IBM and AIM Photonics Announce IP Licensing Agreement

IBM Joins Consortium to Enable Advanced Packaging Designs and Manufacturing of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC)

News provided by

Apr 24, 2017, 20:19 ET

ARMONK, N.Y. and ALBANY, N.Y., April 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and AIM Photonics, The American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, an institute of Manufacturing USA, today announced a patent and intellectual property licensing agreement and confirmed IBM has joined the AIM Photonics consortium, which seeks to advance integrated photonic circuit manufacturing and technology development.

The collaboration between IBM and AIM Photonics is expected to provide a path for the development of new technologies and products that will further solidify the consortium's position in the integrated photonics manufacturing ecosystem.

Additionally, the intellectual property licensing agreement with IBM will help AIM Photonics establish standard processes in the development of silicon photonics assemblies, such as couplings for communication signals and light sources. Industry and academic AIM Photonics members will access these technologies through a process design kit (PDK) and prototype development at the Rochester Test Assembly and Packaging (TAP) facility and the 300mm chip facility at SUNY Poly's Albany campus.

"Adding IBM as a member of AIM Photonics not only significantly strengthens this outstanding institute, but highlights the momentum the Finger Lakes region is experiencing in the high tech sector," said John Maggiore, New York State photonics board of officers chairman. "This announcement further validates the importance of this institute and the goals it has set out to achieve."

Through its membership, IBM will contribute to the development of AIM Photonics' advanced integrated silicon photonics technology, packaging services, and other future offerings to make advanced technology available to AIM Photonics members and the wider technical community. IBM, together with the other industry partners and the affiliated universities, will play a significant role to direct advanced research activities of AIM Photonics towards new products.

"Today's announcement furthers New York State's global leadership in developing next-generation integrated silicon photonics technologies," said Dr. Michael Liehr, AIM Photonics CEO and SUNY Poly Executive Vice President of Innovation and Technology and Vice President of Research. "Working side by side with IBM photonic PIC and packaging experts is a significant milestone for AIM Photonics as we continue to advance our capabilities and prepare the TAP facility."

IBM recently delivered a presentation at an AIM Photonics Technology summit during The Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC) in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Wilfried Haensch discussed "Advanced optical packaging for Integrated Silicon Photonics" to over 100 conference attendees.

AIM Photonics is part of the overall Finger Lakes Forward revitalization effort—the region's strategic plan for economic growth, which places an emphasis on the industry cluster of optics, photonics and imaging to realize the region's full potential and act as a core driver of jobs and output growth. One of AIM Photonics' primary goals is to make Rochester a technology hub for silicon photonics manufacturing and packaging, generating both growth and job opportunities for the city of Rochester, Monroe County, and the State as a whole.

Pictures are available for use in publication, courtesy of SUNY Poly. To download, please visit the following website and click on the icon in the upper right hand corner; captions are provided under the "info" icon: https://goo.gl/photos/aVBBdvSQV2286U6H9

About IBM Research
For more than seven decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents. Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, a U.S. Presidential medal of Freedom, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology, five U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame. For more information about IBM Research, visit www.ibm.com/research.

Media Contact:
Chris Nay
512-286-7727
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM