Running Projects

EU Project: PROTEUS-6G - Programmable Reconfigurable Optical Transport for Efficiently offering Unconstrained Services in 6G

PROTEUS-6G focuses on the development of advanced packet-optical x-haul networking infrastructure, relying on novel software-programmable photonic-integrated-circuit based subsystems operated under an intelligent software management system, capable of simplifying and optimizing network operations and supporting future ultra-high capacity, low-latency and energy-efficient 6G cellular and cell-free MIMO radio access networks.
The targeted innovations will enable efficient utilisation of packet and optical resources (spectral subcarriers and spatial lanes), realizing the vision of flexible functional splits (FFSs), adapting the fronthaul, under dynamically customizable operational conditions, to the network demands, for varying distribution of users, traffic demands and use-cases.
To implement the 6G optical-enabled radio-access network, the consortium will develop ultra-low energy (low-pJ/bit), ultra-high capacity (0.8 Tb/s) and fast-reconfigurable (sub-ms) software-programmable solutions (i.e. transceivers, multiplexers and fast optical switches integrating tuneable lasers/filters) based on novel photonic processing/switching schemes, to be reconfigured by an intelligent control plane optimizing the utilization of resources across the front-/mid-/back-haul continuum and reducing unnecessary opto-electronic transitions, thus collectively improving performance while minimizing the environmental impact.
The PROTEUS-6G consortium covers the entire value-chain of industry/academia organizations focusing on implementing wireless-optical connectivity solutions. The participating experts possess demonstrated expertise re delivering on their promises as indicated by their research track record and exploitation activities towards commercialization of new products and contributions to standards. Their collective development of the targeted innovations is going to reenforce the European leadership in 6G networks thus paving the way for prosperity of Europe’s economy and society.

Project Website

ETH coordinator: Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
ETH responsible: David Moor, ETH Zurich
Coordinator: Dr. Panepestimio Patron, University of Patras, Greece

Project number: 101139134, HORIZON.2.4 - Digital, Industry and Space
Topic: Communication Infrastructure Technologies and Devices

Timeframe: 01/2024 – 12/2026

SNF Project: e-Retina – Enhanced Vision Restoration for Blind People

The e-Retina project is a three-year interdisciplinary project, in which the two project partners ETH Zurich and University of Tübingen are synergizing advanced optoelectronic and neuro-biological solutions towards a new retinal implant type. Such an implant restores vision for people that suffer from diseases leading to retinal degeneration and thus blindness. The new technology being developed will provide artificial vision with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution, making it suitable for everyday visual tasks. More precisely, within the course of this project a modular platform will be built, consisting of a highly sensitive photodetector array and a high-density stimulation electrode array, along with specialized interfaces for image translation and stimulation generation. This platform will serve as the basis for the next generation of retinal implants, allowing for benchmarking and further advancements in the field.

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ETH coordinator: Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
ETH responsible: Marina Homs, ETH Zurich

Project number: 219619, Projekte MINT 2023 April
Topic: Microelectronics. Optoelectronics, Electrical Engineering

Timeframe: 01/2024 – 12/2026

EU Project: Agile uLtra Low EnerGy secuRe netwOrks (ALLEGRO)

ALLEGRO aims at designing and validating 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 Pbt/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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ETH coordinator: Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
ETH responsible: Dr. Ueli Koch, ETH Zurich
Coordinator: Dr. Tolga Tekin, Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM)

Project number: 101092766, HORIZON-CL4-2022-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01-39
Topic: Ultra low energy and secure networks

Timeframe: 01/2023 – 06/2026

EU Project: Flexibly Scalable Energy Efficient Networking (FLEX-SCALE)

