Consortium

(1)       Nor-Tek Teknologisenter AS, Norway – Coordinator

Nor-Tek Teknologisenter (http://www.nor-tek.no) is a research institute based in Oslo, Norway that provides R&D support in response to demand from industrial clients. 

From our facilities in Oslo, Norway, our multi-disciplinary teams undertake R&D in response to requests from industrial clients across a range of sectors, recognising and utilising our key research strengths in material technologies, application of microwaves, food drying technology, process and process plant development, electronic and mechatronic solutions, including the development of advanced sensors and communication technologies for a range of application environments. Our industrial clients have access to over 130 materials scientists, electronics and micro-electronics engineers, polymer chemists, production and process engineers that have successfully delivered and managed more than 100 national and European collaborative R&D projects. 

Nor-Tek is part of a not for profit, pan-European network of 15 research institutes and knowledge transfer centres, and has access to the staff and facilities of this research network.

Role in the project: Nor-Tek will be responsible for the overall coordination and administration of the GigaWaM project in addition to develop electronic elements for the control and testing of the WDM PON system.

(2)       Ignis Photonyx AS, Denmark – Supplier of Planar Lightwave Circuits

Ignis Photonyx AS (http://www.ignis.com) is a part of the Ignis group, and it is 100% owned by the public Norwegian company Ignis ASA (ticker IGNIS on Oslo Stock Exchange). Ignis Photonyx AS has 65 employees (6 Ph.D.s), is headquartered in Norway, with operations also in Denmark and Canada. Ignis Photonyx AS develops, manufactures, and sells fibre-optic components and optical modules based on in-house technologies in the global telecom market. Ignis has over 10 years experience in manufacturing advanced integrated optical components for telecommunication networks. The wafer fab located in Denmark is a high volume manufacturing setup, focusing on manufacturing power and wavelength splitter wafers. The manufacturing platform is centred on semiconductor style industry processes, which have been uniquely adapted for processing of silica-on-silicon materials. Ignis uses this technology platform to produce state-of-the-art Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) components.

Ignis is at the forefront of PLC technology and has more than 10 years experience in the design, development and volume manufacture of PLC components. Ignis offers a wide range of fully packaged and tested integrated optical modules and the complete PON component portfolio includes power splitters, Thermal and Athermal AWGs for DWDM and CWDM. Ignis also offers hybridization technology for cost effective PLC based integration. Ignis’ employees have the experience and cover all the necessary fields both to take care of the in-house activities, interact with the sister companies in Denmark and North America, and to handle the outsourced activities. Their in-house competence covers material technology, optics, fibre-optics and fibre-optic network technology, package design, testing and production. Ignis has clean room for prototype production, optical lab, electronics lab, and mechanical lab. The company has participated as an exhibitor at several international exhibitions and trade shows, like the fibre-optic industry’s main trade show Optical Fibre Communications /National Fibre-Optic Engineering Conference (OFC/NFOEC) in 2005 and 2006, and the European counterpart European Conference and exhibition on Optical Communications (ECOC) in 2005 and 2006, and is also active in the standardisation body FSAN (Full Service Access Network) of ITU (International Telecommunications Union).

Role in the project: Ignis has the positions of Project Technical Manager and Exploitation & IPR Manager. Ignis will develop a novel Athermal AWG and the PLC substrates for home and central office unit as well as work on the integration of these units.

(3)       Syntune AB, Sweden – Supplier of Tuneable Lasers

Syntune (http://www.syntune.com) supplies tuneable lasers and transmitters to telecom system and subsystem vendors around the world. The company is based in Kista (Stockholm), Sweden and currently employs 35 people. Syntune was founded in January 2003 by nine industry professionals with extensive experience on integrated widely tuneable laser diodes. Over the years, the engineering team was reinforced with several engineers who have expertise in high speed semiconductor devices. The joint skills of this team have allowed Syntune to introduce the world’s smallest tuneable transmitter. Syntune has an exclusive world-wide license to a key patent on a state-of-the-art tuneable laser design, the modulated grating Y-branch (MG-Y) laser, that is jointly owned by IMEC (Belgium), Ghent University (Belgium) and Gayton Photonics (UK). The MG-Y laser is a monolithic device, similar to a common distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser, and can tuned by current injection to address any wavelength in the C-band. First prototypes of the MG-Y laser were developed within the FP6 EU project NEWTON. Since then, Syntune has added more functionality to the MG-Y laser by integrating additional functions onto the laser chip. In Syntune’s S3500 tuneable laser module, a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) was introduced, to give the device a high output power, offer the flexibility to adjust the output power over a wide range on the fly, and allow light to be blocked while tuning from one channel to another. In the S4500 tuneable transmitter, a Mach-Zehnder modulator was added that enables transmission at data rates up to 11.3 Gbit/s. The MG-Y design not only yields superior technical performance — wide tuning range, high and even output power, high side-mode suppression ratio, low power consumption, and ultra-fast tuning — it also is highly manufacturable, allowing Syntune to outsource its chip processing and packaging. Syntune can thus provide flexible, cost-effective solutions without compromising quality and reliability, by taking advantage of the existing capacity in semiconductor laser fabs around the world. Laser design, characterization, burn-in, and reliability testing are done in-house, at Syntune's offices in Kista, Sweden.

