European Photonics Manufacturing Services Funded by EC

This event is supported by the European initiatives presented and is moderated by EPIC, the European Photonics Industry Consortium.

The European Commission is helping companies access the world-leading photonics technologies developed in Europe to manufacture new products. It means that companies will be able to take their good ideas, scale them up, and validate them with access to the advanced, cost-intensive infrastructures and expertise needed to manufacture new and innovative products.

In this event, the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC), the largest nonprofit industry association in Europe, introduces some of these preeminent EU acceleration initiatives to the widest possible public of small- to medium-size companies (SMEs) ready for these opportunities to create high value-added products in numerous application areas ranging from architectural lighting to automotive, and from health care to consumer electronics.

Who should attend:
R&D managers, project and product managers, engineers and designers, management and business development professionals who are looking to expand their knowledge of current industrial photonics initiatives in Europe that are impacting the world's current innovations in markets such as aerospace, consumer, agriculture, defense, automotive, environmental, biophotonics, industrial, machine vision, communications, and medical.

INITIATIVES:

14:30 CEST | 8:30 AM EDT - PhotonHUB: A unique opportunity for Europe

PhotonHub Europe will establish a single photonics innovation hub that integrates all of the best-in-class photonics technologies, facilities, expertise, and experience of 53 top competence centers across Europe under one roof as a one-stop shopping solution with open access for any company anywhere in Europe that wants to innovate with photonics. www.photonhub.eu/

About the presenter:
Hugo Thienpont, Ph.D., is a professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He chairs the Applied Physics and Photonics Department and is director of the Brussels photonics research team B-PHOT, which he built over the years and which today has more than 60 scientists, engineers, and administrative and technical staff. He graduated as an electrotechnical engineer with majors in applied physics in 1984 and a Ph.D. in applied sciences in 1990, both at the VUB. From 1990 onward he has continued his career as a postdoctoral researcher at the VUB with the goal to set up a research team with critical mass, which would contribute to the fascinating world of photonics. Over the years, Thienpont and his team have made research efforts in a large variety of fundamental and applied research topics, most of them situated in the domain of microphotonics and micro-optics. In particular, he is internationally recognized for his breakthroughs in the following research topics: optical bistability in nonlinear Fabry-Pérot resonators, nonlinear optical response of organic materials, parallel optics in digital computing demonstrators, optical interconnects at the chip level, high-aspect ratio plastic micro-optics based on deep proton lithography, polarization switching in vertical-cavity surface-emitting microlasers, and microstructured optical fibers for optical sensing.

14:45 CEST | 8:45 AM EDT - LAMPAS: Surface enhancements inspired by nature

LAMpAS is a research and innovation project to develop a laser system based on high-throughput laser structuring with multiscale periodic feature sizes for advanced surface functionalities. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 825132 and is an initiative of the Photonics21 Public Private Partnership (www.photonics21.org). https://www.lampas.eu/

About the presenter:
Andrés Fabián Lasagni, Ph.D., received a master of science degree in chemical engineering from National Comahue University, Argentina, in 2002 and a Ph.D. in materials science from Saarland University, Germany, in 2006. From 2007 to 2008, he was a research scientist and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow with the Georgia Institute of Technology. From 2008 to 2017, he was a group leader with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS. Since 2012 he has been a professor in the Institute of Manufacturing Technology at Technische Universität Dresden, and since 2017 he has been director of the Center for Advanced Micro-Photonics (CAMP). His research interests include the development of functionalized surfaces using laser-based fabrication methods, optical devices for high-throughput laser texturing, and in-line monitoring systems. He is the author of more than 300 articles and 30 patents. Lasagni’s awards and honors include the Fritz-Grasenick-Prize (Austrian Society for Electron Microscopy), the Werner Köster Prize (DGM), and others.

15:00 CEST | 9:00 AM EDT - PHABULOµS Pilot Line: Lighting for human well-being

Katharina Keller

15:15 CEST | 9:15 AM EDT - PASSION: Sustainable technologies for the superconnected and communication society

PASSION develops innovative photonic devices and an optical fiber network infrastructure for sustainable metropolitan networks in terms of huge capacity, low cost, reduced footprint, and low power consumption. PASSION is a Research and Innovation Actions project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program grant agreement No. 780326. https://www.passion-project.eu/

About the presenter:
Pierpaolo Boffi is associate professor at Politecnico di Milano in the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (Milan, Italy), where he is the head of the Optical Communications Lab, PoliCom (http://policom.deib.polimi.it). He is currently the coordinator of the Horizon 2020 EU research project PASSION and is co-founder of Cohaerentia (www.cohaerentia.com), a spinoff company of Politecnico di Milano. His expertise is in optical fiber communications, and his main research activities include very high-capacity optical systems for applications both in the long-haul transport network and in the metro-regional and access network.

