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AIM is making available a chip fabrication plant as a first step to bridging the gap between research and manufacturing. SUNY Polytechnic Institute has been working with MIT for the last six years to develop a 300mm-wafer silicon photonics line at its Albany site. The fab offers a multi-project wafer service whereby several designs can be made on one wafer, allowing the cost to be shared.

A design kit is also being developed, a critical part according to Coolbaugh. The design kit features key building blocks needed to make an integrated photonics circuit. AIM is working with leading semiconductor industry design automation companies Cadence, Synopsys and Mentor Graphics to provide the software tool environment for designers to develop circuits. “This design environment is compatible with the silicon photonics process here in our fab,” says Coolbaugh. A packaging and prototyping facility located in Rochester, New York is also being set up.

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