EU H2020 Projects
• On-Going Projects
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GATEPOST, which stands for 
HellasQCI will implement three metropolitan communication networks in Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion Crete, utilizing, among others, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), terrestrial optical fibre and satellite technologies. The HellasQCI consortium involves key research institutes and universities of Greece, which are able to address the needs for an operational HellasQCI infrastructure.HellasQCI plans to cooperate with other EU Member States in order to boost Europe's scientific and technological capabilities in cybersecurity and quantum technologies.
ALLEGRO – "Agile Ultra Low Energy and Secure Networks" is a 3.5 year long EU-funded project that aims to design and validate a novel end-to-end sliceable, reliable, and secure architecture for next-generation optical networks, achieving high transmission/switching capacity with 10 Tb/s for optoelectronic devices and 1 Pb/s for optical fiber systems, low power consumption/cost with > 25% savings and secure infrastructures and data transfers. The architecture relies on key enabling innovations: i) smart, coherent transceivers exploiting multi-band & multi-fiber technologies for P2P and P2MP applications, based on e.g., high-speed plasmonic modulators/photodetectors and programmable silicon photonic integrated waveguide meshes, ii) loss-less, energy-efficient transparent photonic integrated optical switches, eliminating OEO conversions, e.g., with on-chip amplification in the O-band for datacom applications, iii) a consistent approach to security, in terms of functional/protocol architectures and communications, further improving QKD systems, enabling optical channel co-existence and researching on quantum-resistant (post-quantum) cryptography, developing systems based on physically unclonable functions, and iv) a scalable AI/ML assisted control and orchestration system, responsible for autonomous networking, dynamic and constrained service provisioning, function placement and resource allocation, leveraging devices increasing programmability and overall network softwarization.
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PARALIA is a 3.5-year-long EU-funded project that will enable an agile, low-cost, and energy-efficient multi-sensor combining Radar and Lidar technologies will re-architect the sensors ecosystem, upgrading their capabilities and enabling ultra-high resolution at ultra-long distances crucial for current and futuristic automotive and aerospace applications. To this end, a common Lidar/Radar optical multibeam beamforming platform will be developed based on the best-in-class multi-port linear optical architecture. For its implementation, PARALIA will utilize hybrid InP-SiN integration while leveraging a tight integration of InP components in multi-element arrays and the advances in SiN PZT optical phase shifters with us-reconfiguration time, and low power consumption < 1uW. To demonstrate the universality of the developed optical multi-beam platform will be developed a Lidar and Radar with the support of at least 8 independent beams each. Finally, a multisensor module will combine the Radar and Lidar modules utilizing a processing unit with a specifically developed fusion ML algorithm greatly enhancing the range and resolution of the multisensory platform.
MIMOSA is a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellowship project aiming to combine concepts from the RF world with integrated photonics for producing and demonstrating a compact electronically reconfigurable optical MIMO radiating system. The multibeam feeding network and the radiating elements, antennas, will be designed as a single monolithic photonic chip, which will reduce significantly the cost and form factor of the system. Such a multibeam steerable MIMO system is expected to offer high availability links operating in real-life atmospheric conditions offering capacities higher than 50Gbps for up to 1000m link distance. The project will generate a framework for the implementation of high data rate optical wireless links capable to support 5G and beyond fronthaul requirements while reducing the cost, mass, form factor, and power consumption of the links.
Int5Gent targets the integration of innovative data plane technology building blocks under a flexible 5G network resource, slice and application orchestration framework, providing a complete 5G system platform for the validation of advance 5G services and IoT solutions. The project builds upon a suite of innovative 5G technological solutions spanning hardware, software, and networking systems , aiming to further upgrade the capabilities and maturity level of cutting-edge 5G core technologies enabling the creation of an innovative 5G ecosystem. A sample of the developed and offered technologies include flexible multi-RAT baseband signal processing, beam steering, mmWave technology solutions at 60GHz and 150GHz bands, hardware-based edge processor with TSN, GPU processing capabilities, innovative 5G terminals and elastic SDN-based photonic data transport. The overall platform is implemented in two extended testbeds which include actual field deployed segments and managed by the network operators of the consortium.