15:30 CEST | 9:30 AM EDT - PULSATE: Laser-based and digital technologies for smart and sustainable manufacturing in Europe

PULSATE intends to mitigate barriers to boost the adoption of LBAAM technologies by SMEs and promote the development of SME-friendly laser-based equipment and solutions. To achieve this, it will set up a Europe-wide network to encourage SME participation in LBAAM innovation. It will therefore connect digital innovation hubs to support a structure designed to tackle the issues currently hindering LBAAM technology adoption. The project’s work will help to increase the competitiveness of European SMEs: https://www.pulsate.eu/

 

About the presenter:
Pablo Romero has 25 years of experience in R&D in materials engineering and manufacturing technologies, and he has been working in AIMEN Technology Centre for almost 20 years. He has been involved in the development of the AIMEN Laser Applications Centre since its inception. During his research activity in the field of laser materials processing, he published more than 20 peer review papers, contributed to more than 50 conference papers and presentations, and coordinated six European collaborative projects and more than 10 national R&D projects in cooperation with industry. He is member of the UNE-SC76 / IEC-TC 76 standardization committee and of the Board of Stakeholders of Photonics21, and he holds three international patents. He is currently research strategy manager for laser applications at AIMEN, working in the field of laser-based micromanufacturing.

15:45 CEST | 9:45 AM EDT - PIXAPP Pilot Line: Packaging and assembly for large-volume manufacturing

PIXAPP, the world’s first open-access photonic integrated circuit (PIC) assembly and packaging Pilot Line, provides companies with standardized packaging solutions along the entire supply chain for prototyping and pilot-scale production. PIXAPP offers a comprehensive building block menu to its users including optical coupling and thermal and mechanical stabilization, serving key industries such as medical, industrial, security, and optical communications. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program grant agreement No. 731954, in a Photonics21 Public Private Partnership (www.photonics21.org). https://pixapp.eu/

About the presenter:
Peter O'Brien, Ph.D., is Head of the Photonics Packaging & Systems Integration Group at the Tyndall Institute, University College Cork, Ireland. He is also Director of the European Photonics Packaging Pilot Line, Head of the European Photonics Innovation Academy which is part of PhotonHub Europe (www.photonhub.eu) and Deputy Director of the SFI Centre for Integrated Photonics (www.ipic.ie). His research group develops packaging and integration solutions for a range of photonic-based applications including high-speed communications, miniaturised biomedical and diagnostics and remote and autonomous sensing. O’Brien previously founded and was CEO of a start-up company manufacturing speciality photonic systems for bio-imaging and pharmaceutical product monitoring applications, which he sold in 2009. Prior to this, he was a post-doctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he was involved in the development of submillimetre wave devices for remote (space) sensing applications. He received his degree and Ph.D. in Physics from Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork respectively.

16:00 CEST | 10:00 AM EDT - MEDPHAB: MedPhab Pilot Line: How to accelerate the commercialization of medical and diagnostic devices

MedPhab is Europe’s first Pilot Line dedicated to manufacturing, testing, validation, and upscaling of new photonics technologies for medical diagnostics enabling accelerated product launch with reduced R&D costs. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 871345 and is an initiative of the Photonics21 Public Private Partnership (www.photonics21.org). https://medphab.eu/

 

About the presenter:
Jussi Hiltunen is research professor at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. He has over 20 years’ experience in photonics microsystems. With particular interest is the development of upscaled integration technologies for health care applications such as wearables and opto-fluidic sensors. To promote the collaboration between research organizations and industry, he works as a board member in Printocent innovation centre and coordinates MedPhab Pilot Line project.

16:15 CEST | 10:15 AM EDT - MIRPHAB Pilot Line: Enabling technologies for mid-IR chemical sensing

MIRPHAB is an all-service integrated Pilot Line for the development of mid-IR photonics sensors in Europe, a single-access point to the best technology provided by a consortium of leading companies in the field of photonics. MIRPHAB offers services from market analysis, design, and fabrication to the final packaging of prototypes. MIRPHAB’s main objective is to transform ideas into products and to quickly introduce them to the market. MIRPHAB is an EC-funded initiative in a Photonics21 Public Private Partnership, under the grant agreement No. 688265 (www.photonics21.org). https://mirphab.eu/

About the presenter:
Sergio Nicoletti, Ph.D., is business development manager at CEA-Leti. He joined the company in 2006 to develop mid-IR optical gas sensors. Nicoletti has since served as chief researcher and project leader, and he currently oversees development of industrial partnerships. He earned a doctorate in physics from Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble in 1996, France. He holds more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and more than 20 patents; email: [email protected].

