 receives with 9.5 mA current and -129 dBm sensitivity at 600 bps GFSK. The chip features a 6 dBm transmitter with only 10 mA current consumption or 16 dBm with 45 mA, enabling designers to maximize battery life while extending communication range. A frequency range from 27 to 1050 MHz completes the excellence of the device and has made the AX8052F143 an industry-leading performer for the past three years.

Nanoelectronics research center imec and global ICT leader Huawei announced today that they have taken a further step in their strategic partnership focusing on optical data link technology. The joint research on silicon-based optical interconnects is expected to deliver benefits including high speed, low power consumption and cost savings.

Silicon photonics is a key enabling technology expected to revolutionise optical communications by paving the way for the creation of highly integrated, low power optical transceivers used for data transmission and telecommunications.

Huawei has now joined imec’s research program which focuses on optimizing bandwidth density, power consumption, thermal robustness and cost at the system level. Huawei engineers will work closely with imec’s R&D team in Leuven, Belgium, with a view to achieving technological progress in this vital area for delivering connectivity matching the needs of the Europe of tomorrow.

In 2013, Huawei acquired photonics company Caliopa spin-off from imec and UGent, thereby adding silicon photonics research to its European R&D portfolio. Delivering on its commitment of boosting Caliopa’s development, Huawei has been investing in its human resources and infrastructure, prompting it to move offices to keep step with its rapid growth.

“This is an important next step in our collaboration with Huawei on silicon photonics. This collaboration, together with Huawei’s recent acquisition of our spin-off Caliopa that focuses on developing silicon photonics-based optical transceivers for the telecommunications industry, shows that our silicon photonics research is important for advancing next-generation high-bandwidth ICT solutions,” stated Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec.“We expect this partnership to give a further boost to our silicon photonics research over the coming years.”

“Having acquired cutting-edge expertise in the field of silicon photonics thanks to our acquisition of Caliopa last year, this partnership with imec is the logical next move towards next-generation optical communication. By combining our strengths in this strategic area, we can deliver ICT innovation that translates into value for businesses and consumers in Europe and beyond,” said Hudson Liu, CEO at Huawei Belgium.

Imec’s role as a global leader in the field of silicon electronics, combined with Caliopa’s expertise in this field – leveraged by Huawei’s global reach – make this new partnership a strategic advantage for all sides.

Thanks to Huawei’s global platform and network, the company can bring silicon photonics research results to the market, effectively speeding up the commercialisation of its products. This means creating a win-win situation where R&D success translates into industrial achievement: the expertise achieved in Belgium will make a direct contribution to improving communications technology at a global level.

The collaboration further deepens Huawei’s engagement with the European research ecosystem in pursuit of its strategy to build a better-connected Europe by investing in local talent. The announcement follows the recent purchase of Internet of Things pioneering company Neul in the UK, the launch of an innovation centre in Walldorf, Germany, and the opening of an R&D site in Sophia Antipolis, France.

EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that it has established the NILPhotonics Competence Center, which is designed to assist customers in leveraging EVG’s suite of nanoimprint lithography (NIL) solutions to enable new and enhanced products and applications in the field of photonics. These include light emitting diodes (LEDs) and photovoltaic (PV) cells, where NIL-enabled photonic structures can improve light extraction and light capturing, respectively, as well as laser diodes, where photonic structures enable the tailoring of device characteristics to improve performance. The NILPhotonics Competence Center includes dedicated, global process teams, pilot-line production facilities and services at its cleanrooms at EVG’s headquarters in Austria as well as its subsidiaries in North America and Japan.

nanoimprint

“Nanoimprint lithography is an enabling technology for the design and manufacture of all kinds of photonic structures, which can significantly shorten time to market and lower cost of production compared to conventional technologies, such as electron-beam writing and stepper systems for optical lithography,” stated Markus Wimplinger, corporate technology development and IP director at EV Group. “For example, compared with conventional lithography, our full-wafer nanoimprinting technology can pattern true three-dimensional structures in the sub-micron to nano-range as well as features as small as 20nm, which opens up a range of new photonic applications. With our NILPhotonics Competence Center, we’re not just providing our customers with the most advanced NIL systems; we’re also working closely with them during product development to help them determine how best to optimize their product designs and processes to take advantage of the resolution and cost-of-ownership benefits that NIL brings.”

The new NILPhotonics Competence Center builds on more than 15 years of NIL experience at EVG with the largest installed base of NIL systems worldwide. EVG’s NIL equipment portfolio includes the recently introduced EVG7200 UV-NIL system, which supports EVG’s next-generation SmartNIL large-area soft NIL process for high-volume manufacturing. The EVG7200 with SmartNIL provides unmatched throughput and cost-of-ownership advantages over competing NIL approaches.