OCTAPUS is a 3.5-year long EU-funded project that aims to bring radical architectural changes at the key aggregation network infrastructure of emerging 5G and industrial internet URLLC network applications, aiming to deliver an agile, low-cost and energy-efficient PIC technology framework that will re-architect the Next Generation Central Office ecosystem with 51.2Tb/s capacity. To realize its ambitious goals, OCTAPUS will leverage the novel integration of antimony-based Phase Change Materials (PCM) on the low-cost SiN to develop for the first time a non-volatile ns-scale optical switch technology for developing an ultra-high capacity optical backplane. OCTAPUS will also deploy a versatile portfolio of InP-based O-band optical components that will enable the realization of 50G low-power board-to-board and long-reach PON transceivers through its monolithic InP fabrication approach. Moreover, OCTAPUS will equip its novel PICs with low loss and compact interfaces to fibers, through advanced glass diplexer-embedded-interposers. Finally, OCTAPUS will synergize the developed optical components in a novel NGCO architecture, supporting 3 layers of traffic with deterministic latency guarantees for URLLC services, through the incorporation of reconfigurable express light paths along with TSN functionality.
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By developing 100Gbaud Germanium-Silicon (GeSi) Quantum-Confined Stark-Effect (QCSE) modulators and highly sensitive 100Gbaud avalanche photodetectors (APD), SIPHO-G will bring breakthrough optical modulation and photodetection capability to the world of Silicon Photonics. The newly developed compact, waveguide-coupled modulator and detector building blocks will be monolithically integrated in a high-yield cutting-edge 300mm Silicon Photonics platform, propelling the bandwidth density, power efficiency, sensitivity and complexity of silicon photonic integrated circuits to the next level. Supported by an elaborate simulation and design enablement framework, SIPHO-G will demonstrate an extensive set of application-driven prototypes across the O-band and Cband.
GRACED - "Ultra-compact, low-cost plasmo-photonic bimodal multiplexing sensor platforms as part of a holistic solution for food quality monitoring" is a new 3.5-year collaborative project on the development of novel sensor platforms suited for monitoring the quality and safety of food products, that brings together fourteen leading academic and research institutes and companies from eight different countries. The project was launched in January 2021 and it is funded by the European Commission through HORIZON 2020 framework, targeting the topic ICT-37-2020: Advancing photonics technologies and application driven photonics components and the innovation ecosystem.• Completed Projects
PlasmoniAC – “Energy- and Size-Efficient Ultra-Fast Plasmonic Circuits for Neuromorphic Computing Architectures” – is a new 3-year long EU-funded project, under the H2020-ICT-06-2019: Unconventional Nanoelectronics Call, launched on January 1st, 2020, bringing together 10 partners, aiming to release a whole new class of energy- and size-efficient feed-forward and recurrent artificial plasmonic neurons with up to 100 GHz clock frequencies and 1 and 6 orders of magnitude better energy- and footprint-efficiencies, comparing to the current electronics-based state-of-the art.
NEBULA is a 3-year collaborative project on the development of a neuro-augmented 112Gbaud CMOS plasmonic transceiver platform for Intra- and Inter- DCI applications that brings together twelve leading academic and research institutes and companies. The project was launched in Januray 2020 and it is funded by the European Commission through HORIZON 2020 framework targeting the topic ICT-05-2019: Application driven Photonics components.
5G-COMPLETE 5G-COMPLETE aims to revolutionize the 5G architecture, by efficiently combining compute and storage resource functionality over a unified ultra-high capacity converged digital/analog Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) Radio Access Network (RAN). The project introduces and combines a series of key technologies under a unique 5G architectural proposition that brings together i) the high capacity of fiber and high-frequency radio, ii) the audacity of converged FiWi fronthauling, iii) the spectral efficiency of analog modulation and coding schemes, iv) the flexibility of mesh self-organized networks, v) the efficiency of high-speed and time-sensitive packet-switched transport, vi) the rapid and cost-efficient service deployment through unikernel technology and finally vii) an enhanced security framework based on post-Quantum cryptosystems. 5G-COMPLETE’s proposed converged Computing/Storage/RAN infrastructure effectively merges the 5G New Radio fronthaul/midhaul/backhaul faculties into one common Ethernet-based platform and transforms the RAN into a low-power distributed computer that shapes new network concepts. 5G-COMPLETE’s results will be validated in a range of scalable lab- and field-trial demonstrators in Athens (Greece), Lannion (France) and Bristol (UK). Upon completion, 5G-COMPLETE will have introduced new business models and novel research opportunities that will be streamlined into tangible results by its 13 consortium partners that expand along the complete 5G research and market chain.
