European Silicon Photonics Alliance ePIXfab organizes first China - Europe Course and Symposium

The event was organized in collaboration with the most important Chinese research and industry players including Dalian University of Technology, Chongqing United Micro-Electronics Center (CUMEC) and Key Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronics Technology (Liaoning Province, China). The Talent Exchange Center of MIITEC, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was the guiding force behind the event.

Proceedings kicked off with a two-day course on the important concepts, challenges and future milestones of silicon photonics. It was taught by academic and industrial experts from Europe.

On the third day of the event, the Symposium was held. It included keynote talks from four highly reputed experts from China and Europe. Professor Graham Reed, Deputy Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, discussed the emerging field of programmable silicon photonics. He also announced the availability of a flexible prototyping service for silicon photonics chips offered by the Cornerstone program with a rapid turn-around time. Prof. Roel Baets, chairperson of ePIXfab and Professor at Ghent University, explained how silicon photonics technologies will potentially have a tremendous impact on various markets, including smart diagnostics and health monitoring systems. Dr. Jin Guo, Vice President of CUMEC shared their vision and mission with a detailed roadmap of launching a brand-new pilot line for an advanced open access ultra-high speed and ultra-low power silicon photonics technology platform. Dr. Philippe Absil, Vice President of R&D at imec provided the latest overview of imec’s silicon photonics technology. He also discussed imec's near future roadmap of silicon photonics.

The Symposium also had invited talks from Prof. Tao Chu from Zhejiang University, Dr. Junbo Feng (CUMEC), Prof. Xingjun Wang from Peking University, Prof. Liu Liu from South China Normal University, Prof. Mingshan Zhao from Dalian University of Technology and Dr. Martin Fiers from Luceda Photonics in Belgium.

ePIXfab thanks sponsors Golight Technology, Huawei Technology Duesseldorf GmbH, Physik Instrument PI and Luceda Photonics for their support in making the China-Europe Silicon Photonics Course and Symposium a tremendous success.

The first China-Europe Silicon Photonics Course and Symposium has successfully bridged the Chinese and European community to catalyze the development and uptake of silicon photonics technologies. ePIXfab and the partners in China have decided to make it an annual event. It is our great pleasure to announce that CUMEC will be the host for the 2nd China-Europe Silicon Photonics Course and Symposium in Chongqing, China in May 2020.

For more information and sponsoring opportunities contact: Dr. Abdul Rahim, ePIXfab Coordinator at abdul.rahim@ugent.be Dr. William Chen, ePIXfab Liaison Officer in China at chisag2004@yahoo.com