Optics Seminar

Photonic devices are becoming more ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Starting from usage in data- and telecoms, they are now penetrating into biomedical and sensor markets with numerous emerging technologies being actively researched in fields such as quantum computing, space communications, as well as consumer diagnostics or augmented reality systems. As applications become more abundant, the demand for photonic devices grows, outpacing the available manufacturing base. Photonics packaging is an engineering science that turns disparate photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and electronic chips into functional optoelectronic devices. Current packaging methods and processes are insufficient to support the growth of the numerous and often dissimilar markets. The seminar will introduce strategies for supporting the future of photonics, researched and developed in Photonic Packaging Group at Tyndall National Institute in Ireland. These methods target scaling of device manufacturing from the current serial- to the new parallel, high-volume assembly. One of them is a heterogeneous method for integration of a light-source into the PIC which is important of simplification of a system design. Second topic covers a method for a contactless, direct, and pluggable optical interconnect between a fibre network and the photonic device. The final topic targets the automation of packaging processes as well as new substrate materials that enable wafer-scale assembly of photonic devices.