Funded Projects

Altro Photonics 
Farah Sessa Comis, University College London

The photonics industry faces a significant challenge: building chips that combine multiple high-performance optical functions remains fragmented, costly, and difficult to scale. Altro Photonics is developing an integrated photonic chip platform designed to overcome these barriers and unlock new levels of performance. Supported by the C-PIC Innovation Fund, this project will advance the company’s core platform technology.

Digital Photonic Logic for Scalable Optical Computing
Theo Rangarajan, University of Southampton

In this project, we work to develop laser-based logic gates for high-speed data processing, providing a step change in energy efficiency compared to conventional transistors. Our aim is to design, fabricate and characterise these devices, enabling next generation density of photonic systems. This innovation sets the foundation for digital photonic computers and ultra-low power transceivers with applications in data-centres, portable computers and automotive, with the goal of positioning photonics as a true competitor to the transistor.

DeepFab
Yasir Noori, University of Southampton

DeepFab is building AI tools that predict outcomes in semiconductor fabrication – one of the most complex and resource-intensive manufacturing sectors. Today’s semiconductor technologies have dimensions ten thousandths the width of the human hair. These technologies are fabricated through hundreds of precisely tuned steps, and trial-and-error remains the norm for developing fabrication recipes. DeepFab replaces this inefficiency with intelligent prediction. Using real experimental data and deep learning models, our tools simulate how recipe settings will affect nanometre-scale structures before fabrication begins.