MASSTART (Mass manufacturing of Transceivers for Terabit/s era) aims to provide a holistic transformation to the assembly and characterization of high speed photonic transceivers towards bringing the cost down to €1/Gb/s or even lower in mass production. MASSTART will surpass the cost metric threshold by using enhanced and scalable techniques: i) glass interface based laser/PIC and fiber/PIC coupling approaches, ii) leveraging glass waveguide technology to obtain spot size and pitch converters in order to dramatically increase optical I/O density, while facilitating automated assembly processes, iii) 3D packaging (TSV) enabling backside connection of the high speed PIC to a Si carrier, iv) a new generation of flip chip bonders with enhanced placement in a complete assembly line compatible with Industry 4.0 which will guarantee an x6 improvement in throughput and v) wafer-level evaluation of assembled circuits with novel tools that will reduce the characterization time by a factor of 10, down to 1 minute per device.
MOICANA (Monolithic cointegration of QD-based InP on SiN as a versatile platform for the demonstration of high performance and low cost PIC transmitters) aims to deploy a versatile, low-cost and large-volume manufacturing transmitter PIC technology by monolithically integrating InP QD laser structures on a passive SiN waveguide platform and demonstrating a whole new series of high-performance cooler-less transmitter modules as monolithically integrated PICs for a broad range of applications. ΜΟΙCANA targets the fabrication and deployment of : i) 25GbE SFP28 pluggable Directly Modulated Laser (DML), ii) a WDM 100GbE QSFP28 pluggable DML, iii) 1λ- and 4λ- Externally Modulated Lasers, and iv) a coherent tunable laser source that will be evaluated in a broad range of applications in the areas of Data Center Interconnects, 5G mobile fronthaul and coherent communications.
plaCMOS project is developing powerful integration technology that will allow an eight-fold increase in the speed of optical transceivers used in datacenters. plaCMOS relies on small-proximity wafer scale integration of novel ferroelectric-based plasmonic-photonic modulators, silicon germanium photodetectors and BiCMOS electronics combined in a super-fast, micrometer-scale optical engine capable of transmitting and receiving data at world’s fastest speed of 200 Gbit/s per optical channel.
QAMeleon aims to deliver a new generation of faster, cheaper, and greener photonic devices spanning from beyond state-of-the-art transponders to novel reconfigurable add drop multiplexers (ROADMs) towards scaling core and metro networks to the next decade enabling i) SDN-enabled generation and reception of reconfigurable optical data-flows having increased spectral efficiency at ultra-high-speed rates up to 128 Gbaud with state-of-the-art modulation format techniques and ii) the development of scalable Colorless Directionless Contentionless and Gridless Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexing (ROADM) node architectures supporting spectrum sliceability and on-demand switching reconfigurability.
5G-PHOS is a H2020 5GPPP Phase II project focusing on 5G integrated Fiber-Wireless networks that leverage existing photonic technologies towards implementing a high-density SDN-programmable network architecture. The project has a duration of 3 years, from 01/09/2017 until 31/08/2018, comprising a consortium of 16 partners and coordinated by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. 5G-PHOS steps into invest in and exploit integrated optical technologies towards enhancing Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) convergence and realizing cost-effective and energy-efficient 5G network solutions for high density use cases. 5G-PHOS is the first coordinated attempt that will draw from existing scientific results in the area of photonics in order to architect 5G networks for dense, ultra-dense and Hot-Spot areas incorporating Photonic Integrated Cirtuits (PICs) in optical mmWave signal generation, DSP-assisted optical transmission, reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexing (ROADM) and optical beamforming functionalities. 5G-PHOS expects to release a seamless, interoperable, RAT-agnostic and SDN-programmable FiWi 5G network that supports 64x64 MIMO antennas in the V-band.
PLASMOFAB is a 3-year collaborative project on CMOS-compatible photonic, plasmonic and electronic integration that brings together ten leading academic and research institutes and companies. The project was launched in Januray 2016 and this project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 ICT research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 688166.
L3MATRIX (Large Scale Silicon Photonics Matrix for Low Power and Low-Cost Data Centers) aims to provide a new method of building switching elements for Data Centers that combines a high radix connectivity architecture with an extended bandwidth of 25 Gb/s in single mode fibres and waveguides with low latency. The objective is to develop a novel SiP matrix with a scale larger than any similar device with more than 100 modulators on a single chip and will integrate embedded laser sources with a logic chip thus breaking the limitations on the bandwidth-distance product.EU FP7 Projects
COMANDER is a 4-years EC-funded project, officially launched on 1st October 2013, funded under the Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) action call FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IAPP. COMANDER targets the design, development and deployment of a fully converged Next-Generation Fiber-Wireless network architecture that provides simultaneous fixed and mobile access at unforeseen multi-Gbps wireless transmission speeds.