Role in the project: Syntune will develop the new low cost tuneable laser and the control and calibration algorithm for system integration.

(4)       VERTILAS GmbH, Germany – Supplier of Vertical-Cavity Surface Emitting Laser Arrays.

VERTILAS (http://www.vertilas.de) is a spin-off from the Walter Schottky Institut (WSI) of the Technische Universität München (TUM) and was founded in December 2001 by four members of the institute. The firm became operational in May 2002 after earning several private equity and public funding. Headquartered in Garching near Munich, the present staff includes 13 employees. The company goal is to develop, manufacture and market innovative optoelectronic components; in particular long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on its buried tunnel junction (BTJ) technology. These VCSEL diodes stand out for their high-speed data transfer capabilities (up to 10 Gbit/s), as well as for their small structural shape, low current threshold and low power consumption. Long wavelength VCSELs constitute a core component of future laser-optic communication networks through which fibre-to-the-home plans are being made possible for the first time in a cost-effectiveness manner. Today, VERTILAS is recognized as the leading manufacturer for long-wavelength VCSELs. The company maintains relationships to worldwide customers basically in the fields of optical communication and gas sensing. VERTILAS is participating in several projects with industrial and university beneficiaries. For the front end production of its wafers, VERTILAS has access to state-of-the art equipment at the WSI. The following device characterization is conducted in the company’s own facilities. This includes optical and electrical characterization on wafer level and of single devices, dicing, mounting, sophisticated qualification procedures (burn in and ageing) as well as packaging solutions.

Role in the project: VERTILAS will develop diode arrays to cover multiple channels of the WDM PON system suitable for integration.

(5)       Svedice AB, Sweden – Supplier of laser diode chips.

Svedice (http://www.svedice.com), based in Järfälla, Sweden, is a leading European manufacturer of InP-based opto-electronic devices and offers customized InP wafer design- and manufacturing services for various companies around the world. The company offers semiconductor processing services as well as process design services. For wafer- and Chip-on-carrier-processing, Svedice offers services like III-V epitaxial growth, materials characterization, e-beam, lithography, etching, metallization and testing.

For device design, computer simulation tools in combination with 20 years of design experience in the team are available. Svedice has a well-established MOVPE-epitaxy platform that includes Aixtron 2400-reactors. Among its services are 1310nm and 1550nm laser-devices, including tunables, as well as PIN- and APD-receivers for 2.5 Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s applications. The company was founded in September 2003 has currently 30 employees on their payroll. Svedice’s roots are ranging back to Ericsson Microelectronics in the early 1990th. This means the company has a very long track record in the design and manufacturing of InP-devices.  The companies Telcordia qualified InP-devices and related InP process-platform has been developed by Ericsson and fine-tuned over the years by the experienced engineering staff. The vast majority of Svedice engineers have started their career with Ericsson, already. This means, the team has more than 15 years of experience in designing and processing InP.

Role in the project: Svedice will in this project contribute with knowledge and experience within wafer design and manufacturing services to provide the prototype tuneable laser chips.

(6)       Aifotec Fiberoptics GmbH, Germany - Assembly house 

ENTERED THE PROJECT 2009-08-17

AIFOTEC Fiberoptics GmbH (http://www.aifotec.de) has developed a unique Hybrid Integration Technology (HIT) toolset for assembly of next generation photonic components to serve optoelectronic module manufacturers. Possessing the necessary know-how and Intellectual Property to design and manufacture photonic subcomponents at a very attractive cost/performance ratio, AIFOTEC GmbH achieves a rare and sustainable competitive advantage.

