CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre Launches Open GitHub Repository at ECOC 2025

The CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre (C-PIC), the UK’s dedicated Innovation and Knowledge Centre (IKC) for silicon photonics, has announced the launch of its new Open Platform at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) 2025 on 29th September. The platform marks a major step towards open-source collaboration in photonics, providing researchers, innovators, and industry partners with access to trusted design resources.

About the Open Platform

C-PIC’s Open Platform extends CORNERSTONE’s long-standing commitment to open access by making Process Design Kits (PDKs), components, and design building blocks compatible with the CORNERSTONE Foundry freely available on GitHub.

The platform is designed not only to share C-PIC’s resources but also to enable contributions from the wider photonics community. Researchers, individuals, and organisations will be able to upload and reuse proven design elements in a single, accessible environment. This collaborative approach is expected to accelerate design cycles, reduce duplication of effort, and foster a stronger ecosystem of scalable innovation.

The first CORNERSTONE Foundry-compatible releases include:

• SOI 220 nm active PDK – a silicon-on-insulator platform for high-speed modulation, used in CORNERSTONE’s world-record all-silicon transmitter, ideal for datacom and telecom applications.

• SiN 300 nm PDK – a silicon nitride platform supporting datacom, quantum technologies, biosensing, and space applications.

Future releases will extend to:

• Germanium-on-Silicon (Ge-on-Si) – for mid-infrared sensing, abri-tech, and space applications.

• Suspended Silicon (Suspended Si) – suited to gas and environmental monitoring.

• SOI 340 nm – for datacom and telecom applications.

• SOI 500 nm – for high-power defence applications.

• SiN 200 nm – enabling visible light biosensing applications.

Community Contributions

The Open Platform will also host content from across the global photonics community, with early contributions from CSA Catapult, Tyndall National Institute, and researchers at the University of Pavia and the University of Sheffield. Uploaded resources already range from educational kits and discrete components to complete circuit designs, highlighting the strong interest from both academic and commercial users.

CORNERSTONE has also been working with Wave Photonics and GDSFactory.

Beyond PDKs, the platform will grow to include Open Data such as simulation and test results. This expansion reflects C-PIC’s roadmap towards establishing a comprehensive open-source photonics ecosystem.

A Collaborative Step Forward

Dr Emre Kaplan, PDK Manager at C-PIC, said:
“The Open Platform represents a significant milestone in open-source photonics. By enabling the sharing of photonic integrated devices and circuits, we can help users accelerate research and industrial innovation, allowing the photonics community to build on each other’s work rather than starting from scratch.”

C-PIC acknowledges the support of the EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account and the University of Southampton, whose funding has been integral to the development of the Open Platform.