Europe is at the threshold of a technological revolution - the application of the power of light to solve our greatest global challenges. As a fast, compact, energy efficient and therefore sustainable option, photonic integrated chips (PIC’s) have been developed initially to solve challenges in the power consumption and speed requirements for telecommunications and datacenters. However, it is expected that will tap into world markets like 5G, military, medical, sensors for strain, and gas detection and LIDAR. Volume manufacturing of PIC’s is rapidly becoming widespread available through foundries that have evolving process design kits with more extensive building blocks in their libraries. Success depends on the possibility of assembling the chips in large quantities for the various markets. Up to now these have all been labor-intensive production steps, the high cost of which has posed a barrier to largescale introduction. The keynote will address topics like: State of the art in the packaging field, automation assembly requirements, cost drivers, why hybrid integration is sometimes inevitable, do’s and dont's when designing chips for assembly.
