October 17, 2019

AIM Photonics Members Meeting to Provide Latest Updates on National Initiative

Meeting Hosted by EPDA Member Cadence in San Jose, CA

ALBANY, NY – The American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics), sponsored by the Department of Defense and New York State, announces its fall 2019 Members Meeting, which is scheduled to take place Thursday, October 17th, at Cadence Design Systems, Inc.’s headquarters, in San Jose, CA.

The engagement is geared toward providing opportunities for the initiative’s list of more than 120 signed members from industry, academia, and government to obtain the latest updates from AIM Photonics’ leaders via a number of presentations, as well as networking opportunities, allowing members the chance to discuss product and services needs with AIM executives and other partners to help drive future programs.

“We are excited to have AIM Photonics’ Fall 2019 Members Meeting on the West Coast, where the focus is on enabling collaborative opportunities for members of this critical national initiative,” said Dr. Michael Liehr, AIM Photonics CEO and SUNY Poly Executive Vice President for Innovation and Technology. “We thank Cadence, an AIM Photonics Tier 1 member, for hosting the meeting, and we look forward to gaining invaluable feedback from our members during this meeting.”

“We welcome the AIM Photonics Fall 2019 Members Meeting to our San Jose campus, where attendees can learn from industry experts who are dedicated to driving advancements in photonics,” said Wilbur Luo, vice president, product management in the Custom IC & PCB Group at Cadence. “We’re continuing to develop new Cadence technologies in support of photonics applications, and by collaborating with AIM Photonics on the event, we’re giving attendees a forum to exchange ideas, discuss challenges and find solutions and methodologies that enable SoC design excellence.”

The AIM Photonics Members Meeting features industry, government, association, academic, and partner institute keynotes by Cadence, AFRL, OSA, NextFlex, and RIT. Cadence distinguished engineer, Gilles Lamant, will present a key EPDA talk entitled, “Enabling Integrated Photonics Design Automation,” followed by:

  • Dr. Michael Liehr: “Welcome Remarks and Update AIM Photonics Institute”;

  • Dr. Tom Hausken, senior advisor, The Optical Society (OSA) & OIDA (OSA Industry Development Associates): “Perspectives on AIM and the Integrated Photonics Market”;

  • Dr. Malcolm Thompson, executive director, NextFlex: “Next Generation Electronics Systems”;

  • Dr. Stefan Preble, professor, Rochester Institute of Technology, Department of Microsystems Engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering: “Fabless Design Of Photonic Integrated Circuits Within the AIM Foundry Ecosystem”;

  • Michael Fanto, research physicist, United States Air Force/Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL): “Quantum Integrated Photonics at AFRL”.

Among the capabilities to be highlighted at the Members Meeting, AIM Photonics leaders and partners will share information related to the initiative’s latest version 3.5 Process Design Kit, or PDK, created by Analog Photonics and SUNY Poly to provide SMEs with a key resource for the development of the baseline technology and design of the products to be manufactured. Combined with Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) runs, AIM Photonics’ updated PDK provides members with access to world-class silicon photonics components for the development of optical transceivers or systems used in all levels within data centers and high-performance computers. Notably, while maintaining optimal quality, the MPW processing time has decreased from 130 days in 2016 to fewer than 80 days, even as additional mask levels and functionality are added.

“We are thrilled to reveal the 7th major installment of the Silicon Photonics Process Design Kit (PDKv3.5). In the past 3.5 years, the Analog Photonics team expanded the PDK library from 21 components to 60+ verified and best-in-class modulator and detector components that are compatible with 3 SUNY technologies (passive, full-build and passive interposer) with the support of all EPDA partners,” said Dr. Erman Timurdogan, Director of PDK Development at Analog Photonics. “In PDK v3.5, users have access to statistical models for full-build and passive technologies and the component library is adapted to support the 4 th SUNY technology offering, Active Interposer. The statistical models allow for process corner modeling, product yield analysis and help with design for test and manufacturability (DFT/DFM) practices at AIM Photonics.“

Those attending the Members Meeting can hear about the latest solutions for the Integrated Photonics supply chain in the 21 st century including from new and current members including, Pacifica Bio Sciences, Nimbis Services, Luminous Computing, Nonlinear Materials, Advantiv Technologies, Analog Photonics, Infinera, Spark Photonics, EXFO, Applied Materials, VPI Photonics, Luna Inc., and others. AIM Photonics leaders also plan to attend SEMICON Europa, held annually in Munich, Germany in November, in addition to the Defense Manufacturing Conference 2019, in Phoenix, AZ, the first week of December, and events which are scheduled to take place throughout 2020 across the globe. Follow AIM Photonics on social media such as LinkedIn , Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date and learn more about the opportunities and how you can best work with the initiative.

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About AIM Photonics

AIM Photonics is one of a number of Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, an industry-driven public-private partnership that focuses the nation’s premier capabilities and expertise to capture critical global manufacturing leadership in a technology that is both essential to national security and positioned to provide a compelling return-on-investment to the U.S. economy. For more information about AIM Photonics, visit http://www.aimphotonics.com/