IIT-Madras' Silicon Photonics partners with SilTerra Malaysia to develop programmable silicon photonic processor chips

CHENNAI: The IIT-Madras' Silicon Photonics Centre of Excellence - Centre for Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuits and Systems (Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS) is partnering with SilTerra Malaysia for joint development of programme silicon photonic processor chips, especially for quantum computing and communication system level applications.

According to the release, these chips will be utilized for quantum computing and high-speed secured communication systems.

Ms. Chew Yan Ng, Deputy Director, SilTerra and Mr. Arnab Goswami, CTO at CoE-CPPICS, IIT Madras have been betrothed to coordinate from both sides for technology innovations.

Main aspects of the partnership will be joint R&D on novel silicon photonic devices and circuits for energy efficient high-speed interconnect solutions for data centres, high-performance computing, and for AI/ML applications.

The MoU towards this collaboration has been signed recently by Prof. Manu Santhanam, Dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), IIT Madras and Dr. Albert Pang Shu Koon, CEO at SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.

SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., a global semiconductor foundry has been continuously innovating to bring leading-edge semiconductor solutions to transform the world through its disruptive silicon photonics process technologies.

The Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS team at IIT Madras, is committed with its resources to enrich Silicon Photonics PDK libraries for SilTerra Silicon Photonics Foundry for mutual benefits.

Speaking about this collaboration, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, added, “This MoU signed between SilTerra and the Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS IIT Madras marks a significant milestone and opens up avenues for innovation in high-performance silicon photonics technology solutions. With Bharat moving towards establishing state-of-the-art commercial semiconductor fabrication facilities, there is an imminent need to augment the same with Research and Human Capacity development efforts. This engagement is expected to help achieve that objective on contemporary technologies.”

Highlighting the outcomes envisaged from this collaboration, the Chief Investigator of CoE-CPPICS Prof. Bijoy Krishna Das, who is also a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with SilTerra which will help us to accomplish our ambitious objectives and future roadmap of the CoE-CPPICS at IIT Madras, established in January 2021 with a substantial funding from the Ministry of Electronics and Information technology (MeitY), Government of India.

The matured silicon photonics process technology of SilTerra’s 200 mm foundry will be accessed by the team CoE-CPPICS for its R&D programs while sharing its silicon photonics wafer-scale test facilities, device design, compact modelling and circuit simulation expertise towards enriching silicon photonics PDK library for the fabrication of robust and advanced programmable photonic processor chips.”

Detailing the key aspects of this partnership, Dr. Albert Pang, CEO of SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., said, “We are honoured to be part of this alliance. From the onset, SilTerra has been working with its partners in the fields of microelectronics and digital technologies. For some time, we have been fabricating silicon photonics chips, and now, by moving forward with this strategic collaboration with IIT Madras, we are enriching our Silicon Photonic process and design kits. I believe quantum computing and systems will trigger a new era of applications and our collaborative efforts with CoE-CCPICS at IIT Madras will help accelerate the growth in this exciting field.”