ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. military researchers are approaching industry for project to develop 3D chip-to-chip and intra-chip optical interconnects to speed information throughput and reduce vulnerability to electromagnetic interference.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., issued a broad agency announcement (HR001124S0038) on Tuesday for the Heterogenous Adaptively Produced Photonic Interfaces (HAPPI) program.
HAPPI will seek hardware demonstrations of low-loss, high-density optical interconnects for 3D chips using a scalable manufacturing process that is compatible with microelectronics. DARPA briefed industry on the program on 9 Sept.
The HAPPI program focuses on high-density 3D chip optical links and the ability to provide several routing planes within a photonic integrated circuit or photonic interposer.
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The project also will emphasize vertical connections between routing layers that can traverse substrate thickness, and surface methods for coupling light from one photonic chip to another. Chip-to-fiber coupling and chip-to-chip edge coupling are not part of the program.
A major thrust of the program is to create optical interfaces that are robust to typical microsystem misalignments due to fabrication and assembly variability, especially for large link arrays that span reticle-or wafer-scale systems.
The program also will seek robust-by-design or adaptive interfaces capable of environmentally and mechanically stable optical performance, with compatibility with standard microelectronics manufacturing and assembly flows.
Approaches should include coupling to a photonic integrated circuit with demonstrated optoelectronic sources, amplifiers, modulators, multiplexers, filters, detectors, and other electro-optical components. The operating wavelengths may be within the visible or near infrared optical bands.
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The HAPPI program aims to create a 1000x increase microsystem information transmission density by exploiting photonic signaling. The ability to move and process information efficiently throughout a microsystem requires signal routing technology with high data rates and dense access points.
Photonic links are sparse within the microsystem due to planar optical routing geometries. Increasing the density of photonic links requires moving to 3D optical routing within the chip and between chips, and will enable information delivery when and where it is needed in applications such as signal processing, free-space communications, remote sensing, digital compute, and atomic sensing.
A major thrust of the program involves creating robust optical interfaces -- especially for large link arrays that span reticle-or wafer-scale systems.
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The HAPPI program is a 36-month, two-phase program, with a base and an option period. The 18-month first phase will prove the feasibility of 3D routing in integrated photonics, while the 18-month second phase will scale the density and prove the manufacturability of the 3D routing platform.
Companies interested should submit abstracts no later than 1 Oct. 2024, and full proposals no later than 29 Oct. 2024 to the DARPA Broad Agency Announcement Tool (BAAT) online at https://baa.darpa.mil/Public/SecurityAgreement.
Email questions or concerns to [email protected]. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/5e053d585aed466e9bbf7d2d5d36f247/view.