 AIFOTEC Fiberoptics GmbH HIT platform strategy serves as a flexible tool for cost-effective devices and guarantees fast solutions to many market needs and customer demands. AIFOTEC Fiberoptics GmbH customers benefit from:

 • Guaranteed IP protection

• Reduced costly CAPEX expenditures

• Reduced critical process development costs

• Time savings in final product / market process

• Fast transfer to high volume production

• “Made in Germany” quality

 AIFOTEC’s Hybrid Integration Technology closes the gap between market requirements and R&D reality. This hybrid approach provides the best near and mid term solution at an acceptable price and is the most promising approach in terms of flexibility, time to market and costs. AIFOTEC Fiberoptics GmbH provides Photonic Development Services (PDS) and Photonic Manufacturing Services (PMS) based on this advanced new HIT technology.

AIFOTEC Fiberoptics GmbH Services enable communication equipment manufacturers to deliver integrated optical networking subsystems which are designed to lower power consumption, improve cost/performance ratios and provide reduced size, easier scalability and higher channel counts.

Role in the project: AIFOTEC will contribute to the project in the development of a highly integrated hybrid circuit with optical components and will lead the hybridisation of photonic components. 

(7)       Ericsson AB, Sweden – Broadband access systems’ supplier

Ericsson (http://www.ericsson.com) is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. The market leader in 2G and 3G mobile technologies, Ericsson supplies communications services and manages networks that serve more than 195 million subscribers. The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, and broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and developers. The Sony Ericsson joint venture provides consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

Ericsson offers a complete solution for the planning, deploying and operating of GPON based deep fibre access networks. It includes a passive fibre infrastructure, active electronics (optical line terminal, fibre access nodes, aggregation switches, optical network terminals and other customer premises equipment), indoor and outdoor site solutions, management systems as well as various consulting and customer project services, network design, integration and implementation, hosting, and managed services. Ericsson is building on its technical leadership in GPON to further strengthen its position for future PON systems such as 10Gb/s GPON and WDM PON.

Ericsson is advancing its vision of "communication for all" through innovation, technology and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 70,000 employees generated revenue of USD 27.9 billion (SEK 188 billion) in 2007. Founded in 1876 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm and NASDAQ.

Role in the project: Within the GigaWaM project, Ericsson will focus on system requirements for next generation PON - WDM-PON and contribute to system level design and overall specification as well as validation from a systems supplier and operators perspective.

(8)       Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.,Institute for Laser Technology (ILT), Germany – Experts in assembly and integration technologies.

NOT A PARTNER ANY LONGER - WITHDRAWN 2009-11-30

The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (www.ilt.fraunhofer.de) will be working on the current project. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) (www.fraunhofer.de) is a link between science and industry that is between the research and the application of its results. Fraunhofer is an autonomous organization with a decentralised organisational structure. Whilst the administrative headquarters are in Munich, the currently 58 legally non-independent research institutes operate from different locations throughout Germany. A staff of approximately 13.000, with the majority being qualified scientists and engineers, work with an annual research budget of about one billion Euro.

The Fraunhofer ILT, located in Aachen, is a development and contract research institute in the field of industrial laser technology. The activities cover the development of new laser beam sources and components, laser measurement and analysis technologies, laser-supported manufacturing and processing techniques, lasers in life science and lasers for telecommunication applications. Currently, a staff of approximately 230 people is working at ILT. In the field of diode lasers, ILT is working on the cooling and packaging technology, micro-optics and waveguides, special beam shaping optics, fibre coupling, and wavelength multiplexing techniques as well as on module and system development. The development of high-precision mounting and assembly techniques is an important part of this work. Passive chip alignment is made by using geometry such as a groove formed to accurately accommodate the chip. Active alignment is made by applying power to the diode so it radiates and move the chip until maximum power is achieved at the PLC output. In addition, the chip may be aligned with < 1 um accuracy using marks on the silicon bench and on the chip as reference without power on the device or grooves to stop the chip from moving. FhG ILT is capable of doing all three techniques with the help of equipment from ficonTEC. Furthermore, research and development on a broad scope of products and laser-based technologies in the field of micro-assembly is performed in the micro technology department at ILT. Investigated technologies include laser micro welding and soldering as well as laser beam bonding processes for non-metallic components such as glass or silicon.

Role in the project: ILT will contribute to the project in the development of a highly integrated hybrid circuit with optical components. They will lead the hybridisation of photonic components.

(9)       Technical University of Denmark - DTU Fotonik, Department of Photonics Engineering – Experts in fibre optical communication systems.

