Ford’s Argo AI acquires Princeton Lightwave
Argo AI, an artificial intelligence subsidiary of Ford that produces software for autonomous vehicles, has acquired lidar firm Princeton Lightwave to accelerate the development of its own self- driving technology. In February, Ford announced
its investment of $1 billion over the next five years into Argo AI, a start-up formed by CEO Bryan Salesky, previously with Google’s self-driving team, and COO Peter Rander, who headed Uber’s autonomous activities. Argo AI is helping Ford develop an affordable autonomous system for a self-driving vehicle that it plans will be on roads by 2021. ‘Princeton Lightwave’s
technology... will help us unlock new capabilities that will aid our virtual driver system in handling object detection in challenging scenarios, such as poor weather conditions, and safely operating at high speeds in dynamic environments,’ Salesky commented.
The expanded Argo and Princeton team will focus on accelerating the development of a virtual driver system mandated for SAE levels four and five, meaning it will operate without the need of a driver behind the wheel.
51 experts in photonics integrated circuits gather in Tokyo
NEWS FROM EPIC By Dr Jose Pozo, director of technology and innovation, EPIC
Delegation to Japan highlights photonic integrated circuits
W IN BRIEF
Princeton Instruments has signed a distribution agreement with Quantum Design UK and Ireland for its new Fergie line of imaging spectrographs.
The Zeiss Microscopy business has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Denmark-based Xnovo Technology, a developer of software-based 3D X-ray imaging and analysis solutions, to further develop its diffraction contrast tomography technique, commercialised as LabDCT, on Zeiss Xradia 520 Versa.
ProPhotonix, a manufacturer of LED illumination systems and laser diode modules, has become a new distributor for Integrated Optics’ laser modules.
Correction: Gooch & Housego is a supplier of couplers for submarine fibre optical networks, rather than a supplier of submarine network optical fibres as stated in the November issue of Electro Optics.
www.electrooptics.com | @electrooptics
hile the majority of EPIC events are held in Europe, technology and business have no borders, so we
strive to connect our members with leaders and experts from the international photonics community. This year, delegation trips have been organised to Israel, Singapore, China and Japan. In addition, events are held annually at OFC and Photonics West in the USA. From 7 to 10 November in Tokyo, EPIC
brought together various industrial actors in photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and arranged a company visit to Hamamatsu Photonics. The size of the group was perfect for networking, and well-balanced for a global event (15 Europeans, 5 Canada/USA and 31 Japanese).
The main market for the Japanese companies remains datacom-telecom, evidenced by the presentations by Fujikura, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Fujitsu, while in Europe newer markets such as medical imaging, biosensors, lidar, microwave photonics and even quantum are predominant. A presentation by NTT Microsystem
Integration Laboratories on the integration of silicon photonics and III-V materials by means of membrane technology was one of the highlights of the event. Imec in Belgium has also done extensive research on this topic, and their collaboration with TU Eindhoven on silicon photonics integration was mentioned as the European counterpart. As platforms for low losses, the thick silicon platform developed by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland was presented, as well as the TripleX platforms and their benefits for imaging and sensing. The integration of PICs and electronics on chip, such as the BiCMOS integration
proposed by the German Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP) institute, could solve some of the problems raised by companies in Japan, such as Fujitsu and Kyocera, which are proposing a 2.5D integration approach. The H2020 PETRA (Photonic Environment moniToring and Risk Assessment) project has developed a FPGA for the integration of electronics on PIC, also using a 2.5D approach. InP PIC platforms of Smart Photonics and Fraunhofer HHI were considered of high relevance and a clear alternative to hybrid integration of silicon photonics. Packaging and testing are still two major
bottlenecks in PIC technology. FiconTec and AifoTec showed their important role in the value chain as equipment manufacturer
“Polymer photonics is a more popular solution as a PIC platform in Japan than in Europe”
for both the packaging and testing. Physik Instrumente (PI) and OFS showed how the tools for such automation are as important as the equipment itself. Pixapp was presented as the European
pilot line for the manufacturing of PICs. On the testing side, Yenista showed how to test at wafer level and Yelo at device level. One of the conclusions was that polymer photonics is a more popular solution as a PIC platform in Japan than in Europe, as was evidenced by the presentation by Sumitomo. New parts of the value chain such as the materials provided for silicon photonics by Nissan Chemical Industries, showing the Sunconnect polymer for waveguide fabrication. Europe is clearly a very strong player in the field of photonic integrated circuits!
December 2017/January 2018 Electro Optics 23
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