Among other things, this project will focus on the realisation of accessible R&D&I infrastructure for light source integration in semiconductor photonics solutions. To this end, we bring together unique and highly complementary expertise from the Netherlands (III-V materials1 from company Smart Photonics) and Flanders (silicon semiconductor photonics from imec and printing technology from UGent). Together, these partners are setting up an open pilot line to print III-V materials (via micro-transfer printing) on silicon semiconductor photonics wafers2 for light source integration. The pilot line combines three highly scalable technologies. This ensures that companies using the pilot line can use the same integration process both for prototyping and limited runs and for high-volume applications (millions of products per year, just like electronics chips).

The pilot line should be as widely accessible as possible. To this end, the project will deliver 6 industry-relevant demonstrators targeting applications such as air quality monitoring, structural monitoring of green infrastructure, personalised medicine and energy-efficient cloud computing in data centres. The chip demonstrators (which include integrated light sources) will be used in networking events (project events) to reach more companies. These demonstrators will thus also serve as training materials to bring knowledge to companies in a low-threshold way. A number of companies will be involved as concrete partners in the consortium3 in the development of the pilot line by giving them early access for their own semiconductor photonics solution. In this way, these companies will learn how to integrate a light source into their chip solution. This will allow the pilot line to have a smooth start after the LIGHTUP project ends and the infrastructure will remain available to the community of companies long after the INTERREG project ends.

LIGHTUP thus aims to achieve the following objectives:
- Setting up a pilot line for printing III-V semiconductor materials (smart specialisation NL) on silicon semiconductor photonics wafers (smart specialisation Flanders) (WP5)
- Development of 6 industry-relevant demonstrators (WP4)
- Set-up of a pilot line test run for external users (SMEs) (WP5)
- Development of training material for knowledge institutions and companies (WP3)
- Development of a community of companies and knowledge institutions in the Flanders-Netherlands border region with a focus on the further development of R&D&I and collaboration between knowledge institutions and companies in this geographical area (WP2)

1) III-V semiconductors are materials composed of one or more elements of column III (boron, gallium, aluminium, indium, etc.) and column V (arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, etc.) in Mendeleev's periodic table. After silicon, they are the second most widely used semiconductor materials in industry.
2) In microelectronics, a wafer is a thin slice of crystalline semiconductor material, e.g. a silicon substrate, on which integrated circuits are constructed.
3) This is an "open partnership" in which it is not known at this stage which companies will become partners.