16:30 CEST | 10:30 AM EDT - MULTIPLE: Optimizing production processes with spectral sensing

MULTIPLE will develop cost-effective multimodal monitoring solutions with a breakthrough impact on production quality and efficiency. It will bring cutting-edge organic electronics-based sensors, snapshot hyperspectral filters, and dual-aperture imaging, complemented with cost-effective laser-based chemometric sensors. This project has received funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 871783 and is an initiative of the Photonics21 Public Private Partnership. https://multipleproject.eu/

About the presenter:
Roi Mendez, Ph.D., is a senior researcher and team leader of the Signal Processing Group at AIMEN Technology Centre, Spain. He has over 10 years of experience in R&D in the fields of real-time signal processing, hyperspectral imaging, and computer vision. He holds a MSc in telecom engineering and a MSc in applied mathematics from the University of Vigo (UV), Spain, and a Ph.D. in signal and image processing from UV. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques, Germany, and in the Signal Processing for Communication Group (GPSC) at UV. He has held visiting research positions at Geoscience Research Centre (GFZ), Potsdam, Germany, and at University of Texas at Austin, U.S. He is currently the coordinator of Horizon 2020 projects Multiple and Level-UP.

16:45 CEST | 10:45 AM EDT - JePPIX Pilot Line: From photonic integrated circuits to societal impact

JePPIX Pilot Line offers design, production, and testing services to take your InP PIC-based prototype into production, addressing integrated photonics' ability to offer us the way to a faster, more precise, and more energy-efficient future. The JePPIX Pilot Line is enabled by the InPulse project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 824980 and is an initiative of the Photonics21 Public Private Partnership (www.photonics21.org). https://www.jeppix.eu/jeppix-pilot-line/services/

About the presenter:
Kevin Williams, Ph.D., graduated in electronic engineering from the University of Sheffield and received his Ph.D. from the School of Physics at the University of Bath in 1995. He previously served as fellow and lecturer at Churchill College Cambridge before moving to the Electro-optic Communications group at TU/e in 2006 after receiving an EC Marie Curie Chair award. His key fields of expertise include photonic integrated circuits, semiconductor lasers, and their application in communications and sensing. He currently leads the Photonic Integration group at the Institute of Photonic Integration, which explores the scaling properties of photonic circuits, enabling faster and more energy-efficient components and circuits. Williams also chaired the European Conference on Integrated Optics 2017 and serves as the primary guest editor for the JSTQE special issue on InP integration photonics in 2018. For more information, please read www.tue.nl/en/research/researchers/kevin-williams/.

About EPIC:
EPIC is the world leading industry association that promotes the sustainable development of organizations working in the field of photonics in Europe. EPIC fosters a vibrant photonics ecosystem by maintaining a strong network and acting as a catalyst and facilitator for technological and commercial advancement. EPIC publishes market and technology reports, organizes technical workshops and B2B roundtables, supports EU funding proposals, advocacy and lobbying, education and training activities, standards and roadmaps, pavilions at exhibitions.

Moderators:

Antonio Raspa is Innovation Manager at EPIC. Raspa received his master degree in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Milano in 1998, with a specialization in Quantum Electronics. Before joining EPIC, he worked at Quanta System (1988-2000) as R&D manager developing solid-state laser sources and custom-tailored photonic systems for industrial and scientific applications. During this period he was also in charge as LiDAR specialist of the Italian research program in Antarctica. Later he worked at TRUMPF (2000-2008) and Rofin-Sinar (2008-2009) as industrial laser products and processes specialist. In 2009 he joined again Quanta System organizing and managing a brand new structure for the production of sterile optical fibers for surgery. Moreover, he was in charge for the Italian and European research projects and, since 2014 he is the coordinator of WG3 – Life science and health of CORIFI (Italian Coordination of Research and Innovation in Photonics).

Elena Beletkaia, Ph.D., is Project Leader for sensing and health care technologies at EPIC. She has vast experience in multiple micro and spectroscopic techniques. Her expertise comes from research into the application of non-invasive spectroscopic/multiphoton methods for biomedical applications, e.g. intraoperative resection margins assessment during tumor excisions. She graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) specializing in biophysics and acquired her Ph.D. at Leiden University in the physics of the life sciences.

Francesca Moglia, Ph.D., is Project Leader for laser technology at EPIC. She has a background in crystal growth, spectroscopy, optics and laser development for research and large research facilities. Before joining EPIC, she moved from R&D to scientific management for the coordination of a consortium of funding agencies in the field of astro particle physics. She graduated in Physics from the University of Pisa in Italy, acquired her Ph.D. at the Universität Hamburg in the field of laser physics and pursued her post-doctoral activities at DESY, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany.

Sana Amairi-Pyka, Ph.D., is Project Leader for optical technologies at EPIC and is an experimental physicist, specializing in quantum optical metrology. She works mainly on innovations in optical manufacturing technologies and the quantum photonics industry. Among her responsibilities are the dissemination and communication of the Horizon 2020-funded European PHABULOuS project, the new pilot-line providing highly advanced and robust manufacturing technology for optical free-form and microstructures.