Postdoc in Advanced Manufacturing for Sustainable Heterogeneous Photonic Integration

Are you interested about sustainable semiconductor manufacturing? Join TU/e to pioneer circular manufacturing concepts for the next generation of photonic chips, working at the forefront of heterogeneous integration and advanced device transfer technologies.

Information
Photonic integrated circuits - or optical chips - have evolved into a mature technology with a broad spectrum of use cases and a diversity of platforms and building blocks. The foundry model is now becoming established where Process Design Kits (PDKs) allow fabless designers to create their own chips with custom functionality. While most of the early progress was based on monolithic integration, the drive for high-performance, cost-effective manufacturing of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) at scale has shifted the focus to heterogeneous integration based on silicon substrates. This approach combines the strengths of different materials within a single PIC platform. In particular, enhancing silicon platforms with efficient III-V active functions (lasers, amplifiers, modulators, detectors) requires the design and fabrication of tailored InP coupons, which can be transferred using advanced micro-transfer technologies.

This postdoctoral focuses on developing a new paradigm for the circular manufacturing of heterogeneous photonic integrated circuits. While heterogeneous integration has emerged as the leading approach for combining III-V active devices with silicon photonic platforms, current manufacturing methods typically consume an entire processed InP wafer in a single fabrication and transfer cycle, limiting material utilization and increasing production costs. The position is funded by the PhotonDelta National Growth Fund.

You will develop transfer-ready InP photonic devices and circuits and associated process technologies that enable selective wafer-scale pick-up of photonic coupons and dies for heterogeneous integration, while supporting the reuse of III-V substrates across multiple fabrication-transfer-reuse cycles. Working in close collaboration with TNO, which is developing the Laser-Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT) process for photonics, your research will span transfer-aware device and layout design, release-layer engineering, substrate recovery strategies, manufacturing process development and process integration. The ultimate goal is to establish scalable and sustainable manufacturing methodologies that reduce material consumption, cost, and waste while strengthening the industrial deployment and long-term resilience of heterogeneous photonic integration in Europe.

The PIC fabrication work will be carried out at the NanoLab@TU/e cleanroom facility (http://www.tue.nl/nanolab ), which hosts a state-of-the-art 4” processing line for III-V semiconductors, including an ASML DUV scanner, AIXTRON MOCVD G10 epitaxy reactor, electron beam lithography, diverse plasma etching tools, wafer-level bonding equipment and others.

The position builds on the pioneering work in the foundry production of complex photonic integrated circuits in the JePPIX Pilot Line. The appointed person will work closely with a team of InP PIC technology experts at the Photonic Integration Technology Centre (PITC) and collaborate with integrated photonics researchers. The person is expected to produce PIC building blocks that are accessible to consortium partners. This new position is within the new Chips for Europe PIXEurope Pilot Line, which brings together InP PIC technology, silicon photonics, test automation and packaging within one technology agnostic design flow with Europe's leading research organisations.

Link for PIXEurope: https://www.tue.nl/en/news-and-events/news-overview/05-12-2024-pixeurope-consortium-to-lead-the-european-pilot-line-on-advanced-photonic-integrated-circuits

Link for PITC: https://pitc.nl