The road ahead for integrated photonics
From 20 till 22 June, about 200 researchers, government representatives and high-tech industry experts from 17 countries will converge on the Dutch city of Enschede to participate in the second World Technology Mapping Forum, organized by PhotonDelta and the AIM Photonics Academy of Boston. The aim is to build the first international Integrated Photonic Roadmap, which looks to the world’s technology needs in 2030.
Defining the future of photonics
PhotonDelta (the overarching organization the Institute for Photonic Integration is part of) and the AIM Photonics Academy of Boston have invited leading industry specialists and researchers from around the world for the second meeting of the World Technology Mapping Forum.
Worldwide alignment
The first edition organized in June last year marked the starting point of worldwide discussions on the future of photonics and the possibilities this technology offers for different application domains, in 2030 and beyond. The final aim is to establish an international roadmap that matches the demands set on the technology by markets with the future technological possibilities.
The goal of this second meeting is to encourage cross-fertilization between research, development and industry, and to discuss the first draft version of the International Photonic Systems Roadmap that resulted from last year’s discussions. The three-day highly technical gathering will be held from June 20-22nd 2018 in the Horst conference center on the campus of the University of Twente in Enschede.
Series of four yearly meetings
Ton Backx, director of the Institute for Photonic Integration and CEO of PhotonDelta: ‘We are planning to organize four meetings a year from now on: one in Europe during summer, one on the west coast of the US in fall, one in Asia during winter, and one at the east coast of the US in spring. Based on these periodic discussions, we aim to release an update of the roadmap once every year.’
In a previous interview, Ton elaborated on the importance of the roadmap for the energy domain:
For more information on the meeting (accessible by invitation only), see https://worldtechnologymappingforum.org/