PhoxTrot is a 4-years EC-funded large-scale research effort focusing on high-performance, low-energy and cost and small-size optical interconnects across the different hierarchy levels in data center and high-performance computing systems: on-board, board-to-board and rack-to-rack. PhoxTroT will tackle optical interconnects in a holistic way, synergizing the different fabrication platforms in order to deploy the optimal “mix&match” technology and tailor this to each interconnect layer. PhoxTroT will follow a layered approach from near-term exploitable to more forward looking but of high expected gain activities.
MIRAGE is a 3-year collaborative project on photonic integration that aims to implement cost-optimized components for terabit optical interconnects introducing new multiplexing concepts through the development of a flexible, future-proof 3D “optical engine”. MIRAGE brings together seven leading European universities, research centers and companies. The project was launched in October 2012 and is co-funded by the European Commission through the Seventh Framework Programme(FP7).
RAMPLAS is a 3-years EC-funded research project envisioning the development and demonstration of a Silicon-based, integrated Optical RAM chip for enabling High-Speed Applications in Computing and Communications. RAMPLAS has been launched in September 2011 and is supported by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7‐ICT‐2009‐C). RAMPLAS will revisit RAM fundamentals and will lay the foundations for optical RAM technology and for optical RAM-enabled "green” and ultra-fast computing architectures. RAMPLAS will develop the first 100GHz optical RAM chips and will foster a new framework of disciplines for its effective application in ICT.
PLATON is a 3-years EC-funded research project envisioning the development and demonstration of an integrated, on-chip Tb/s optical router for back-plane or Blade-Server interconnects through merging plasmonics and silicon photonics technology, employing plasmonics for the switching functionalities and silicon photonics for filtering, multiplexing and header detection processes. PLATON has been launched in January 2010 and is supported by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-ICT-2009-4).National Projects
EU H2020 Projects
• On-Going Projects
• Completed Projects
EU FP7 Projects
National Projects
DeepLight is a Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) 3-year project intending to transform photonics into a highly efficient Deep Learning-enabling integrated technology that can operate at >10GHz clock frequencies with sub-pJ/bit energy efficiency values and to deploy Deep Learning algorithms optimally adapted to the idiosyncrasy of the executing photonic neuromorphic hardware through a holistic hardware-software co-design approach. 
CAM-UP foresees that the future Internet and Internet of Things will stand on shoulders of powerful high-radix routers with multiple inter-connectivity links, which certainly requires fast Address Look-Up operations and aims to prepare the necessary photonic upgrade for Internet core routers, to perform ultra-fast Address Look-Up searches directly in the optical domain. During this project, all the photonics alternatives of Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM)- based architectures will be developed, to allow Address Look-Up tables to truly “CAM-UP” (speed up) and be able to handle high-radix inter-connections between high-bandwidth optical links energy efficiently. 
ORION aims to build upon the emergence of optical hardware towards radically transforming the way memory is organized in a computing environment. ORION proposes a novel solution by completely separating processor chips from interconnect, cache memory and DRAM elements, leading to a high-throughput, reconfigurable and modular setting where processing cores, cache memories, DRAMs and interconnects will comprise disjoint modules and can dynamically re-distribute data, tasks and resources. For this purpose, ORION will blend innovations across a highly interdisciplinary and broad area spanning from photonics through cache schemes up to computing architectures. ORION will ensure harmonic co-operation between a pool of high-throughput off-chip optical L1 caches, a “cache-light” processor and DRAM modules, interconnected through a strictly non-blocking, collision-less, off-chip photonic Network on chip (pNoC) transforming multicore computing systems into a reconfigurable modular infrastructure that can be tailored to the application needs.
PHORTRAN (Photonic Real Tim Chromatographer Analyzer) will develop a novel method and system for separating and purifying substances, such as ions, molecules, macromolecules or particles dispersed in a liquid mixture, by a Photonic Chromatograph. The separation of substances in the proposed PC is obtained by the interaction of individual components of the mixture, through excitation by optical radiation, with a stationary phase porous surface. The output of the Photonic Chromatographer will be connected to a highly sensitive sensor for the real time measurement of multiple parameters including among others threshold of optical power for porous surface - nanoparticle interaction, minimum and maximum functional particle size, retention of nanoparticles with light power, excitation time of nanoparticles, etc with a very high confidence. All these data are very crucial for biologists working with particles of a few nm such as DNA, proteins.
WiSe-PON targets the demonstration of a novel access network infrastructure capable of converging fixed and mobile connectivity and of delivering heterogeneous wireless and FTTH services over existing Passive Optical Network infrastructures. WiSePON is a 3-years research project funded by the Greek Secretariat for Research and Technology under the National Action "Cooperation".