Key Facilities

AiPT is recognised as a centre of excellence in photonics, with global international visibility, and is a beacon of photonic learning and public outreach activities. It is ranked among the top academic photonic centres in the world.

AiPT provides outstanding facilities and infrastructure for its key research and training activities, with extensive theoretical and computational support. Now housed in a complex developed in 2018, AiPT benefits from 30 laboratories covering 1500 square metres. Facilities include Gbit/s to multi Tbit/s communications testbeds, UV and fs laser systems for optical device fabrication, a Class 10,000 (locally 1000) cleanroom, environmental test chambers, and a range of other equipment for laser and sensing system development.

The Photonics Research Group at Ghent University – imec is specialized in photonic integration and more specifically in silicon photonics. With 9 professors (of which 6 current or former ERC grantees) and about 90 researchers the group works on new device concepts and technologies, new system architectures and design methodologies, new application domains and proof-of-concept demonstrations, all building on the capabilities of silicon photonics. This encompasses not only telecom and datacom applications at 1.3 and 1.55 micrometer but also sensor and biomedical applications spanning a wavelength range from the visible to the mid infrared. With respect to technology the group builds on the silicon and silicon nitride photonics platforms developed by imec (iSiPP50G, BioPIX) as well as on heterogeneous integration approaches, e.g. based on transfer printing, in its own clean room facilities at Ghent University