Building a European industrial supply chain for SOI- and SiN-based silicon photonics, including heterogeneous integration to support emerging markets

Project Information

photonixFAB

Grant agreement ID: 101111896

DOI

10.3030/101111896

EC signature date 12 May 2023

Start date 1 May 2023

End date 31 October 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 41 945 615,36

EU contribution

€ 13 192 725,45

Coordinated by

X-FAB FRANCE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - photonixFAB (Building a European industrial supply chain for SOI- and SiN-based silicon photonics, including heterogeneous integration to support emerging markets)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

photonixFAB is a newly created consortium initiated from a project to build a European silicon photonics supply chain, which accelerates the transfer from low volume manufacturing to large volume manufacturing and renders it accessible to a wider community.

The photonixFAB partners are covering the entire photonics value chain. These high-profile consortium members include technology and manufacturing service providers X-FAB, LIGENTEC, SMART Photonics, PHIX Photonics Assembly and Luceda Photonics plus application developers Nokia, NVIDIA, Aryballe, PhotonFirst and Thales, as well as the major research organizations CEA-Leti and IMEC.

6 key objectives are targeted by the consortium:

1. Establish an industrial manufacturing capability in X-FAB for Silicon On Insulator photonics building on IMEC’s SOI platform optimized for high speed datacom, telecom, LIDAR and sensing applications.
2. Extend the industrial manufacturing capability in X-FAB for Silicon Nitride photonics building on LIGENTEC’s SiN platform optimized for quantum computing, quantum key deployments telecom, LIDAR, sensing and other ultra-low loss applications.
3. Increase maturity of heterogeneous integration of active devices on both SOI and SiN platforms to be low-volume production ready and with a path to high-volume fabrication
4. Demonstrate industrial pilot lines with six application-driven demonstrators
5. Strengthen the European silicon photonics industrial supply chain on Electronic Design Automation (EDA), packaging and testing, and other essential elements to offer production-ready technology and photonics design capabilities,
6. Enable internationally competitive technology offering and EU sovereign manufacturing capability accessible to European Small and Medium Enterprises, Research centers (RTO), academics and larger companies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The photonixFAB consortium was officially launched at X-FAB France in May 2023.
Project management has been structured around monthly progress reviews and biannual face-to-face plenary meetings, ensuring alignment across partners, clarification of technical aspects, and proactive risk management.
In March 2024, the photonixFAB Customer Engagement Portal (www.photonixfab.eu) was released, offering access to available technologies for R&D prototyping, low-volume production, and the future high-volume industrial pilot line under development.
A licensing agreement between IMEC and X-FAB was finalized, enabling the installation of IMEC’s SOI technology within the X-FAB France facility.
A newly developed Design Toolkit was made available to support early applications and demonstrators from consortium partners. Initial industrial demonstrator designs and tape-outs were completed during the first reporting period. Fabrication continued into the second period, with testing and validation planned by the end of 2025. A second round of demonstrators is scheduled for the final phase of the project to incorporate learnings, design and process improvements across the photonics value chain.
Initial capital investments were launched to support new technology features. Notably:
• A SiN LPCVD furnace for LIGENTEC’s ultra-low-loss SiN technology was commissioned for R&D use at X-FAB France in March 2024.
• Installation of a 193nm wavelength lithography tool, essential for both SiN and SOI technologies was completed and released for process development phase in early 2025.
By the end of Period 2 (August 2025), the main process setup phase was completed at X-FAB, Ligentec, and Smart, with final adjustments and validations still underway:
• SiN Technology: Ligentec, X-FAB and other consortium members are refining final process steps to optimize the ultra-low-loss SiN PIC platform, with demonstrators underway in collaboration with Aryballe, Photonfirst and Thales.
• SOI Technology: IMEC, Smart Photonics and PHIX completed a first design check through “Demonstrator Run 1,” using IMEC’s flow to produce PICs and apply micro-transfer printing of active components. This run explores multiple design approaches to finalize concepts for Run 2, which will integrate Smart Photonics’s newly developed MTP coupon-ready InP process. In parallel, X-FAB France and XMF are preparing the industrial flow for the final demonstration runs. During early 2025, SOI technology setup at X-FAB progressed as planned, with initial optical results from passive waveguides showing promising performance (October 2025).
• Active Chiplets : Smart Photonics has developed 5 different MTP ready coupons to support the photonixFAB program with SOAs, photodiodes and modulator. First samples have been delivered and further optimization of the flow is underway.
On the packaging side, an initial Assembly Design Kit was deployed by Luceda and PHIX, and the first packaging demonstrators are in final development.
MPW (Multi-Project Wafer) activities with external consortium partners commenced in September 2025.
Design activities for Demonstrator Run 2 will begin in November 2025, using updated PDKs developed by Luceda and PIC fabrication of this final design is expected to start in early 2026.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Customer Engagement Web portal and active promotion in key events enabled early business development and customer engagement beyond consortium partners.

The project is at an early stage and currently has no impact beyond the state of the art.