Silicon photonics now part of Huawei, imec partnership

Huawei and imec, the European nanophotonics research center, say they have extended their joint work on optical data link technology to include silicon photonics. The two expect to co-develop technology that will support high speeds, low power consumption, and cost savings.

Huawei has now joined imec’s silicon photonics research program and will work with R&D team in Leuven, Belgium, on such areas as optimizing bandwidth density, power consumption, thermal robustness, and cost at the system level. The work with imec follows Huawei's acquisition of silicon photonics startup Caliopa, which was a spin-off from imec and Ghent University (see "Huawei buys silicon photonics startup Caliopa").

"This is an important next step in our collaboration with Huawei on silicon photonics. This collaboration, together with Huawei’s recent acquisition of our spin-off Caliopa that focuses on developing silicon photonics-based optical transceivers for the telecommunications industry, shows that our silicon photonics research is important for advancing next-generation high-bandwidth ICT solutions," stated Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at imec. "We expect this partnership to give a further boost to our silicon photonics research over the coming years."

"Having acquired cutting-edge expertise in the field of silicon photonics thanks to our acquisition of Caliopa last year, this partnership with imec is the logical next move towards next-generation optical communication. By combining our strengths in this strategic area, we can deliver ICT innovation that translates into value for businesses and consumers in Europe and beyond," said Hudson Liu, CEO at Huawei Belgium.

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