Latest news

CORNERSTONE silicon chip sheet

A rapid prototyping foundry for silicon photonics based in the University of Southampton cleanroom complex has joined forces with a major European research consortium to help accelerate the next generation of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technologies.

The CORNERSTONE service is now available to EUROPRACTICE customers through the Tyndall National Institute across three different SOI platforms.

The open source Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) foundry, based in the Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics (ZIPN), specialises in the fabrication of silicon photonics devices using both DUV and e-beam lithography.

The platform is designed to enable seamless scaling-up to production volumes while also retaining device level innovation capability and flexibility in its process flows, making it ideal for researchers to try innovative designs, or to evaluate new photonic circuits.

Callum Littlejohns, ZIPN Principal Enterprise Fellow and CORNERSTONE coordinator, says: "We are delighted to be able to offer our flexible, open source SOI platforms to EUROPRACTICE customers who can now benefit from the wealth of experience and expertise within our team, at extremely affordable prices. We pride ourselves on our friendly and personal service and are pleased that EUROPRACTICE customers can now exploit this."

EUROPRACTICE is a consortium of research organisations that provides European industry and academia with a platform to develop electronic circuits and systems. For more than 25 years, the consortium has offered affordable access to prototyping and volume production services in a wide range of technologies, including application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and photonics.

Dr Ramsey Selim, Board Member of EUROPRACTICE and Photonic Programme Manager at Tyndall National Institute, says: "At EUROPRACTICE, we are very glad to see that our photonic technology portfolio keeps on expanding rapidly. We are particularly happy to include CORNERSTONE in our offer because of its unique SOI technology, and the fact that it is open source means it will attract previously unreached researchers, scientists, engineers and innovators. I can't wait to see the technology that will come out of this."

CORNERSTONE is a collaboration between the University of Southampton and the University of Glasgow. Led by Graham Reed, members of the CORNERSTONE team have pioneered silicon photonics since the late 1980s, and have a track record of world leading results, particularly in the field of carrier based modulators.

Earlier this year, the prototyping platform secured around £1.5m develop six new silicon-based technology platforms for researchers to design next generation circuits. These platforms will extend the supported wavelength range into both the visible wavelengths and mid-infrared wavelengths, enabling a range of applications including LIDAR remote sensing and lab-on-a-chip devices.