Integrated Photonics
Shaping our future with the power of light
Photonics – the generation, processing and detection of light – is crucial to our future internet, energy, preventive healthcare, mobility and security. At TU/e we develop new materials and devices, integrated circuits and systems to create game-changing solutions that enable faster and more reliable data communication at lower energy cost, sensitive sensors for a better health, and unbreakable cryptography.
Our research projects
Our research in the area of Integrated Photonics covers the whole chain from materials to system engineering. We develop and integrate new materials and components on the nanoscale, connect micro-photonic integrated circuits and micro-electronic integrated circuits, and devise solutions to enable the next generation 5G network.
Meet some of our projects.
Light: the essential ingredient for future technology
Today’s data traffic has reached its limits. The microelectronics we use to process data lacks the efficiency we need to meet our ever increasing demands on bandwidth and speed. And datacenters around the world already use up more than three percent of all the electricity we generate. Without any mitigating measures, this energy consumption will rise to double-figure percentages of global power consumption.
Photonics – the technology that uses light instead of electrons to carry information – not only has a much higher processing speed than microelectronics, it also consumes considerably less energy per processed bit of information. However, ongoing innovation is necessary to sustainably support increasing demand in areas such as internet bandwidth, connectivity and computational power for business, entertainment, health, mobility, sustainable energy supply, air and drinking water quality, sustainable agriculture, safety and communications.
Read moreInstitute for Photonic Integration
The TU/e Institute for Photonic Integration (IPI) integrates all research areas crucial to photonics (materials and devices, components, circuits, systems) and cooperates with initiatives that bring photonic research results to a higher Technology Readiness Level.
The Institute’s ultimate mission is to break through current technological and theoretical limits in photonics along the entire value chain, thereby contributing to solving some of society’s most pressing problems such as the imminent congestion of our electronic superhighway. This is done by fostering expertise and training engineers and researchers to develop new photonics applications and integrate electronics with photonics. The groups brought together within IPI provide exactly the expertise needed to achieve this.
Meet our researchers
High performance transceivers for optical interconnects in data centers
Our society is increasingly hungry for data. In the near future, data centers will have to transport hundreds of Gigabits of data per second within their networks. Since copper wires cannot cope with these gigantic data rates, researchers from the ECO group of the department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology develop photonic alternatives. PhD student Chenhui Li designed, produced and tested different cost-effective solutions to enable high bandwidth data transport at the lowest possible energy expense. Through his outstanding work, he has obtained the PhD title Cum Laude.
Related research groups
The six TU/e groups working on Integrated Photonics together cover three fields:
- Photonic materials and devices
- Photonic integrated circuits
- Photonic systems
Micro-spectrometer opens door to a wealth of new smartphone functions
Use your smartphone to check how clean the air is, whether food is fresh or a lump is malignant. This has all come a step closer thanks to a new spectrometer that is so small it can be incorporated easily and cheaply in a mobile phone. The little sensor developed at Eindhoven University of Technology is just as precise as the normal tabletop models used in scientific labs.
Partners in (semi)Industry
The Institute for Photonic Integration explicitly aims to develop scientific knowledge and technology which enables industry to bring new photonic products to the market. Through the Integrated Photonics ecosystem PhotonDelta IPI is part of, we maintain intense and mutually benefitting partnerships with companies and knowledge institutions.
Feel free to contact us in case you are interested to cooperate with us.
