TOPTRANS: a micro-transfer printing instrument with sub-micron alignment accuracy on a large scale for the electronic/photonic microsystems of the future (TOPTRANS)

TOPTRANS: a micro-transfer printing instrument with sub-micron alignment accuracy on a large scale for the electronic/photonic microsystems of the future

The instrument allows the integration of so-called 'chiplets' on a substrate with very high alignment accuracy (+/- 0.5micron 3 sigma). This fits into the trend of heterogeneous integration where bringing together components implemented in different material systems allows to increase the performance of the resulting system. In the first place, we look here at photonic systems on chip where, for example, III-V semiconductor components are integrated on a silicon photonic circuit. This enables a very wide range of applications, ranging from transceivers for optical communications, over optical sensors to optical systems to accelerate calculations. In addition, heterogeneously integrated electronic systems are considered, where e.g. III-V semiconductor electronics and Si CMOS electronics are combined to realize high-performance systems-on-chip, e.g. for wireless applications. Finally, the combination of photonic and electronic chips is also studied. The substrates on which the chiplets can be integrated are very diverse: 200mm/300mm Si photonics/electronics wafers, but also glass substrates (e.g. for display applications) and flexible substrates (e.g. for smart contact lenses, neural probes, etc.).