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Electronic & Photonic Integrated Circuits (EPIC)
Program Manager: Dr. Jagdeep Shah
The EPIC program requires research to develop innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, and/or systems in the following areas:
1) CMOS-Compatible High Performance Si Nanophotonic Devices
The first major interest of the EPIC program is the development and demonstration of a complete suite of high performance Si nanophotonic devices fabricated in a CMOS-compatible process. The spectral region of interest for these devices is the extended communications band 1200 nm - 1700 nm.
2) Application Specific Electronic and Photonic Integrated Circuits (AS-EPICs)
The second major area of interest is fabrication and demonstration of functional, high-performance Application Specific EPICs or AS-EPICs for applications especially relevant to DoD. These EPIC chips will integrate the full set or a subset of photonic devices/circuits developed under area I of interest, as well as a full complement of electronic devices/circuits required for a functional AS-EPIC chip. The goal is to design, fabricate, and demonstrate a functional AS-EPIC using CMOS-compatible processing, as well as demonstrate a design and integration path to high performance AS-EPICs for DoD critical applications exceeding the performance using typical discrete devices.
3) Novel Photonic Devices
The third area of interest for EPIC is the development of novel photonic devices that are not currently available in Si. These include, but are not limited to, light emitters and lasers, wavelength converters and other nonlinear optical devices, and optical amplifiers. These novel devices must be fully compatible with existing CMOS processing and the EPIC chips being developed in this program.
Vision Statement
The vision of the EPIC program is to demonstrate high performance nanophotonic devices in Si fabricated in a CMOS-compatible process, and thus put photonics on its own "Moore's Law" towards the ultimate limit of wavelength-scale devices. This would enable integration of complex electronics and photonics circuits on a single Si chip, eliminating the multiple materials platforms currently used to accomplish such functionality, and provide a seamless interface between photonics and electronics. This is expected to have a revolutionary impact wherever photonics and electronics intersect.