Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs)

With our Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technology, we offer innovative solutions for a wide range of applications in areas such as sensor technology, photonic data processing, and quantum technologies.

Our post-CMOS-compatible technology enables photonic integration on foundry wafers, allowing the combination of photonic and electronic components on a single wafer. The photonic waveguides are manufactured on 200 mm wafers, ensuring high production capacity and scalability.  

Thanks to our extensive experience in CMOS and photonics, we are the ideal partner for process development, transfer, and scaling. We support our customers from the concept phase through to series production and offer customized solutions tailored to specific requirements.

We offer services at every stage of the development process, from designing a product concept that meets your expectations to delivering reliable, high-quality solutions. 

Our technology platform is accessible through R&D collaborations and bilateral projects, as well as through publicly funded collaborative projects.

We develop photonic circuits and systems based on dielectric materials. Our platform includes standard silicon nitride photonics as well as aluminum nitride and tantalum pentoxide. We also offer flexible integration processes for other materials in order to utilize their optical properties.

Silicon nitride photonics is characterized by low losses, no two-photon absorption, and a broad wavelength spectrum from 400 nm to approximately 3 µm. Photonic components such as couplers, waveguides, ring resonators, thermo-optical phase shifters, and more are already available on our platform. 

Thanks to our extensive experience in microelectronics manufacturing, we can offer high-quality, reliable components and circuits that are manufactured in our modern clean room with high yield. Our clean room is quality-assured according to ISO standards and QM-certified, which guarantees reproducible and stable manufacturing at the highest level.

In addition, we have extensive measurement capabilities that allow us to evaluate and verify designs ourselves. This ensures that our photonic components and systems meet the highest performance and reliability requirements.

At Fraunhofer IMS, we combine 40 years of experience in the CMOS field with our expertise in photonic integrated circuits. This makes us the ideal partner for implementing your photonics and electronics applications on our flexible platform.

Together, we are continuously developing our photonics platform. Current examples include integrated frequency combs and modulators with novel optoelectronic materials.