Heterogeneous Material Integrated MEMS/NEMS-Photonics Platform for Secure Communication

This Japan-UK collaboration will establish a novel heterogeneous material integrated MEMS/NEMS-Photonics platform for highly-secured ICT hardware, reducing energy consumption significantly. The lead applicant Tokyo Tech team have strong expertise on Si photonics and material integration technology, while Southampton can provide the state-of-the-art MEMS, NEMS and Metasurface technologies. Starting from the development of individual MEMS/NEMS-integrated photonics components, novel photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for secure communication will be demonstrated. The laboratory-level development will be combined with large-scale wafer process with industrial-level uniformity and spatial resolution by using the pilot 300-mm semiconductor process line available in collaboration with AIST. Metasurface-empowered optical cryptography scheme with reconfigurable functionality will be demonstrated for the first time on chip, taking semiconductor photonics technology to the next level. The project will also contribute to new development of tunable single photon source, leading to the improvement of quantum random number generators that is a key module for quantum secure communication. The ambition of the project is to initiate a new research field of on-chip optical secure communication and consequently take semiconductor research to the next level, with translation to industry in Japan and the UK.