Whilst many X-ray and gamma-ray detector technologies exist (including Si, GaAs, SiC, and CdZnTe), InGaP devices are a highly attractive alternative which occupy a sweet spot in performance. They are capable of all three desirable properties: good energy resolution, high linear absorption coefficients, and high temperature operation. As such, they are a valuable commercial proposition, with many uses in multiple fields, including: nuclear power, scientific research, mining, healthcare, security and defence, and material sterilisation. InGaP radiation detectors are being developed at University of Sussex, where they are also being prepared for commercialisation. This IPS Capital application would provide funds to purchase three items of much needed equipment which will make the technical and commercial development of the detectors more rapid: 1) a semiconductor probe station - this is a piece of equipment that allows temporary electrical connections to be made to bare die semiconductor devices before they are packaged. 2) a parameter analyser - this is a piece of test and measurement equipment that enables the characteristics of the detectors to be measured. 3) a wire-bonder - this is a tool which allows permanent electrical connections to be made between devices on a semiconductor die and the semiconductor packaging. University of Sussex will contribute £50k in cash towards the requested equipment and also commit 20% of Barnett's time for 5 years (£207.6k including overheads and estates costs) to the development and commercialisation of the novel detectors, and to ensure that the equipment requested is properly used, managed, and maintained during and beyond the grant's lifetime.

Semiconductor radiation detectors that can operate at high temperature are desperately needed by industry, academia, and governments for applications including nuclear power, decommissioning, and waste monitoring; non-destructive testing; mining; healthcare; space exploration; synchrotron science; nuclear research; sterilisation of food and other items; and with particular urgency, for national security and defence applications: the detection and interdiction of contraband nuclear and radiological material at ports and boarders, as well as at strategic locations, and in the field is a particularly pressing problem. Such capabilities are required for nuclear non-proliferation and the prevention of nuclear terrorism. They are also required for the detection and monitoring of covert nuclear programmes and intentional or accidental radiological contamination. This project will develop novel X-ray and [gamma]-ray detectors and rapidly bring them to market. The UK will benefit from the development of a new commercially available X-ray/[gamma]-ray detector technology that has the potential to outperform existing technologies and provide benefits to multiple industries and fields.

DIMENSION establishes a truly integrated electro-optical platform, extending the silicon (Bi)CMOS and silicon photonics platform with III-V photonic functionality. The III-V integration concept is fully CMOS compatible and offers fundamental advantages compared to state-of-the art integration approaches. After bonding and growing ultra-thin III-V structures onto the silicon front-end-of-line, the active optical functions are embedded into the back-end of line stack. This offers great opportunities for new innovative devices and functions at the chip-level but also for the assembly of such silicon devices. As processing takes place on silicon wafers, this project has the unique opportunity to bring the cost of integrated devices, with CMOS, photonic and III-V functionality, down to the cost of silicon volume manufacturing. Such a platform has the potential to allow Europe to take a leading position in the field of high functionality integrated photonics. Moreover, the project demonstrators adhere to standards such as IEEE802.3, 25G optical components and low-power electronics, thus opening a viable route towards ultra-low-cost high-performance optical transceivers for a new era of data centres and cloud systems. DIMENSION will realise three demonstrators: • A short-reach transmitter for intra-datacenter operation addressing the 400 GbE-LR8 (IEEE 802.3bs) standard making use of an array of directly modulated lasers, pulse-amplitude-modulation (PAM4) techniques and 8 wavelength channels in the telecom O-band. • A medium-reach transmitter for inter-datacenter applications beyond the 400 GbE-LR8 (IEEE 802.3bs) standard by providing a tuneable coherent transmitter for inter-datacenter and metro applications for link lengths in excess of 10km using a modulator integrated on the same chip. • A novel laser directly grown on silicon photonics, operated at 25Gb/s in the telecom O-band demonstrating the significant cost-saving potential of the technologies pursued in DIMENSION.

The satellite market experiences a paradigm shift with the rise of VHTS that is challenging the capabilities of existing SatCom systems. Under increasing capacity/flexibility and stringent SWaP requirements primes are embracing a technology migration relying on photonics. TAS is the first prime to introduce optical interconnects in a commercial digital processor and this is expected to open the opportunity for photonics penetration in every part of the satellite payload (P/L). However the current critical photonic building blocks fail to deliver the big promise for high-performance and low SWaP photonics-enabled VHTS. These are the opto-electronic (O/E) interfaces - transceivers, modulators and photodetectors - that are deployed in the highest volumes and connect equipment at the edge and within the payload. They suffer from limitations in speed, bandwidth, reliability and most importantly size and power consumption which are still off-target, while most of them are available from US. SIPhoDiAS aims to advance these components to address O/E performance, size and power and at the same time enhance their reliability and demonstrate flight-ready parts at TRL 7, enabling for the first time photonic P/L systems that hit the right SWaP targets. SIPhoDiAS will deliver the following impressive advancements: up to 224 Gb/s radiation hard transceivers 4.5x faster and 8.5x more energy efficient than state-of-the-art (SOTA), 50 GHz modulators 2 times smaller having 7 times more bandwidth per unit area than SOTA, 40 GHz photo-detectors 50% lighter, with 4.5 times more bandwidth per unit area and 66% better responsivity. Modules will be system integrated and tested in representative sub-systems to show optical interconnect demonstrators running 350% faster with 80% less power and 50% less mass and photonic-RF frequency converters extended up to Q/V band (40-50 GHz) at 50% less mass. SIPhoDiAS technoloy will be made in Europe and will contribute to the European SatCom roadmaps.