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The Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), S. Krishnan, has inaugurated a Centre of Excellence for Silicon Photonics Research at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras).
Over the next five years, the Silicon Photonics Centre of Excellence, Centre for Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuits and Systems (Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS), aims to become self-reliant and drive commercialised products through startup ventures.
Besides high-speed transceivers for data centres, silicon photonics technology holds significant importance in various other cutting-edge technology domains, including quantum computation, quantum key distribution, neural networks, artificial intelligence (AI), and the evolution of 5G/6G and future network technologies.
The immediate focus of the centre is to develop and provide better solutions for microwave and quantum photonics applications such as advanced photonic processors that will be applied in high-performance RF transceivers, scalable linear optical quantum computing processors for the next generation qubit computation, and chip-level quantum key generation and distribution circuits, among others.
The Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS is expected to play a pivotal role in the years to come, addressing current disparities in the country and working towards achieving the ambitious goals outlined in the India Semiconductor Mission by the government.
Established with funding from MeitY, the centre will offer critical training to strengthen the Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) manufacturing ecosystem in India. The CPPICS will actively engage in formulating domestic PIC design guidelines and constructing the necessary hardware infrastructure for precision packaging for system-level applications.
Kamakoti, Director, IIT-Madras, said, “As our country is moving towards building our own capability in semiconductor electronics, it is very heartening to see our Institute establish a Centre of Excellence in Silicon Photonics, which is an outcome of extensive R&D pursued over nearly two decades. The substantial seed funding for establishing this state-of-the-art Silicon Photonics CPPICS by MeitY has helped in the consolidation of indigenously developed Silicon Photonics technology at IIT-Madras. I am confident that the Centre is going to impact significantly, both in the domestic as well as global silicon photonics R&D market in the upcoming years.”
The CPPICS is located within the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT-Madras, and its long-term mission is to facilitate research and development in programmable photonic integrated circuits and systems. It achieves this mission by leveraging CMOS-compatible silicon photonics technology to address a spectrum of intricate problems at different levels of complexity.
According to a statement from IIT-Madras, the government’s Digital India initiative has propelled the nation toward a digitally empowered society and a knowledge-based economy. The emergence of PICs, with their potential for faster and more energy-efficient data processing and digital computing devices, is set to bring about a revolution across various sectors in the next decade. These sectors include data and telecommunications, healthcare, medicine, automotive, and engineering, among others. Additionally, PICs are positioned to have a central role in making ambient temperature and cost-effective quantum technologies a reality.
Under the guidance of MeitY, India is proactively promoting the advancement of a wide array of PIC technology platforms, the statement wrote. These encompass silicon photonics, diamond photonics, polymer photonics, and lithium niobate photonics. This collaborative endeavour, powered by self-sustaining research and development centres in collaboration with the private sector, aligns seamlessly with the Indian government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant) initiative.
