TERAWAY will develop a disruptive generation of THz transceivers that can overcome the current limitations of THz technology and enable its commercial uptake. Leveraging optical concepts and photonic integration techniques, TERAWAY will develop a common technology base for the generation, emission and detection of wireless signals within an ultra-wide range of carrier frequencies that will cover the W (92-114.5 GHz), D (130-174.8 GHz) and THz band (252-322 GHz). In this way, the project will provide for the first time the possibility to organize the spectral resources of a network within these bands into a common pool of radio resources that can be flexibly coordinated and used. In parallel, the use of photonics will enable the development of multi-channel transceivers with amplification of the wireless signals in the optical domain and with multi-beam optical beamforming in order to have a radical increase in the directivity of each wireless beam. At the end of this development, TERAWAY will make available a set of truly disruptive transceivers including a 2- and a 4-channel module with operation from 92 up to 322 GHz, data rate per channel up to 108 Gb/s, transmission reach in the THz band of more than 400 m, and possibility for the formation of wireless beams that can be independently steered in order to establish backhaul and fronthaul connections between a set of fixed and moving nodes. TERAWAY will evaluate these transceivers under an application scenario of communication and surveillance coverage of outdoor mega-events using moving nodes in the form of drones that will carry a gNB or the radio part of it. The network during the implementation of this scenario in the 5G testbed of AALTO will be controlled by an innovative SDN controller that will perform the management of the network and radio resources in a homogeneous way with large benefits for the network performance, energy efficiency, slicing efficiency and possibility to support heterogeneous services.

As a contribution to the EU Chips Act, the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) proposes an Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration for Electronic Components and Systems Pilot Line (APECS-PL), which combines the generation of globally competitive high technology that addresses the specific needs of German and European industry and enables a low-threshold, easily scalable industrial transfer. The APECS-PL will include novel characterization, quality assurance, testing & reliability methodologies, test methods to assess the security of microelectronic systems against physical attacks and a System Technology Co Optimization (STCO) framework. Together with the 2 nm GAA (imec), 5 nm FDSOI (Leti) and wide bandgap semiconductor pilot lines also planned within the EU Chips Act, the APECS-PL is also in a position to become an essential component on the way to the vision of a pan-European pilot line facility - and thus an indispensable pillar for achieving the EU Chips Act target of bringing 20% of the global supply of chip production back to Europe. In addition, APECS-PL offers a one-stop shop for a very broad international customer base in basically all classic vertical industrial sectors including large companies, SMEs and technology start-ups. Demonstrators are planned to evaluate how the elements of the pilot line work together. The FMD-OFC office, managed by Fraunhofer as legal entity, is responsible for operational management. As a first step for additional European R&D partners the project partners imec, Leti, VTT, IMB-CNM (CSIC), INL, Forth and TU Graz will be included. The shortage of skilled workers and scientists is of particular interest in the project. Better integration of a gender dimension into research and innovation content will be an essential part of the project. Systematic eco-design that generally minimizes energy and resource consumption is in line with the EU Green Deal.

The main objective of SGAN-Next is to develop a fully European GaN on SiC foundry process and demonstrate outstanding performance at high frequency beyond Q-band, through the design of efficient and robust SSPA, LNA and switch devices for flexible LEO/GEO payloads. For this purpose, the project led by SENER as satellite equipment manufacturer, includes an epitaxy manufacturer (SweGaN), an industrial foundry (UMS), a research foundry (FBH) and two Universities (UNIBO and UAB). Moreover, the consortium count on the two main European satellite prime contractors (ADS and TAS) for the conceptual definition of services and the required system to answer market demand. SGaN-Next aims to secure a European supply chain with GaN epitaxial wafers provided by SweGaN. For this new process, Q/V band power cells will be designed making use of novel processing modules and epitaxial concepts which reduce parasitic losses and increase thermal drain to heat sink. In parallel, UMS provides access to its 0.1-µm GaN technology (GH10-10), which will be optimized and submitted to a space qualification assessment through two runs available for MMICs design and validation. Microwave characterisation of GaN technology performance by model refinement and device characterisation will be addressed to improve MMIC design process along the project. As highly efficient PAs are essential for Telecom active antennas with high number of active units, at least three PAs design concepts are proposed to answer the needs identified at equipment level. The efficiency has a critical impact on the extra power demanded to the system and the increased complexity to dissipate. On the reception side, a design of a LNA as well as a switch for robust RF front-end will be addressed. Last, but not least, packaging techniques will be evaluated for space use and finally, a demonstrator of an SSPA for actual antenna systems based on the designed MMIC’s will be developed and tested under space environmental conditions.

Bladder cancer is among the most expensive diseases in oncology in terms of treatment costs; each procedure requires days of hospitalisation and recurrence rates are high. Current unmet clinical needs can be addressed by optical methods due to the combination of non-invasive and real-time capture of unprecedented biomedical information. The MIB objective is to provide robust, easy-to-use, cost-effective optical methods with superior sensitivity and specificity to enable a step-change in point-of-care diagnostics of bladder cancer. The concept relies on combining optical methods (optical coherence tomography, multi-spectral opto-acoustic tomography, shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy, and multiphoton microscopy) providing structural, biochemical and functional information. The hypothesis is that such combination enables in situ diagnosis of bladder cancer with superior sensitivity and specificity due to unprecedented combined anatomic, biochemical and molecular tissue information. The step-change is that this hybrid concept is provided endoscopically for in vivo clinical use. The project relies on development of new light sources, high-speed imaging systems, unique imaging fibre bundles, and endoscopes, combined and applied clinically. The consortium comprises world-leading academic organisations in a strong partnership with innovative SMEs and clinical end-users. Through commercialization of this novel imaging platform, MIB is expected to reinforce leading market positions in medical devices and healthcare for the SMEs in areas where European industry is already strong. The impact is that improved diagnostic procedures facilitate earlier onset of effective treatment, thus recurrence and follow-up procedures would be reduced by 10%, i.e., reducing costs. Using MIB technology, healthcare cost savings in the order of 360M€ are expected for the whole EU. Equally important, prognosis and patient quality of life would improve drastically.

We propose to solve the long-standing problem of building a complete Bell-state analyser that is free from measurement errors. The realisation of such an error-proof Bell-state analyser constitutes a groundbreaking milestone for information technologies as it forms the key component for universal optical quantum computers and long-distance quantum communication. Reliable Bell-state detection will immediately impact the development of emerging quantum technologies, facilitate high-precision time-keeping and sensing, and enable future technologies such as secure communication or quantum cloud computing. This major conceptual and technological advancement will be made possible by combining two of the most recent breakthroughs at the frontier of quantum optics and nanophotonics: (i) ultra-strong quantum optical nonlinearities obtained from Rydberg-atom interactions or from a single quantum emitter strongly coupled to an optical microresonator and (ii) nanofabricated optical waveguide chips that permit high-level control of light propagation at the wavelength scale. The ambitious goal of the ErBeStA-project will be reached within a consortium which combines the essential conceptual and technological expertise in all required key areas and contributes complementary cutting-edge experimental setups that facilitate all necessary technological developments. Building the proposed Bell-state analyser will involve the development of advanced optical devices such as nondestructive photon-number-resolving detectors as well as configurable photon-number-specific filters and sorters, all of which constitute major scientific and technological breakthroughs on their own. Overall, ErBeStA will provide the first nonlinear light-matter interface coupled to on-chip complex optical circuitry, and, thereby, lay the foundation for future technology built on scalable quantum nonlinear devices.