Complex Photonic Systems II (COPOS II)

This proposal seeks the renewal of the COPOS Platform grant at the Centre for Photonic Systems at Cambridge University. The rationale for the work is the premise that the field of photonics must progress from focussing on single function systems (for example optical fibre links), where advances in performance have been primarily due to developing bespoke high speed components, to one where much more complex systems can be constructed using greater levels of integration. Such advances should benefit from the expanding range of optical materials available, especially flexible materials. It is increasingly accepted that should such goals be achieved, then photonics can become a technology of ubiquitous application in the 21st Century, as electronics became in the 20th Century. For it to be fully adopted however, not only should the integration technology deliver the performance and functionality required, but it should use readily available processes. In short the technology should become commoditised and available to a much wider range of manufacturers.As a result, COPOS II will seek to build on past research at Cambridge to develop integration fabrication techniques which can be used by non-photonic companies, in particular those involved in printed circuit board manufacture. The work will develop exemplar sub-systems which will not only allow greater functionality in performance, but can be made at low cost (even for low volumes), whilst addressing growing issues such as energy consumption. There will be two main integration technologies at the heart of the project: (i) the use of siloxanes formed directly on large area printed circuit boards so that multilayer electronic and photonic circuits can be formed using low cost processing, with the optical and electronic components populated using pick-and-place techniques, and (ii) the use of quantum dot III-V material systems for forming integrated circuit functions (such as large port count active routers) which cannot be realised using the siloxane technology, but which can be readily integrated with it. In the case of (ii), it is intended later in the project to print active components (for example organic LEDs and detectors) directly onto the board and to introduce capacitive coupling to electronic components for the lowest possible power consumption. As a result, by developing these two integration approaches, we believe that we can meet the great majority of future integration requirements for photonic systems.It should be noted that a series of specific application goals including interconnect, Ethernet, healthcare and imaging systems, have been set to encourage the research to advance in as adventurous a manner as possible. In introducing a more challenge- based approach to our research, we are keen to extend the level of electronic and photonic integration, such as: (i) much greater use of complementary electronic signal processing. (ii) introduction of printing techniques both for electronic and optical integration. (iii) the introduction of much greater levels of (non-wavelength) parallelism in optical circuits.In addition to enabling us to develop our research, the platform grant will also allow us to innovate in our research practice and hence deliver additional benefits. For example, the grant would enable us to develop new techniques to: (i) manage our research and develop it strategically while flexibly engaging in new concepts. (ii) retain the wide range of skills which are so important in this type of activity whilst empowering key members of our group to build up their own careers by broadening their expertise. (iii) grow our outreach activities. (iv) engage in new industrial and international academic collaborations, whilst developing our existing ones.

The applicants believe that the proposed grant can have substantial non-academic impact, not least because of their track record in innovation. For example, in the Ethernet standard, the group was involved in setting the standards for the uncooled lasers used (over 500M have now been sold) and it developed the offset launch technique to obtain the required transmission performance in worst case links. Within the 10G Ethernet standard, the Cambridge Model was adopted by the major companies involved for standards validation. A bye-product of this work was the invention by the group of a new type of laser which has then been licensed for use in computer mice, 100M such devices having been made last year. The group has also had experience of founding a start-up company, Zinwave, which has received $25M in funding and recently has completed RF-over-fibre installations in venues such as the Constitution Center in Washington, the Emirates Stadium in London and the New York Yankees stadium. The group has a strong record of engaging with industry, both large companies and SMEs, and we intend this to continue. The group currently has substantial direct industrial funding of research, with large projects with Dow Corning, Boeing and Avago. Overall we now have collaborations with > 15 companies, including Oclaro, Ericsson, Traak, Zinwave, Motorola, Arup, and Alcatel. Typically companies seek collaborations with commercialisation opportunities on the 5-10 year timescale but some of our more fundamental work will have applications >20 years hence. The applicants have also sought to have impact by leading activities which seek to encourage exploitation. For example they are heavily involved in the Cambridge IKC, where they have instigated novel training, roadmapping and business derisking activities involving research academics, students and industrialists. A sample testament to the success of this is the following quote: I just wanted to tell you about the very positive experience I had at a meeting of the IKC roadmapping and commercialisation workshop. I met all the relevant people .... for the first time on a subject, we were all interested in. I think we need more of these events and I am pleased you have supported their creation. Hermann Hauser, Amadeus Capital Partners. Through this and related events the investigators have increasingly become involved in policy consultation. Within the proposed platform grant we wish to extend our current methods of achieving impact for our research. Such methods include different forms of meetings with industry including: (i) focussed meetings just involving the companies themselves. (ii) EU NoE meetings which can provide an excellent forum for highlighting the research carried out. (iii) partnership meetings to draw complementary companies and policy makers together (sometimes via a roadmapping activity) to result in new opportunities for exploiting our research and inspire new research concepts. (iv) standards meetings as these provide an excellent vehicle by which research can most rapidly translate into practice (the applicants have experience of chairing task forces). (v) showcase events where we insist on demonstrating (rather than just presenting) our work, this often leads to exciting new opportunities for exploitation. We also seek to promote our work through press articles both within trade magazines and national newspapers. In short we seek to become a hub where academia can meet industry and policy makers, by way of partnership, to identify new research and innovation opportunities. We have been keen to embrace both short and longer term projects with industry (both large and smaller companies), and have attracted a range of funding from organisations such as the TSB to enable this. Finally, we will continue to seek to licence new concepts or create new companies as appropriate.