SpikeHERO’s ambitious goal is to design, experimentally realize, and validate a heterogeneous system for low-energy communication and data processing at the edge. It will pursue a holistic approach that maximally leverages a co-design process encompassing both novel integration techniques and the exploration of systems combining electrical and optical chiplets. SpikeHERO will exploit advanced integration technologies, beyond CMOS devices and non-von Neumann architectures in the form of electrical and optical Spiking Neural Networks. When used as a fiber to the edge (FTTE) system to demonstrate a novel optical interconnection, SpikeHERO will significantly reduce the energy consumption from 7-10 W to 1-2 W, while increasing the bandwidth from 10 GHz to 30 GHz. The requirements for SpikeHERO are derived from challenging use cases in the context of smart edge devices as well as inputs from industry partners. The utilized co-design process allows to optimize the overall system performance with regards to the energy efficiency of the entire system. After the overall system is specified and the subsystems are developed and tested, integration can take place through an advanced packaging solution. Besides the advances on the hardware development in SpikeHERO, a digital twin including the optical and electrical Spiking Neural Network is developed. SpikeHERO directly addresses the specific objective of the EIC challenge aimed at reducing energy consumption in smart edge devices by exploring and implementing novel materials, 3D multi-die heterogeneous integration, beyond CMOS devices, and non-von Neumann architectures. The project proposes a unique integration of optical and electrical Spiking Neural Networks that operate conjointly to enhance processing speed and power efficiency, setting a new standard for energy-efficient computing at the edge.

IoT, 5G and cloud applications have created a huge growth of datacentre traffic fuelling the market of 400GbE and the ratification of 800GbE and 1.6T standards expected within 2013-2025. Datacentre operators must keep pace with the increasing speeds and to cope with the increasing power consumption required for airflow management and cooling. Moreover, they must address the massive interconnectivity between servers and switches dictated by 5G ultra-low latency applications. 100Gb/s per lane is the next step for the realization of 800GbE modules but this will be the end of pluggables and the start of co-packaged optics with ASICs paving the way to 1.6T and beyond. TWILIGHT aims to bring InP membranes and InP-HBT electronics at unprecedently close distances (110GHz linear drivers and 100GHz TIAs. TWILIGHT will exploit the PI-SOAs to develop 4x4 and16x16 optical space switches exhibiting nanosecond latency and >50% smaller footprint. The O-band and C-band SiP transceiver demonstrators leverage up to 72% and 74% power consumption savings compared to established technologies and target the datacentre market (2-10km) and DCI (<40km), respectively, with estimated cost 0.89€/Gb/s. Exploitation of TWILIGHT’s technologies is aimed via its industrial partner MLNX.

Photonic technologies are key enablers to satisfy the requirements of future Terabit/s communication satellites. The ability of Photonics to handle high data rates and frequencies is critical in this scenario, where current purely RF technologies are limited in SWaP and performance. However, the use of photonics devices is currently restricted to a few demonstrations in non-critical equipment and with limited degree of integration. PhLEXSAT will increase the maturity level of several key photonic devices and modules to TRL5, designing, fabricating and testing 1) Photonic sampler, 2) ultra-low jitter photonic clock for precise sampling, 3) Photonic-assisted ADC and DAC for digital channelizers for Q/V-band operation and 4) on-board digital processing firmware. Miniaturization will be achieved by fabricating and integrating a modulator photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and high-linear photodiode PIC with electronics in the photonic ADC and DAC components. PhLEXSAT will integrate and demonstrate such building blocks in a test bed proving the suitability of the proposed architecture for Tbps-like, software defined HTS payloads with hundreds of channels with flexible bandwidth allocation up to 1GHz/channel, demonstrating a flexible photo-digital channelizer for high capacity reconfigurable payloads, enabling flexible frequency plans and channelization and dynamic coverage for Ku/Ka/Q/V operation. PhLEXSAT consortium comprises the multidisciplinary skills needed to achieve its objectives and fully exploit its results, with partners representing the whole value chain, from space-grade hardware developers to communications satellite integrators and operators. PhLEXSAT builds on the results of the previous FP7 project PHASER and is complementary to developments made by its partners in previous and existing ESA and EC Projects. PhLEXSAT success will contribute to enhance EU competitiveness and non-n-dependence by developing critical technologies for the EU satellite industry.

DYNAMOS develops fast (1 ns) and widely tunable (>110 nm) lasers, energy-efficient (~ fJ/bit), broadband (100 GHz) electro-optic modulators, and high-speed (1 ns) broadcast-and-select packet switches as photonic integrated circuits (PICs). DYNAMOS meets the expected outcome objectives and call scope by proposing the development of low energy (few pJ/bit) PICs, which are integrated into modular and scalable subsystems, and subsequently utilized to demonstrate novel data centre networks with highly deterministic sub-microsecond latency to enable maximum congestion reduction, full bisection bandwidth (lower congestion) and guaranteed quality of service while reducing cost per Gbps. The proposed network offers optical circuit switched reconfiguration and guaranteed (contention-less) full-bisection bandwidth, allowing any computational node to communicate to any other node at full-capacity. DYNAMOS builds on recent developments in III-V optoelectronics, thick silicon-on-insulator waveguide technology, and silicon organic hybrid (SOH) modulators. It co-develops the entire ecosystem of transceivers, switches and networks to boost overall performance and to reducing the total cost of data exchange, instead of focusing on the improvement of individual optical links or interfaces. The objectives of DYNAMOS perfectly match the major photonics research & innovations challenges defined in the Photonics21 Multiannual Strategic Roadmap 2021-2027.