Resumen
Programmable integrated photonics (PIP) is an emerging new paradigm that aims at designing common
integrated optical hardware resource configurations, capable of implementing an unconstrained
variety of functionalities by suitable programming. The work carried out within the Advanced Grant
ERC-ADG-2016-741415 UMWPCHIP of which I was the Principal Investigator, allowed me to lay the
foundation for the first technical stages of a novel revolutionary concept, the Field Programmable
Photonic Gate Array (FPPGA), developed in the context of a Proof-of-concept Grant
ERC-POC-2019-859927-FPPAs. Currently, the core of the processor is a uniform 2D programmable
photonic waveguide mesh, formed by replicating hexagonal unit cells. This layout suffers from
limited flexibility in the spectral period and sampling time values. The challenge is to develop
and demonstrate solutions that overcome these limitations and which can be easily incorporated into
existing mesh designs. In NP-Mesh I aim to demonstrate and validate the concept of non-periodic
programmable photonic integrated waveguide meshes formed by embedding defect cells into the
otherwise uniform 2D hexagonal mesh. Including defect cells solves the problem of spectral period
limitation through the exploitation of the Vernier effect as well as the as the sampling time
resolution limitation of the uniform waveguide mesh. My working roadmap will include: 1) carrying
out the required research activities linked to the development of the proposed technical concepts,
2) validating them through outsourced chip fabrication in an external foundry followed by
measurement and characterization experiments carried out in my lab at UPV, 3) generating the new
nt writing and application and transferring the new IPR to the spinoff
ompany iPronics, which I co-founded three years ago with the help of ERC-POC-2019-859927-FPPAs.
