M-ENGINE proposes a unique solution to the rapidly increasing bandwidth demands of data centers. With the massive growth of AI and social media in an increasingly connected world, data centers are expected to account for 20% of Europe's energy use by 2030, posing a significant challenge to meet the EU's climate goals. Current solutions to increase bandwidth in optical communications involve adding more single-channel lasers, which neither meets the capacity needs nor the energy requirements. Our proposal offers a scalable solution based on the Nobel prize-winning technology of optical frequency combs to provide highly coherent multi-channel lasers for high-capacity, low energy consumption data transmission. M-ENGINE's solution can replace 100s of individual lasers used in connecting data centers with just one compact system. The proposal combines Enlightra's photonic chip technology with X-Celeprint's cutting-edge solution of micro-transfer printing for scalable heterogeneous integration of all necessary photonic and electronic components. Eblana photonics’ high-power distributed feedback lasers will be transformed for transfer printing on the wafer scale, while Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) and Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne (ICB) will contribute recent breakthroughs in chip-integrated frequency combs enabling increased efficiency, stability, and equalized power of the generated data channels. Dublin City University (DCU) will perform independent performance testing for telecom before test devices are sent out to customers for pilot projects. The result will be a scalable photonic chip engine meeting future data needs with reliability, long-term operation, and a clear business case. M-ENGINE's primary market focus will be data centers, but it will have the flexibility to address related markets, such as photonic computing. The consortium aims to create a viable solution in 5 years when the market is expected to be valued at €14Bn.

INSPIRE aims to revolutionize photonic integrated circuit technology by combining two technologies, InP photonics and SiN photonics, in a single platform through wafer-scale micro-transfer printing technology. This platform will allow to combine high-performance III-V opto-electronic components (semiconductor optical amplifiers, high-speed phase modulators and photodetectors) operating in the C-band with the high-performance passive functionality of the SiN platform (high performance filters, 5dB/m waveguide loss), on 200mm wafers. The micro-transfer printing integration approach enables high-throughput integration of III-V devices on SiN photonic integrated circuits with better than 1 um alignment accuracy, resulting in high-performance, low-cost photonic integrated circuits. While being applicable in a wide range of mega-markets, the INSPIRE technology will be validated by three use cases: the case of a distributed fiber sensing readout unit based, the case of a microwave photonics RF pulse generator and a datacenter switch fabric. Compact models of the III-V opto-electronic components will be developed enabling designers to exploit this platform for a wide range of applications. INSPIRE will sustain Europe’s industrial leadership in photonics by combining the generic integrated foundry technology at the pioneering pure-play foundry SmartPhotonics, and the silicon photonics pioneer IMEC, with the micro-transfer printing technology at X-Celeprint, making this a world-first platform combining the strengths of all known PIC manufacturing platforms. It will also strengthen the European manufacturing base by developing and implementing processing steps that are key to removing expensive assembly steps in photonic IC based product realization. The methods will be developed for silicon nitride – indium phosphide integration. Since the optical coupling happens through a silicon intermediate layer the developed technology can be ported to silicon CMOS photonics as well.

The BAMBAM project aims at reintegrating the display manufacturing industry in Europe while enabling the era of the low energy µLED for this application. Microprinting of electrical and optical structures and active LEDs pixels (µLED on CMOS) are the solutions implemented in BAMBAM to get rid of the Thin Film Transistor (TFT) arrays controlling LCD and OLED displays; all of them being manufactured in Asia in dedicated expensive, enormous and energy-intensive plants. The new BAMBAM technology relies on the unique active µLEDs on silicon by ALEDIA, where each µLED has its own CMOS driver that can be connected to a low cost substrate by printing of micron scale bussing on any substrate. Following micro-printing by University of Stuttgart of the XTPL's ink, containing Qustom dots color conversion components, on the µLED of Aledia, and their transfer on a low cost substrates by XDC and Xceleprint, the contact ink is micro-printed to connect the active pixel elements to the substrates. The 2 types of display demonstrators, manufactured with this technology, are then adjusted and operated by Barco to achieve the best picture quality at the low energy consumption of the µLED for TV and video walls. The solution is compatible with a high pixel count and low pixel size on flexible substrates. Manufacturing displays in Europe, with a low energy consumption along the life cycle of the product, on low end flexible substrates and low cost, is being prepared by Aledia in its new european manufacturing-line, which is under construction with the help of partners from all over Europe.

Data centers which underpin the Cloud are under pressure. As the capacity of data center servers is growing, so must the capacity of the links between those servers. Industry foresees a need for high volumes of 800Gb/s and 1.6Tb/s transceivers by 2025. Today, despite the use of complex Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), manufacturing an optical transceiver still requires a large number of sequential steps. This is because lasers and electronic chips need to be assembled on a piece-by-piece basis onto the PIC. The resulting optical engine then needs to be coupled to a fiber array and packaged. These steps are done sequentially, creating a bottleneck in the manufacturing line which makes it hard to scale up production and reduce cost. CALADAN will demonstrate how integration of lasers and electronics onto a PIC can be done fully at the wafer-level using the established micro transfer printing technique, thus eliminating this bottleneck. GaAs quantum dot lasers and 130nm SiGe BiCMOS 56Gbaud capable driver and receiver electronics will be transfer printed onto Silicon Photonic 300mm wafers. Starting from proven concepts in PIXAPP, a novel fast fiber attachment process will be demonstrated that reduces the time required for fiber attachment by an order of magnitude. Using these techniques, transceiver cost will be 0.1Euro/Gb/s for volumes of at least 1,000,000 units. The consortium, which consists of three SMEs (X-Celeprint, Innolume and ficonTEC), an LE (EVGroup), three research institutes (IMEC, Tyndall and IHP), a transceiver manufacturer (Mellanox) and a multinational (Xilinx) encompasses all the partners to start production of the targeted optical transceivers after the end of the project. Exploitation of the technology will be supported by an end-user (British Telecom), a semiconductor foundry setting up a micro transfer printing Pilot Line (MICROPRINCE, X-FAB), an optical equipment manufacturer (ADVA) and the European Photonic Industry Consortium (EPIC).

AMBROSIA aims to provide the foundations for a multi-sensing future-proof Point of Care Unit for sepsis diagnosis offered by a CMOS compatible toolkit and enhanced by on-chip photonic neural network technology to provide an accurate and rapid diagnosis. AMBROSIA will be investing in the established ultra-small-footprint and elevated sensitivity of integrated plasmo-photonic sensors reinforced by the well-known on-chip slow-light effect and micro-transfer printed lasers and photodiodes on Si3N4, as well as the functional processing and classification portfolio of integrated photonic neural network engines, towards painting the landscape of the next-coming disruption in sensor evolution, tailoring them in System-in-Package prototype assemblies, with the sensors being cheap disposable pluggable modules that can rapidly and accurately diagnose sepsis at the bedside in clinical environments. AMBROSIA targets to demonstrate a Point of Care Unit incorporating: i) a switchable sensor area array, with each sensor area facilitating a pluggable, 8-channel label-free plasmo-photonic sensor for sepsis diagnosis with a sensitivity over 130.000nm/RIU and a Limit of Detection below 10-8 RIU for each interferometric sensor, ii) an embedded Si3N4 photonic neural network processing and classifying at the same time the data from at least 7 biomarkers with zero-power providing in the first minutes an accurate and rapid diagnosis for sepsis, iii) Micro-transfer printed lasers and photodetectors on chip that will drastically decrease costs of both the sensing and neural network modules, and render the sensor arrays disposable.