Project Newton

About the Partners

The Coordinator of the Project. The Laser Zentrum Hannover (LZH) is a non-profit research and development organization in the field of laser technology. Among other activities, there is a core competence in the field of micro- and nanotechnology. The LZH is now one of the leading institutes in ultrashort laser material processing, especially in the field of two-photon polymerization, where the LZH has a leading position in Europe.

The BASF Aktiengesellschaft (BASF) is the world’s leading chemical company. Their goal is to grow profitably and further increase the value of our company. BASF’s portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, agricultural products and fine chemicals to crude oil and natural gas. Through new technologies BASF can tap into additional market opportunities. BASF conduct its business in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. In 2006, BASF had sales of more than €52,6 billion and over 95,000 employees worldwide. One of BASF’s particularly strong areas of R&D is emulsion polymers. Ordinarily these go into adhesives, coatings, construction, etc. But the R&D division of BASF has recently also developed new concepts for the creation of effect pigments based not on inorganic multi-layered thin films but on regularly arranged colloidal crystals formed from core-shell organic nanoparticles. These results form an excellent starting point for developing organic templates for photonic band gap devices. Challenges remain with the identification of the right organic chemistry for integration into gas phase processing as well as in the area of size and monodispersity op the colloidal products.

Photon Design Ltd. (PD) is a commercial software house developing state of the art computer aided design tools for the photonics and optoelectronics industries. The company was started in 1992 and now includes the majority of the major telecoms companies around the world as its customer list. It has pioneered a number of simulation technologies, and now produces and markets some of the most innovative tools available commercially. Their CAD tool range includes passive integrated optic and fibre-based component models, laser design, quantum well and grating device design.

Photon Design has extensive knowledge of photonic crystal design and simulation, stemming in part from its involvement in the successful European PICCO project, now completed. Over the last few years PD has developed a comprehensive photonic crystal design environment "CrystalWave" that has brought unparalleled usability to this area and is now in use for photonic crystal design throughout the World. Photon Design's work in this subject has encompassed both the development of efficient numerical codes (e.g. probably the World's fastest FDTD code) plus highly professional user interfaces enabling the design of planar photonic crystal structures as easily as conventional waveguides. The NewTon project will help PD develop CrystalWave into a 3D-periodicity tool too.

The Research Center COM is affiliated with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and was started in 1998 with the mission to strengthen the Danish efforts on education and research within optical and communication technologies. COM is an acronym for Communications, Optics and Materials. Counting more than 130 researchers, it has a unique integration of activities spanning from materials and components to systems and networks. COM has world-class fabrication facilities for silicon and glass components and the laboratories are equipped for high-frequency device characterization as well as high-speed systems experiments. Also, COM has advanced tools for component and systems simulation and design.

Research on photonic crystals is a focus area at COM. The main activities are on photonic crystal fibres, planar photonic crystals in SOI materials, modelling of photonic crystals, and COM is presently installing equipment for drawing crystal fibres in polymer materials. The total photonic crystal effort at COM involves around 20 researchers. The activities led at an early stage to the spin-off companies Crystal Fibre, and Alight Technologies. COM participated in the PICCO project in the FP5 IST programme where its main activity was on fabrication, characterisation and modelling of planar photonic crystals in SOI materials. The research in this field was continued and has resulted in 20 journal publications and 32 conference presentations since 2001. The modelling work on photonic crystals is based on expertise in 3D finite difference time domain (FDTD) and Green’s function methods. A recent highlight is the use of topology optimisation (in collaboration with another DTU institute) for design of low loss waveguide bends in planar photonic crystals over a wide bandwidth. The development of topology optimisation for 3D photonic crystal structures is expected to be an important part of the present project.

