Figure. Highly miniaturized edge controller comprising Photonics Integrated Circuit (PIC) and Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chips (Source : Juniper Networks)
Miraex, a pioneer in photonic sensing solutions, has been awarded a CHF 2.8 million project from the Swiss and Brazilian Innovation Agencies (Innosuisse and Embrapii), as part of a larger collaboration with EPFL, HEIG-VD, Instituto Eldorado and Chipus Microelectronics, to miniaturize its photonic sensor edge controller for mass scaling.
In particular, the work will address two fronts simultaneously: the co-design of an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) with a custom Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC).
On one hand, the ASIC chip will be specifically designed to enable both extreme sensitivity requirements and aerospace-grade temperature range and reliability. The project will output a production-ready chip, ready for mass manufacturing. On the other hand, Miraex will develop a PIC that integrates light sources, modulators, filters, and detectors at high density. Instead of electricity, photonic integrated circuits work with light (photons), this makes them more accurate and faster but also more economical and reliable than conventional chips, offering light-speed super energy-efficient data processing. The miniaturized edge controller will be compatible with all Miraex sensors and provide ultra-compact packaging similar to SFP telecom transceivers.
“PICs will get smaller, cheaper and more efficient. Europe has world leaders in all technologies needing for PIC-enabled solutions to be deployed in new applications ranging from medical to autonomous cars”, says Jose Pozo, director of technology at the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) of which Miraex is a member, “and EPIC has member companies all along the value chain to support the industrialization of this revolution”. Photon-based circuits and sensors will gradually replace microelectronic’s ones.
With the support received, Miraex will be able to reduce its edge controller size and production cost to reach the volumes necessary to adress markets such as aerospace, industry 4.0 and automotive with digital sensing solutions. The same technology platform is also at the heart of Miraex quantum sensing and networking products.
About Miraex
Miraex develops, manufactures and offers photonic and quantum solutions for next-generation sensing, networking and computing. Our industrial sensing solutions prevent asset failure before it happens in the most demanding environments, where standard electronic sensors do not work. At Miraex we also build quantum integrated circuits for high sensitivity measurements and distributed quantum computing infrastructures.
Linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/18827552/
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