GigOptix-Helix AG, a subsidiary of Palo Alto, Calif.-based fabless semiconductor company GigOptix Inc., announced that it will participate in the European Union funded project Silicon-Organic Hybrid Fabrication Platform for Integrated Circuits (SOFI). The company will receive approximately $500,000 funding for the project.

Its electro-optic polymer, which is being used in SOFI, as well as other research projects by semiconductor manufacturers, allows new structures to be created on-chip to overcome the inherent speed limitations of silicon. It is expected to enable a new era of ultrafast hybrid silicon-organic integrated circuits, said the company.

The SOFI project aims to unite the potential of semiconductor and optics technology to generate a step function in performance needed for the systems and networks of tomorrow. It will create fundamental new technology to enable ultrafast integrated circuits with on-board optical modulators combining silicon and organic polymer materials.

The project is coordinated by Prof. Dr. J. Leuthold from the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

Other partners in the project include SELEX Sistemi Integrati of Italy; IMEC, Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre of Belgium; Rainbow Photonic AG of Switzerland; Research and Education Laboratory in Information Technologies of Greece; and the University of Sydney Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems, Australia.