The GET, Groupe des Ecoles de Télécommunications, (http://www.get-telecom.fr/) is an umbrella organisation which regroups the three main French, public institutions involved in the research into and teaching of telecommunication and related technologies. The group counts 440 staff directly involved in research and teaching. The Ecole Nationale Superieur des Telecommunications des Bretagne (GET/ENSTB) is a French Graduate Engineering School specialised in the transmission and processing of information (http://www.enst-bretagne.fr). The school employs 130 permanent teaching/research staff and over 800 engineering students and 150 doctoral students work in the school each year. The ENST Bretagne Optics Department (http://www-optique.enst-bretagne.fr) is comprised of 17 permanent teaching, research, technical and administrative staff and approximately 15 doctoral students. The department's expertise field concerns optical information processing and metrology, design and fabrication of diffractive optics, design and fabrication of liquid crystal based devices for optical communications applications, both free-space and fibre based systems and the design and simulation of optical telecommunications networks. Technical facilities include fully equipped cleanrooms for the fabrication and characterisation of diffractive optics, planar optical waveguides and liquid crystal components, numerous fully equipped optical benches in the IR and visible spectrum, a 10Gbit/s optical transmission bay and BER measurement bench and extensive component and optical telecommunications network simulation facilities. The department is recognised as a French National Research Laboratory (member of the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique : UMR 6082 GIS-Foton laboratory) and regularly participates in research projects both with industrial partners (France Telecom, Alcatel ...) and at the Regional (Bretagne), National (RNRT ...) and European (FP5 and 6, NoE, STREPS, CRAFT ...) levels. Part of the department's research provided the technical background for the ETB spin-off, Optogone, which was recently bought out by Memscap SA.

The Thales Aerospace Division (TAS) is N°1 in Europe and N° 3 in the World as Aerospace Equipment and Systems provider. It provides all the capabilities demanded by their customers from onboard equipment, sub-systems, systems, prime contracting and high value-added services, both in civil and military markets. As prime contractor in its areas of expertise, Thales plays a pivotal role in many of today’s most ambitious aviation programs: e.g. A380, 7E7, Rafale, A400M. It applies its dual technology expertise for the benefit of all customers: aircraft manufacturers, airlines, operators, armed forces, defence agencies, etc. The recently revamped Aerospace Division combines Thales Airborne Systems, Thales Avionics, Thales Computers, Thales Microelectronics and Thales MESL.

Thales is the European leader in the avionics market and one of the world's top three suppliers of cockpit and cabin electronics, radar systems, mission computers, real-time software onboard utilities, power generation equipment and in-flight entertainment systems for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. The group offers a complete catalogue of onboard equipment, including the design and integration of sophisticated communications, navigation and surveillance functions. Thales’ product and service offering covers all types of aircraft, including civil and military transport aircraft, regional transports, business jets and military training, reconnaissance and combat aircraft, as well as all types of civil and military helicopters. In the civil aircraft market, Thales is the main supplier of avionics to Airbus and also serves Boeing, Bombardier Aerospace, Embraer, and Eurocopter.

It has 12,900 employees (3,300 outside France) in eight countries: France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, United States, Canada, China, Singapore. The division generates annual sales of €2.1 billion, with spending on Research & Development equal to 17% of sales.

As a result of a proactive strategy of investment in the technologies of the future, Thales Aerospace has gathered the skills of more than 5 000 engineers within an industrial and technological core that is unique in Europe, and benefits from this accumulated know-how for the design, development and manufacturing of electronic equipment, particularly mastering the following techniques and technologies:

- Power electronics,

- Antennas and radomes,

- Microelectronics,

- Analog and microwave circuits,

- Information systems and digital data processing,

- Manufacturing technologies.

The activities of TAS in the field of optical links and microwave optics dates back from 20 years, and covered laser diodes design and fabrication, microwave distributed photodetectors, external LiNbO3 and MQW modulators, to list a few of the developments undergone. The main line of action of the company in this field today is concentrating on very high performance microwave optical links for highly integrated T/R microwave optics modules applicable to future active conformal antennas. A specificity of the research undergone is the design and realization of analog microwave optical links including MMICs specifically designed for these analog links. The target is the realization and production of the smallest modules for high dynamic range links, for which PBG passive structures help drastically shrink the dimensions of the modules, thereby easing their insertion in multilayer conformal EM skins.


