IIT Madras partners with SilTerra Malaysia for silicon photonic processor chips

The Silicon Photonics Centre of Excellence - Centre for Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuits and Systems (Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS) at Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is partnering with SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. for joint development of programmable silicon photonic processor chips. This is especially for quantum computing and communication system level applications.

The partnership will be joint R&D on novel silicon photonic devices and circuits for energy efficient high-speed interconnect solutions for data centres, high-performance computing, and for AI/ML applications.

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SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., a global semiconductor foundry has been innovating to bring semiconductor solutions. Silicon Photonics CoE-CPPICS team is committed with its resources to enrich Silicon Photonics PDK libraries for SilTerra Silicon Photonics Foundry for mutual benefits, said a release.

V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, in the release said partnership marks a significant milestone and opens up avenues for innovation in high-performance silicon photonics technology solutions. With Bharat moving towards establishing commercial semiconductor fabrication facilities, there is an imminent need to augment the same with research and human capacity development efforts. This engagement is expected to help achieve that objective on contemporary technologies, he said.

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Highlighting the outcomes envisaged from this collaboration, the Chief Investigator of CoE-CPPICS, Bijoy Krishna Das, who is also a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, the matured silicon photonics process technology of SilTerra’s 200 mm foundry will be accessed by the team CoE-CPPICS for its R&D programs while sharing its silicon photonics wafer-scale test facilities, device design, compact modelling and circuit simulation expertise towards enriching silicon photonics PDK library for the fabrication of robust and advanced programmable photonic processor chips.

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This collaboration is going to contribute significantly to India’s dream drive on National Semiconductor Mission (ISM) and National Quantum Mission (NQM), he said.

Albert Pang, CEO of SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., said SilTerra has been working with its partners in the fields of microelectronics and digital technologies. “For some time, we have been fabricating silicon photonics chips, and now, by moving forward with this strategic collaboration with IIT Madras, we are enriching our Silicon Photonic process and design kits. I believe quantum computing and systems will trigger a new era of applications and our collaborative efforts with CoE-CCPICS at IIT Madras will help accelerate the growth in this exciting field,” Pang said.