SUGAR: Group-IV Active Photonics Research
The Sustainable Group-IV Active Photonics Research (SUGAR) is an interdisciplinary Sinergia project involving three major academic institutions in Switzerland: PSI, EPFL, and ETHZ. SUGAR is organized into distinct areas of expertise and tasks, each crucial to achieving the project's goals. SUGAR aims to develop a more sustainable photonics platform, focusing on group IV elements (Si, Ge, Sn) which are non-toxic and abundant. SUGAR's goals include:
1. Developing a semiconductor platform based on high-quality SixGe1-x and Ge1-xSnx, enabling active optoelectronic devices on silicon with reduced environmental impact compared to compound semiconductors III-Vs.
2. Creating innovative device designs that enable dimensional scaling, competitive performance, and energy efficiency, combined with reduced environmental impact
3. Incorporating sustainability at all fabrication levels, from materials usage to cleanroom processing, laying the groundwork for high-performance, sustainable photonics, and enabling eco-design and full LCA of components.
4. Developing an LCA methodology for semiconductor technology, which is currently in its infancy compared to other sectors.
Project Impact:
SUGAR aims to revolutionize on-chip data transmission by,
• Enabling next-generation photonics with less power consumption and dissipation
• Developing more ecologically sustainable fabrication processes
• Adding light emission and detection capabilities based on direct bandgap GeSn to Si photonics platforms
• Providing thorough analysis of process sustainability and solutions for improvement
• Creating methodologies applicable to other areas of the micro/nano-electronic industry
Relevant publications:
1. Schmid, Heinz, Mattias Borg, K. Moselund, Lynne Gignac, Christopher M. Breslin, John Bruley, D. Cutaia, and Heike Riel. "Template-assisted selective epitaxy of III–V nanoscale devices for co-planar heterogeneous integration with Si." Applied Physics Letters 106, no. 23 (2015).
2. Martinez, C. Oliver, M. Scherrer, S. Iadanza, P. Wen, P. Tiwari, M. Sousa, B. Gotsmann, H. Schmid, and K. E. Moselund. "Monolithic integration of III-V photodiodes and emitters on silicon." In 49th European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC 2023), vol. 2023, pp. 756-759. IET, 2023.
3. Martinez-Oliver, Cristina, Markus Scherrer, Simone Iadanza, Heinz Schmid, Kirsten Moselund, and Vihar Georgiev. "Simulation and Fabrication of Monolithic III–V
Cooperation with
This work is part of the interdisciplinary Sinergia project SUGAR, involving three major academic institutions in Switzerland: PSI, EPFL, and ETHZ. EPFL focuses on developing the materials platform, while PSI is responsible for device implementations based on EPFL's materials. ETHZ collaborates with both EPFL and PSI to address sustainability in materials growth and device fabrication. All parties work together to evaluate the energy-efficiency potential of the produced devices and conduct life-cycle analysis, drawing from their individual expertise.
Ira Villinger (PhD Student)
Stefan Pfister (Professor)