	Project NewTon Members
	About the Partners The Coordinator of the Project. The Laser Zentrum Hannover (LZH) is a non-profit research and development organization in the field of laser technology. Among other activities, there is a core competence in the field of micro- and nanotechnology. The LZH is now one of the leading institutes in ultrashort laser material processing, especially in the field of two-photon polymerization, where the LZH has a leading position in Europe. The *BASF Aktiengesellschaft* (BASF) is the world’s leading chemical company. Their goal is to grow profitably and further increase the value of our company. BASF’s portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, agricultural products and fine chemicals to crude oil and natural gas. Through new technologies BASF can tap into additional market opportunities. BASF conduct its business in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. In 2006, BASF had sales of more than €52,6 billion and over 95,000 employees worldwide. One of BASF’s particularly strong areas of R&D is emulsion polymers. Ordinarily these go into adhesives, coatings, construction, etc. But the R&D division of BASF has recently also developed new concepts for the creation of effect pigments based not on inorganic multi-layered thin films but on regularly arranged colloidal crystals formed from core-shell organic nanoparticles. These results form an excellent starting point for developing organic templates for photonic band gap devices. Challenges remain with the identification of the right organic chemistry for integration into gas phase processing as well as in the area of size and monodispersity op the colloidal products. *Photon Design Ltd*. (PD) is a commercial software house developing state of the art computer aided design tools for the photonics and optoelectronics industries. The company was started in 1992 and now includes the majority of the major telecoms companies around the world as its customer list. It has pioneered a number of simulation technologies, and now produces and markets some of the most innovative tools available commercially. Their CAD tool range includes passive integrated optic and fibre-based component models, laser design, quantum well and grating device design. Photon Design has extensive knowledge of photonic crystal design and simulation, stemming in part from its involvement in the successful European PICCO project, now completed. Over the last few years PD has developed a comprehensive photonic crystal design environment "CrystalWave" that has brought unparalleled usability to this area and is now in use for photonic crystal design throughout the World. Photon Design's work in this subject has encompassed both the development of efficient numerical codes (e.g. probably the World's fastest FDTD code) plus highly professional user interfaces enabling the design of planar photonic crystal structures as easily as conventional waveguides. The NewTon project will help PD develop CrystalWave into a 3D-periodicity tool too. The *Research Center COM* is affiliated with the *Technical University of Denmark* (DTU) and was started in 1998 with the mission to strengthen the Danish efforts on education and research within optical and communication technologies. COM is an acronym for Communications, Optics and Materials. Counting more than 130 researchers, it has a unique integration of activities spanning from materials and components to systems and networks. COM has world-class fabrication facilities for silicon and glass components and the laboratories are equipped for high-frequency device characterization as well as high-speed systems experiments. Also, COM has advanced tools for component and systems simulation and design. Research on photonic crystals is a focus area at COM. The main activities are on photonic crystal fibres, planar photonic crystals in SOI materials, modelling of photonic crystals, and COM is presently installing equipment for drawing crystal fibres in polymer materials. The total photonic crystal effort at COM involves around 20 researchers. The activities led at an early stage to the spin-off companies Crystal Fibre, and Alight Technologies. COM participated in the PICCO project in the FP5 IST programme where its main activity was on fabrication, characterisation and modelling of planar photonic crystals in SOI materials. The research in this field was continued and has resulted in 20 journal publications and 32 conference presentations since 2001. The modelling work on photonic crystals is based on expertise in 3D finite difference time domain (FDTD) and Green’s function methods. A recent highlight is the use of topology optimisation (in collaboration with another DTU institute) for design of low loss waveguide bends in planar photonic crystals over a wide bandwidth. The development of topology optimisation for 3D photonic crystal structures is expected to be an important part of the present project. The GET, *Groupe des Ecoles de Télécommunications, (http://www.get-telecom.fr/) is an umbrella organisation which regroups the three main French, public institutions involved in the research into and teaching of telecommunication and related technologies. The group counts 440 staff directly involved in research and teaching. The