The next generation of mobile technology, known as 5G, offers enormous potential for businesses and the wider public as it will facilitate faster downloads, reduce latency and improve energy efficiency – crucial attributes to achieving the Internet of Things (IoT) and the use of mobile networks to connect and operate autonomous cars, remotely controlled industrial robots, telehealth systems, and smart city infrastructure. However, the technology and ability to manufacture the components that are crucial to 5Gs success are currently not at a level where this potential can become a reality at a cost that would make its widespread roll out viable. Without urgent investment in 5G component manufacturing Europe seriously risks being left behind and allowing the US and Asia to take the lead in this crucial technology. The Solmates team has taken their PLD technology from initial concept to commercial equipment installed at institutes such as Imec, EPFL and Sintef i.e. for low volume production and R&D uses. The processes that run on the equipment currently are positioned at TRL 6. Funding is required to further develop Solmates’ PLD equipment and processes and ensure they are ready for entering the 200mm 5G component market. The FIVE-G project will therefore focus on four objectives to bring PLD into high volume manufacturing: 1. Establish requirements of manufacturers and develop the technology to meet these. 2. Reduce particle inclusion to the level required for the identified 5G applications 3. Adapt Solmates' PLD to cluster manufacturing. 4. Establish a distribution agreement and prepare for launch The introduction of high volume manufacturing PLD will advance the market, by providing more reliable deposition that is able to meet the technical needs of a future 5G network at a cost and throughput that is truly market leading.

The demand for advanced Radio Frequency (RF) components for 5G and basestations is rapidly increasing. Over the next 6 years there is a need for more than 100 billion Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter devices for 5G mobile. This translates in a >€100m market opportunity for Solmates’ PLD equipment in 2025. In addition, due to increased technical requirements such as new frequencies, there is a need for improved deposition technology for this emerging market. With PLD, Solmates has demonstrated over the last 2 years that these requirements can be met. However, it became also evident that High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) customers require a total solution in the form of a cluster tool at TRL8-9. To support this customer and market need, Solmates must expand and increase the functionality of its current single reactor PLD tool. The overall objective of the 5G-TRAIN project is to deliver a total solution for PLD manufacturing with better performance of advanced piezo thin films at 10x lower costs: these piezo thin films are critical for manufacturing of RF components such as BAW filters in the 5G market.For Solmates this market entry will be the stepping stone to the total >90 USD Billion8 semiconductor equipment market. The time to market is significantly lowered due to existing and new engagements with worldwide customers. The result of 5G-TRAIN will be a disruption of the 5G component manufacturing sector by realizing (for the first time) advanced thin film piezo materials at a commercially viable cost and scale. 5G-TRAIN will contribute to a leadership position in 5G (and 6G) for the EU industry, reducing dependency from US and China for critical communication technology.

Microwave photonics technology (MWP) has the potential to create a huge commercial impact by bringing together the worlds of microwave engineering and photonics and by enabling processing functionalities in microwave systems that are complex or totally impossible in the microwave domain. The main reason for not having achieved this so far has been the lack of a photonic integration technology that could address the specific needs of MWP. HAMLET aims to fill this gap and develop a disruptive photonic integration platform that will enable the development of very large scale photonic integrated circuits (VLSPICs) with cascaded stages of tunable structures for analog and digital signal processing, variety of optical processing functionalities and ultra-low optical loss. To this end, HAMLET will employ two integration levels. At the first one, it will develop a disruptive PZT-based phase-shifter technology on TriPleX platform with lower power consumption compared to thermal phase-shifters by almost one million times. At the same level HAMLET will incorporate the deposition of graphene films as a standard step in the fabrication process of polymer platform and will develop arrays of electro-absorption modulators with high bandwidth (>25 GHz). At the second integration level, HAMLET will bring together the two platforms under a 3D hybrid integration engine, and will develop circuits with record scale of integrated components (>300), record scale of functionalities with optical beamforming for 64-element antenna arrays at first place, and novel use as the interface between the wireless and the optical part at the antenna units of emerging 5G networks. Finally, in parallel with the system-related exploitation, HAMLET will also work on the unification of the two platforms under a multi-project wafer run type of services to external users, where the 3D integration engine will be used for provision of supersets of components and tools already available in the two platforms.

3PEAT will develop a powerful photonic integration technology with all size, functionality and quality credentials in order to help a broad range of optical applications like optical switching and remote sensing, to achieve a strong commercial impact. In order to do so, the project will introduce a fully functional 3D photonic integration platform based on the use of multiple waveguiding layers and vertical couplers in a polymer technology (PolyBoard), as a means to disrupt the integration scale and functionality. Moreover, 3PEAT will combine this powerful 3D photonic technology with a silicon-nitride platform (TriPleX), via the development of a methodology for the deposition and processing of multilayer polymers inside etched windows on TriPleX chips. In parallel with the development of this hybrid 3D technology, 3PeaT will bring a number of key innovations at the integration and component level relating to: a) the heterogeneous integration of PZT films on TriPleX platform for development of phase shifters and switches for operation up to 50 MHz, b) the development of a disruptive external cavity laser on the same platform with linewidth less than 1 kHz, c) the development for the first time of an integrated circulator on PolyBoard with isolation more than 25 dB, and d) the development of flexible types of PolyBoards for the purpose of physical interconnection of other PICs. This enormous breadth of innovations can remove the current limitations and unleash the full potential of optical switching and remote sensing and ranging applications. The main switching module that will be fabricated will be a 36×36 optical switch with 20 ns switching time and possibility for power and cost savings of almost 95% compared to standard electronic solutions. The main sensing module on the other hand will be a disruptive Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) with all of its optical units, including its optical beam scanning unit, integrated on a very large, hybrid 3D PIC.