PUNCH aims at establishing solutions for time-deterministic and time-sensitive networks, and focuses on developing novel photonic components and interface electronics, integration, assembly and packaging technologies, manufacturing and prototyping, and beyond state-of-the-art demonstrations in one-hop optical switching in 5G radio access networks, and in disaggregated memory in data centers.
Recent news
Optica paper on the use of optical redistribution layers for CPO
Paper by imec-UGent on low-loss integration of high-density polymer waveguides with silicon photonics for co-packaged optics.
Summer school co-organized by PUNCH
Summer School on Optical Interconnect for AI and Hyperscale, organized by the Horizon Europe projects PUNCH, DYNAMOS, ADOPTION, ALLEGRO, OCTAPUS, and the Innovate UK projects EQUINOX and HIKARU, at the University of St Andrews School of Physics and Astronomy.
General Meeting in Leoben, Austria
General Meeting hosted by AT&S in Leoben, Austria
Special talk at ICSJ, Japan
Talk by the project coordinator Geert Van Steenberge (imec) on Wafer-scale packaging of optical switches and transceivers, at the IEEE CPMT Symposium Japan.
General Meeting in Cambridge
General Meeting hosted at the prestigious University of Cambridge.
Special Session at ESTC
Special PUNCH session on wafer-level photonics packaging at the ESTC Conference in Berlin, with contributions from Geert Van Steenberge (imec), Konstantin Morozov (Innolume), Marius Adler (Fraunhofer-IZM), and Jef Van Asch (imec).
General Meeting in Gent
General Meeting in Gent, co-organized with the first Project Review meeting.
Workshop at OFC
Workshop co-organized by Qixiang Cheng (UCAM), with contributions from Richard Penty (UCAM) and Stefano Stracca (Ericsson).
General Meeting in Glasgow
General Meeting in Glasgow, co-organized with the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC).
Presentation at ECTC Conference
Presenting PUNCH at the 73rd Electronic Components and Technology Conference in Orlando.
General Meeting in Berlin
General Meeting organized by Fraunhofer-IZM in February 2023.
Optical redistribution layers
In addition to electrical redistribution layers, PUNCH will develop optical redistribution layers, integrated on organic IC substrates, for interconnecting different photonic chips, while providing a scalable method for optical fiber coupling.
III-V integration
Insertion loss is limiting commercial uptake of optical switch fabrics, motivating the integration of semiconductor optical amplifiers to provide on-chip gain. PUNCH will develop a foundry process for micro-transfer-printing-compatible GaAs-based quantum dot amplifiers enabling loss-less optical switching.
Fanout wafer-level packaging
Large-scale switch fabrics pose huge challenges in terms of electrical packaging. PUNCH will integrate silicon photonic chips with interfacing electronic chips into a system-in-package, processed on a 200 mm reconstructed wafer. Electrical redistribution layers enable the required dense integration.
Silicon Photonics Platform
Optical switching technologies must demonstrate a path towards high-volume manufacturing. Silicon Photonics has been identified as a key enabling platform, providing a high level of integration and compatibility with CMOS processes. PUNCH will take full advantage of the #imec iSiPP50G silicon photonics platform for manufacturing different generations of switches.
PUNCH Optical Switch
PUNCH will develop a new optical switching paradigm that fully exploits the space, wavelength, and time domains, offering a powerful route to higher connectivity and throughput, while maintaining determinism. The fully non-blocking N×N×Nλ optical switch fabric allows routing of any wavelength from any input port to any output port.
Kick-off Meeting in Gent
Looking back to a successful kick-off meeting of the Horizon Europe project PUNCH in Gent on 1-2 September.
Project start on September 1st 2022
Announcing the launch of the Horizon Europe project PUNCH (Packaging of novel Ultra-dyNamiC pHotonic switches and transceivers for integration into #5g radio access network and #datacenter sub-systems). This € 5M innovation action coordinated by imec was submitted to the Call HORIZON-CL4-2021-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01-06 addressing Advanced Optical Communication Components and was accepted with a top-score of 15/15. Our unique consortium spans the diverse areas of expertise required to develop solutions for time-deterministic and time-sensitive networks.
Packaging of ultra-dynamic photonic switches and transceivers 