Silicon photonics products indigenously developed at CoE-CPPICS IIT Madras launched

S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), launches the silicon photonics products at IIT Madras, Chennai

Two silicon photonics products designed and developed indigenously at CoE-CPPICS at Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) were launched on Saturday by S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The centre built capacity in all verticals of silicon photonics product manufacturing eco-system through focused R&D and nurture Indian photonics industry for immediate needs in domestic and international markets, says a release.

CoE-CPPICS has developed a fibre array attachment tool in consultation with Izmo Microsystems to be seamlessly integrated with Izmo’s packaging facility for nextgen photonics chip packaging. The packaging facility at Izmo is now commercially available for miniaturised silicon photonics product development, says the release.

The centre also launched a high-speed silicon photonics QRNG (Quantum Random Number Generator). This module will be available commercially for potential customers through the CPPICS spin-off start-up LightOnChip Pvt Ltd. The key applications of QRNG are in IT security for military and defence, cryptographic algorithms, quantum key distribution (QKD), scientific modelling and simulations, financial transactions/ blockchain/ OTP and gaming applications, the release said.

Krishnan said the indigenously developed field-deployable silicon photonic-based QRNG module is a proud achievement for India. The product has been delivered to DRDO to help in advanced quantum cryptography.