Aurrion, a silicon photonic device provider, has been granted a $13.9M defense advanced research projects agency (DARPA) R&D contract for several years, through the electronic-photonic heterogeneous integration (E-PHI) program.
Aurrion works in association with the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Virginia, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Washington and Rockwell Collins, to build new architectures and develop innovative technologies for electronic-photonic integrated circuits based on a common silicon substrate.
Principal Investigator and Vice President of Aurrion, Dr Greg Fish stated that E-PHI facilitates More-than-Moore technologies with key inventions using both CMOS and MEMS silicon processes to generate 3D heterogeneous photonic or electronic silicon circuits using a range of materials for photonic components at the same time are still interconnected and processed at the wafer-scale. With a recognized infrastructure, the technologies discovered by this program are anticipated to advance both the cost and performance of sophisticated photonic systems in a range of markets that include next generation transceivers, optical sensors, and high performance computing. Dr. Fish further added that by merging superior photonic materials for the necessary electronics-related functions, 3D chip scale systems can be established to attain optical bench performance on one silicon substrate.
Aurrion has been operating with system integrators to create the next generation of photonic systems that control the cost, size and ensure power savings facilitated by this platform.