DTU Fotonik (www.fotonik.dtu.dk) is a department of the Technical University of Denmark (www.dtu.dk) whose research and education activities focus on telecommunications and optical technologies. About 125 researchers are employed at COM, including about 55 Ph.D. students. Its five research groups cover the areas nanophotonics, fibre and nonlinear optics, optical transmission systems, networks and coding.  The Nanophotonic and Optical Communication Systems Competence Areas will participate in this project. The Systems Area is primarily concerned with optical signal generation, transmission, and signal processing, at all network levels, from the core to the access. Current research topics include technologies for fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), at the physical layer level. Transverse areas such as signal generation and detection techniques, optical amplification, especially Raman amplification, high-speed optical signal processing using highly nonlinear fibres and semiconductor components, high speed optical clock-recovery, and transmission impairments, are also studied. A major research effort is focused on converged photonic backbone technology for hybrid optical and wireless links over a common fibre link infrastructure. Techniques under investigation include optical coherent detection techniques as well as optical envelope techniques for radio-over-fibre links, where their applicability is more suitable. The group has also a long experience in optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) systems at bit rates up to 640 Gbit/s, optical modulation formats, especially multilevel phase and intensity modulation (DQPSK, D8PSK, ASK-DxPSK) at 10-40 Gbaud, optical packet and label switching. The Systems Are maintains a state-of-the-art laboratory, including signal generation and detection at 10 and 40 Gbit/s, OTDM signal generation, multiplexing and demultiplexing up to 640 Gbit/s, bit error rate testing up to 50 Gbit/s, short pulse characterisation, transmission spans, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) equipment, etc. The group has also a long experience in numerical simulation of optical communication systems. The Nanophotonic group is equipped with a clean room containing a full InAlGaAsP process line including MOVPE, RIE, photo and e-beam lithography, etc. Also, tools for device design and basic electro-optical testing are available. Team members have designed and fabricated 40 Gbit/s electro-absorption modulators, 10 & 40 GHz mode-locked lasers based on single or triple MOVPE growths and wet and dry etching of waveguides including deep-etched DBR gratings. Collaboration with industry and external beneficiaries is a very important part of our mission. An important tool for transfer of results from university to industry is the use of patents. Research results that do not fit directly into the interests of existing companies can form the background for new start-ups. COM activities have formed the basis for several start-ups. COM hosts the companies while they are still in their early stages. COM has been hosting several optics based start-up companies, e.g. Crystal Fibre A/S, CISILIAS A/S (now Ignis Photonyx) and Alight Technologies A/S that has now moved to its own facilities outside COM.

Role in the project: DTU Fotonik will contribute with the investigation and setting the overall systems requirements as well as the technical specification for each building block and validate the performance.

(10)     Ignis Photonyx Inc., Canada – Supplier of Packaging for optical components

Ignis Photonyx Inc. (http://www.ignis.com), counts 10 employees and has its core competencies within optical packaging and testing. The company has prototyping equipment dedicated for packaging Planar LightWave Circuit (PLC) optical chips. In addition to the prototyping capability, the team have R&D resources to develop novel solutions for challenging optical problems. Examples of this is the athermalization of AWG’s needed in the area of WDM-PON and all other WDM systems requiring powerless filters. Resources in Canada also control the Contract Manufacturing partners in China, including the process of technology transfer to selected partners.

Role in the project: Ignis Photonyx Inc. will make prototypes in the development of the automated packaging solution.

(11)       ficonTEC GmbH, Germany – Supplier of Assembly tools for integrated optical components

NOT A PARTNER ANY LONGER - WITHDRAWN 2009-04-30

ficonTEC http://www.ficontec.com) is an innovative company, with high technical competence and world-wide contacts, which supplies semi-automatic and fully automated production and testing systems, concentrating on the optical industry, laser diode manufacturing, optoelectronics, medical technology, security and military engineering and telecommunications.

ficonTEC covers the assembly technologies bonding, laser welding, soldering, high accuracy, active & passive alignment as well as the optical detection and inspection of components. The ficonTEC product portfolio is divided into semi-automatic and fully automated production lines fulfilling different requirements on accuracy and speed, and represents all processes along the value-creation chain for laser diode bars. All of the products can be concatenated to complete production lines. The machines are very versatile and thus insure an extremely flexible use. Modular hardware and software mean that ficonTEC products can be adapted to a wide variety of handling tasks. ficonTEC offers the so called DioLine, which is actually a series of machines which are doing the most important steps in the production process of high power laser diode bars. 2006 ficonTEC took over product line for final production steps for telecom components as laser welding and fibre alignment systems.

The core team at ficonTEC consists of engineers from the specialist fields of optics, electrical engineering, informatics and mechanical engineering. The developers are supported by technicians with a variety of skills.

Role in the project: For the GigaWaM project ficonTEC will provide the required equipment and expertise for assembly of the OLT hybrid and ONT unit. Further intentions are to decrease assembly time and increase assembly quality and efficiency.