FLEX-SCALE advances disruptive research on complementary optical x-haul network technologies for Optical Switching Nodes and their Transceiver Interfaces that enable flexible capacity scaling (≥10 Tb/s rate per interface, ≥1 Pb/s capacity per link and ≥10 Pb/s throughput per optical node) based on utilization of ultra-high bandwidth photonic/plasmonic technologies and the efficient exploitation of optical spatial and spectral switching (UltraWide-Band Spectral & Spatial Lanes Multiplexing; UWB/SDM). The developed x-haul 6G optical network innovations will achieve record energy efficiency (sub-pJ per switched/transmitted bit ) and low cost, enabled by photonic integration and optical transparency, replacing/bypassing power-hungry and costly electronic processing systems (e.g. electronic routers/switches). The Optical Nodes and their Transceiver Interfaces will be controlled by ML-enabled SDN control plane approaches that incorporate new resource allocation algorithms and protocols relying on emerging information models and enabling autonomous programmable disaggregated open networks, which will optimize traffic flow routing across network layers and segments, improving network QoS (high rates, low latency, high reliability/availability) and low cost/power consumption, as required by 6G specifications.

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ETH coordinator: Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
ETH responsible: Daniel Rieben, ETH Zurich
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Ioannis Tomkos, University of Patras

Project number: 101096909, HORIZON-JU-SNS-2022-STREAM-B-01-03
Topic: Communication Infrastructure Technologies and Devices

Timeframe: 01/2023 – 12/2025

EMPIR Project: Microwave metrology for superconducting quantum circuits (SuperQuant)

SuperQuant is a three-year long EU-funded EMPIR research project aiming to develop fundamental microwave metrology at cryogenic temperatures. Todays quantum computing technologies heavily rely on operation at cryogenic temperatures of a few kelvins or even down to a few millikelvin. As the quantum technology research and industry is booming, the need for efficient signal generation, microwave components, and their exact calibration is quickly rising. However, accurate signal generation and metrology in a cryogenic environment are currently almost non-existent. SuperQuant aims to solve this issue by establishing a cryogenic microwave toolset based on arbitrary waveform generation, an in-situ sampling oscilloscope, S-parameter measurement techniques, and quantum sensors for power measurements. The results from SuperQuant will help the metrology community to further advance the quantum computing technology.

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ETH coordinator: Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
ETH responsible: Stefan Köpfli, ETH Zurich
Coordinator: Mark Bieler, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Germany

Project number: SRT-f16, EMPIR Call 2020
Topic: EMPIR Call 2020 – Fundamental, Industry and Normative

Timeframe: 09/2021 – 09/2024

EU Project: attojoule Cryogenic Communication (aCryComm)

aCryComm is a three-year long EU-funded H2020 research project. The aim of the project is the development of building blocks for cryogenic photonic interconnects to tackle the problem of the data transfer to cryogenic environments. Many emerging and envisaged cryogenic processors such as quantum computers, require massive amounts of data transferred from the room temperature domain to the cryogenic environment. This increased demand requires more and more electrical connections into a cryostat. However, these connections carry also thermal energy into the cryostat which in turn requires more and more cooling power. Replacing these connections via optical links would tackle the bottleneck of data transfer from and to the cryogenic environment. For this, novel and high speed opto-electronics operating at cryogenic temperatures and the interconnection to cryogenic supercomputers will be investigated within aCryComm.

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ETH coordinator: Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
ETH responsible: Stefan Köpfli, ETH Zurich
Coordinator: Dr. Matteo Cherchi, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Project number: 899558, H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2020
Topic: FETOPEN-01-2018-2019-2020 - FET-Open Challenging Current Thinking

Timeframe: 10/2020 – 09/2023

Hector Fellow Academy Project: RetinaSensor

RetinaSensor is a 3-years interdisciplinary Hector Fellow Academy (HFA) project with the aim of advancing the retinal implant technology for enhanced vision restoration in blind people. Being the only available treatment for blindness due to retinal degeneration, current retinal implants are not yet suitable for daily tasks and provide insufficient restoration of vision. In collaboration with the Institute for Ophthalmic Research at the University of Tübingen the RetinaSensor project shall overcome previous limitations and provide unprecedent spatial and temporal resolution in subretinal implants. The RetinaSensor will incorporate a highly sensitive photosensor array based on van-der-Waals heterostructure providing a high dynamic range for an ideal image capture of the surrounding environment under various light conditions. Coupled to an electrode array at a previously unachieved spatial resolution and combined with a novel stimulation paradigm for a high temporal resolution, the RetinaSensor will bring blind people a step closer to regaining their sight.

