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COSMICC

The COSMICC project’s objective is to build cheap, low power optical communication systems. The project is therefore developing silicon microchips embedding photonic integrated circuits, which can send or receive high data volumes at very high speed conveyed by light in optical fibers.


Published on 23 April 2021




COSMICC : CmOs Solutions for Mid-board Integrated Transceivers with breakthrough Connectivity at ultra-low Cost


The COSMICC project’s objective is to build cheap, low power optical communication systems. The project is therefore developing silicon microchips embedding photonic integrated circuits, which can send or receive high data volumes at very high speed conveyed by light in optical fibers.


 

Starting date : Dec 2015 > Nov 2019

Lifetime: 48 months


Program in support :


H2020-ICT-27-2015 “Photonics KET


 

Status of project : complete

CEA-Leti's contact :                             

> Ségolène Olivier

> Laurent Fulbert       

                              

 

Project Coordinator: CEA-Leti 


Partners:  

  • CH: Vario-Optics
  • FR: Ayming, STmicroelectronics
  • University Paris-Sud
  • GB: Cork Institute of Technology
  • Seagate (until April 2018)
  • University St-Andrews
  • Univiversity Southampton
  • GE: Finisar
  • IT: STmicroelectronics, University Pavia


 



Investment: € 4 mi

EC Contribution€ 3.7 mi




Releases

  • «A Versatile Silicon-Silicon Nitride Photonics Platform for Enhanced Functionalities and Applications», Q. Wilmart, H. El Dirani, N. Tyler, D. Fowler, S. Malhouitre, S. Garcia, M. Casale, S. Kerdiles, K. Hassan, C. Monat, X. Letartre, A. Kamel, M. Pu, K. Yvind, L. Oxenlowe, W. Rabaud, C. Sciancalepore, B. Szelag and S. Olivier, Applied Sciences, 9, 255 (2019).



Website


Stakes


  • CEA-Leti is contributing to the COSMICC project by developing novel devices and integrated optical transceiver circuits capable of meeting the requirements of datacenter optical communication links based on Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM).

  • The Institute has successfully completed technological developments to upgrade its 200 mm R&D Silicon Photonics platform with the introduction of a new SiN guiding layer integrated above the Si layer along with an intermediate SiO2 spacing layer. SiN material combines several benefits: 
  1. it is transparent across a broad range of wavelengths due to a refractive index lower than silicon (1.88 at 1310 nm wavelength), 
  2. it is less prone to fabrication defects thus reducing propagation losses
  3. its refractive index is, by an order of magnitude, less sensitive to temperature than that of silicon, which makes it particularly attractive for building low-loss athermal devices.

  • CEA-Leti has developed a low temperature (300 °C)-deposited SiNx material to reduce mechanical stresses and ensure compatibility with doped active components such as high-speed modulators and photodetectors in the underlying Si guiding layer. Propagation losses of monomode SiN waveguides are as low as 0.8 dB/cm compared with 3.5 dB/cm for their Si counterparts. In addition, the transition between Si and SiN layers has been optimized to ensure losses of less than 0.1 dB.

  • This additional low-loss SiN layer has enabled CEA-Leti to develop several key components for CWDM (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing) optical transceivers including a 4-wavelength athermal (de)multiplexer (1271, 1291, 1311 and 1331 nm) and a broadband hybrid SiN/Si fiber grating coupler over 80 nm.

  • CEA-Leti is also designing and integrating hybrid III-V lasers on the SiN-enhanced silicon photonics platform to manufacture fully integrated, uncooled, high-speed silicon photonics transceivers operating at 100 Gb/s per fiber.

OBJECTIVES

  • The COSMICC project partners are key, global industrial and research leaders in the fields of silicon photonics, CMOS electronics, printed circuit board packaging, optical transceivers and datacenters. They share a strong vision that mass commercialization of Si-photonics-based transceivers can now start by upgrading the existing photonic integration platform of project partner STMicroelectronics.
  • Performance characteristics improved by an order of magnitude compared with current VCSEL transceivers and early establishment of a new value chain means that COSMICC technology can potentially satisfy massive market needs at a target cost per bit unmatched by conventional WDM transceivers.





IMPACT

  • CEA-Leti has developed a state-of-the-art library of Si and SiN photonic devices that can be used to build photonic integrated circuits for Datacom applications. These developments have prompted creation of start-up SCINTIL Photonics and diversification towards new applications in LIDAR for automotive, High-Performance Computing (HPC) and quantum cryptography.