Most of optical transmission systems now deployed use 10Gb/s signals associated with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology. In 2005, Infinera introduced photonic integrated circuits (PIC) on InP and designed a device with 10 wavelengths at 10Gb/s on a single chip. A promising alternative to push integration of photonic circuits even further is to rely on silicon photonics. Silicon photonics will later allow the joint integration of high speed electronics with photonics on the same chip. ULTIMATE proposes to demonstrate a 4x100Gb/s PIC transmitter based on this technology, integrating 4 transmitters at 100Gb/s, namely 4 tunable lasers, 8 QPSK modulators and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA). This PIC will leverage the lessons learned from Alcatel-Lucent’s coherent solution at 100Gb/s using PDM QPSK modulation format and coherent detection, the first of its kind on the market since mid 2010, and from pioneer work on Silicon Photonics achieved by the consortium. A first technical challenge concerns the optical laser sources. Compared to first demonstration done by III-Vlab and CEA within HELIOS FP7 project, the objectives are to increase output power and to demonstrate tunability over 30nm while achieving narrow linewidth for compatibility with coherent detection. A second challenge deals with high speed optical modulator. Modulator bandwidth should be increased compared to first demonstration done by IEF within HELIOS FP7 project, structure should be more complex (QPSK modulator) and modulator should be compatible with low output voltage coming from CMOS chip. Several iterations will be required to fully achieve these ambitious objectives. The project will be split in three phases. Phase one will demonstrate tunable laser on one hand and high bandwidth BPSK modulator as well as QPSK modulator on the other one. Phase two will demonstrate the integration of one tunable laser with two QPSK modulators and SOAs to demonstrate a first 100Gb/s transmitter. Optimized packaging will be realized as well as system validation in a WDM test bed. Phase three will integrate four transmitters (but only one transmitter packaged with RF lines) and will benefit from lessons learned in phase 1 and 2. Transmitter and high speed CMOS FPGA will be soldered on a printed circuit board for system tests. Indeed, a longer term challenge, not within the frame of this project, will be to integrate on a single chip a high speed CMOS circuit generating several 25Gb/s streams and the photonic part including laser, modulator and SOA. An optimized packaging is also required to fully exploit silicon photonic chip performance in a system test bed. The objective here is to demonstrate optical transmission over distances larger than 1000 km in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) context. Photonic integration is a key method to reduce cost, footprint and power consumption of optical transmission systems. It will bring an extremely valuable differentiator to WDM system vendors having access to such technologies. Integration of several 100Gb/s wavelengths on a single chip appears today’s as one of the most promising direction to answer future market requirements for 400Gb/s or 1Tb/s. While MICROS project (ANR 2009) intends to realize the coherent receiver part on silicon photonic, ULTIMATE focus on the transmitter side. ULTIMATE project will bring a competitive advantage to the partners of this project and especially Alcatel-Lucent in a highly competitive market where technological differentiators are required.

The goal of this project is to implement a process of analysis, control and optimisation of a surface induction heat treatment process followed by a quenching stage. The part which will be used in this project if an automotive crankshaft, which is one of the most critical parts in the future powertrains prescribed by the EURO6 regulations. This part may be reinforced in the most mechanically loaded areas by burnishing or by induction. If induction has become largely used for large-size engines, its use for automobiles is scarcer, mostly due to badly mastered process and costs. Indeed, small crankshafts are more sensitive to deformation after induction hardening due to their geometry (weaker massiveness). These distortions make the use of induction hardening quite delicate and increase the global cost of the part. The analysis, study approach and results of this project will not be limited to crankshaft production, but may alos be reused for studying the induction hardening of other parts with a complex geometry subject to distortions The scientific approach will be based on the use of complementary approaches to reach the prescribed goals: - accurate understanding of material behaviour during fast heating - modelling of multiphyssics couplings between electromagnetism, heat transfer, solid mechanics and metallurgical phases transformation - experimental validation of the optimised solutions The complementarity between consortium partners (laboratories in the field of numerical modelling of processes and in material science, automotive industry, steel industry, experts in electromagnetic processing of materials) will help to make this project to a success. Project benefits are manifold - Scientific: improve knowledge of metallurgical behaviour for fats heating, fine analysis of thermal-mechanical-metallurgical couplings, progress towards process optimisation through an accurate predictive multphysics computational model - Process and material optimisation (structure, hardness, residual stresses, deformation,..) with the help of computational modelling (predictive aspects) to better take it into account in the part design process - Technological: induction heat treatment is an economic process easily implementable on a new production line, and which can potentially lead to very good in-use properties - Economical: enable manufacturing of small automotive crankshafts with minimal and reproducible deformation. We need to recall here that straightening of induction heat treated crankshafts cannot be carried out – since it leads either to unfavourable residual stresses, or worse to breaking - Environmental; reduction of energy consumption during manufacturing processes complies with sustainable development goals.

The prevention of the corrosion of alloys exposed to severe and complex conditions is a great challenge since decades. The impacts on safety, reliability, process intensification and environment can be huge. Today the demand on corrosion from industries is increasing. The French scientific community in the field of high temperature corrosion has identified a lack of people involved in this topic. This project recovers also an important target to preserve and develop competencies on high temperature corrosion under complex and severe environments, in France. The work proposed in this project is driven by energy savings and environmental concerns for two separate processes : Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) and Waste to Energy (WtE). Even if the operating conditions of those processes are very different, the scientific approaches and the solutions proposed to solve corrosion issues can be very similar. This project will focus on the selection and manufacturing of protection coatings, the understanding of corrosion mechanisms under complex and severe atmospheres and the evaluation of their performances under realistic industrial conditions. Metal dusting corrosion is commonly encountered in Steam Methane Reforming process. It is one of the most critical phenomenon for the production units. This type of corrosion has been studied for many years but the mechanisms are not well understood. Today, there is no standard available to evaluate the metal dusting resistance of an alloy or a coating and any extrapolation of results is hazardous. This lack of knowledge is a blocking point for the conception of more efficient production units. Efficiency increase is expected in term of equipment lifetime and/or process intensification. Today, process intensification is a key criterion to improve the efficiency of a unit. New alloys and coating formulations have been developed in the last years but quantitative data and performances evaluation are not available under steam methane reforming (SMR) operating conditions. The aims of this project are to define a protective coating for SMR process, develop the manufacturing process to apply this coating on complex pieces and quantify its corrosion performances. These findings will help in the conception of new corrosion resistant equipment. This project is also an opportunity to better understand and model metal dusting mechanisms, to adjust protection strategy. From the knowledge acquired in this research work, a draft standard for metal dusting performance evaluation could be established. Considering Energy from Waste, fireside corrosion is the main limiting factor to increase energy recovery efficiency. Fireside corrosion had been widely studied over the last decades and mechanisms are well documented. Consequently first standards on corrosion test method under ash deposit start to be discussed within International Standard Organisation (ISO). Nevertheless the test method device and the know-how on use of this future standard have to be developed in France to be able to evaluate corrosion resistance of alloys and coatings. On the other hand, many materials and coatings have been developed in the last years but currently their performances in this severe environment are not sufficiently accurate to define suitable criteria for choice of solution or predict lifetime regarding to plant design and operating conditions. The aims of this project are: to develop specific coating formulations for heat exchangers in high efficiency WtE facilities, and evaluate the best application technology to guarantee corrosion performances. This project will also contribute to develop a quantitative evaluation of corrosion performances based on adapted corrosion test and to define accurate criteria for choice of materials. This will help to make decision on operating higher steam parameters plant, increase availability of the facilities and adapt our protection and maintenance strategy, resulting in economic savings.