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Partners: Prof. Dr. Eberhart Zrenner, University of Tübingen
                  Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
Project manager: Dr. Wadood Haq, University of Tübingen
                                Shadi Nashashibi, ETH Zurich

Funding Agency: Interdisciplinary Hector Fellow Academy (HFA) Program, Karlsruhe, Germany

Timeframe: 10/2020 – 09/2023

EU Project: Neuro-augmented 112Gbaud CMOS plasmonic transceiver platform for Intra- and Inter-DCI applications (NEBULA)

NEBULA is a three-year long EU-funded H2020 research project. The aim is the development of a disruptive future-proof transceiver technology with astronomical data rates and energy efficiency. The need for such a new technology is evident when observing the exponentially expanding data access and usage since the 1970s. Now, the technology providers and manufacturers start to struggle keeping pace with this development. Systems become more outdated or incompatible. This is where NEBULA enters, with the goal to provide the foundations for a common transceiver technology platform. The combination of the ultra-high bandwidth capabilities of CMOS compatible Plasmonic modulator, together with functional digital processing portfolio of neuromorphic optical reservoir computing engines, could paint the landscape of the next-coming technology for transceivers. NEBULA targets to demonstrate, first, a fully functional 8-channel 112Gbaud 16QAM C-band transceiver prototype on a SiN platform. The aggregate capacity of the array is targeted at 3.2Tbps with an energy savings of 93% in comparison to currently used 200Gbps and 19W-consuming pluggable optics. This means, that NEBULA expects to achieve just 2.65W energy consumption per single 400Gbps wavelength. This would lead to an astonishing 6.625pJ/bit. Secondly, NEBULA aims to demonstrate a fully-functional sub-Volt 8-channel 112Gbaud PAM4 O-band transmitter on SiN co-packaged with a data generating ASIC from Mellanox. This would offer an aggregate capacity of 1.6Tbps with up to 37% energy savings compared to the estimated power requirements of respective Si-photonic-based co-packaged solutions.

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ETH coordinator: Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
ETH responsible: Dr. Ueli Koch, ETH Zurich
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Konstantinos Vyrsokinos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Project number: 871658, H2020-ICT-2019-2
Topic: ICT-05-2019 - Application driven Photonics components

Timeframe: 01/2020 – 09/2023

EU Project: Energy- and Size-efficient Ultra-fast Plasmonic Circuits for Neuromorphic Computing Architectures (PlasmoniAC)

PlasmoniAC is a 3-year long H2020 research project 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. It adopts the best-in-class material and technology platforms for optimizing computational power, size and energy at every of its constituent functions, harnessing the proven high-bandwidth and low-loss credentials of photonic interconnects together with the nm-size memory function of memristor nanoelectronics, bridging them by introducing plasmonics as the ideal technology for offering photonic-level bandwidths and electronic-level footprint computations within ultra-low energy consumption envelopes. In a holistic hardware/software co-design approach, PlasmoniAC will follow the path from technology development to addressing real application needs by developing a new set of DL training models and algorithms and embedding its new technology into ready-to-use software libraries.

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ETH coordinator: Prof. Dr. Juerg Leuthold, ETH Zurich
ETH responsible: Dr. Ueli Koch, ETH Zurich
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Nikos Pleros, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Project number: 871391, H2020-ICT-2019-2
Topic: ICT-06-2019 - Unconventional Nanoelectronics

Timeframe: 01/2020 – 09/2023