Ecole Nationale Superieur des Telecommunications des* Bretagne (GET/ENSTB) is a French Graduate Engineering School specialised in the transmission and processing of information (http://www.enst-bretagne.fr). The school employs 130 permanent teaching/research staff and over 800 engineering students and 150 doctoral students work in the school each year. The ENST Bretagne Optics Department (http://www-optique.enst-bretagne.fr) is comprised of 17 permanent teaching, research, technical and administrative staff and approximately 15 doctoral students. The department's expertise field concerns optical information processing and metrology, design and fabrication of diffractive optics, design and fabrication of liquid crystal based devices for optical communications applications, both free-space and fibre based systems and the design and simulation of optical telecommunications networks. Technical facilities include fully equipped cleanrooms for the fabrication and characterisation of diffractive optics, planar optical waveguides and liquid crystal components, numerous fully equipped optical benches in the IR and visible spectrum, a 10Gbit/s optical transmission bay and BER measurement bench and extensive component and optical telecommunications network simulation facilities. The department is recognised as a French National Research Laboratory (member of the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique : UMR 6082 GIS-Foton laboratory) and regularly participates in research projects both with industrial partners (France Telecom, Alcatel ...) and at the Regional (Bretagne), National (RNRT ...) and European (FP5 and 6, NoE, STREPS, CRAFT ...) levels. Part of the department's research provided the technical background for the ETB spin-off, Optogone, which was recently bought out by Memscap SA. The *Thales Aerospace Division* (TAS) is N°1 in Europe and N° 3 in the World as Aerospace Equipment and Systems provider. It provides all the capabilities demanded by their customers from onboard equipment, sub-systems, systems, prime contracting and high value-added services, both in civil and military markets. As prime contractor in its areas of expertise, Thales plays a pivotal role in many of today’s most ambitious aviation programs: e.g. A380, 7E7, Rafale, A400M. It applies its dual technology expertise for the benefit of all customers: aircraft manufacturers, airlines, operators, armed forces, defence agencies, etc. The recently revamped Aerospace Division combines Thales Airborne Systems, Thales Avionics, Thales Computers, Thales Microelectronics and Thales MESL. Thales is the European leader in the avionics market and one of the world's top three suppliers of cockpit and cabin electronics, radar systems, mission computers, real-time software onboard utilities, power generation equipment and in-flight entertainment systems for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. The group offers a complete catalogue of onboard equipment, including the design and integration of sophisticated communications, navigation and surveillance functions. Thales’ product and service offering covers all types of aircraft, including civil and military transport aircraft, regional transports, business jets and military training, reconnaissance and combat aircraft, as well as all types of civil and military helicopters. In the civil aircraft market, Thales is the main supplier of avionics to Airbus and also serves Boeing, Bombardier Aerospace, Embraer, and Eurocopter. It has 12,900 employees (3,300 outside France) in eight countries: France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, United States, Canada, China, Singapore. The division generates annual sales of €2.1 billion, with spending on Research & Development equal to 17% of sales. As a result of a proactive strategy of investment in the technologies of the future, Thales Aerospace has gathered the skills of more than 5 000 engineers within an industrial and technological core that is unique in Europe, and benefits from this accumulated know-how for the design, development and manufacturing of electronic equipment, particularly mastering the following techniques and technologies: - Power electronics, - Antennas and radomes, - Microelectronics, - Analog and microwave circuits, - Information systems and digital data processing, - Manufacturing technologies. The activities of TAS in the field of optical links and microwave optics dates back from 20 years, and covered laser diodes design and fabrication, microwave distributed photodetectors, external LiNbO3 and MQW modulators, to list a few of the developments undergone. The main line of action of the company in this field today is concentrating on very high performance microwave optical links for highly integrated T/R microwave optics modules applicable to future active conformal antennas. A specificity of the research undergone is the design and realization of analog microwave optical links including MMICs specifically designed for these analog links. The target is the realization and production of the smallest modules for high dynamic range links, for which PBG passive structures help drastically shrink the dimensions of the modules, thereby easing their insertion in multilayer conformal EM skins.

Project NewTon Members