SPRINTER Is Off The Starting Block
On the 29th and 30th of September, 2022, Project SPRINTER was officially inaugurated with a kick-off meeting at the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz Institute (HHI). During the hybrid meeting, all twelve (12) members of the consortium contributed to the delineation of the project’s protocol. The proposed workplan was analyzed, the role of each member detailed, and immediate next steps were agreed upon.
Consortium members in attendance of the project’s kick-off meeting at Fraunhofer HHI.
SPRINTER: Low-coSt and energy-efficient hybrid Photonic integrated circuits for fibeR-optic, free-space optIcal and mmWave commuNication systems supporting Time critical networking in industrial EnviRonments
SPRINTER is a Horizon Europe project funded by the EU coming as a pragmatic innovation action that will rely on well-proven photonic integration technologies in order to develop a complete solution tailored to the diverse needs of industrial networks underpinning the way towards the 4th Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0).
SPRINTER will combine the best-of-breed optical components and methods from various powerful but complementary photonic integration platforms to develop a set of low-cost, energy-efficient, and ultra-dynamic optical transceivers and optical switching solutions to cope with the diverse needs of the industrial networks and expedite their truly digital transformation.
New Transceivers and a Multiplexer
Within SPRINTER low-cost and energy-efficient 200 Gb/s optical transceivers, supporting high-capacity connectivity, will be developed. Additionally, SPRINTER will provide ultra-fast wavelength-tunable 10 Gb/s optical transceivers, enabling the development of an all-optical switching system, guaranteeing the reliability and time determinism required for time critical communication. In addition, leveraging well-proven integration techniques that allow for the fabrication of complex 3D photonic integrated circuits, the project will develop a disruptive reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer, optimized for operation within space-division multiplexing networks, assisting on the reduction of data congestion in communication systems and preventing the data loss and delay in data delivery.
Considering the ultra-dynamic nature of the industrial networks due to the deployment of remote nodes, SPRINTER will provide a set of groundbreaking photonics-enabled transceivers supporting wireless connectivity by means of a free-space optical or a mmWave channel. The transceivers will be able to operate reliably in both indoor and outdoor environments thanks to the complementary characteristics of the two channels. Moreover, the project will develop a unified network platform, providing the required methods and tools to support time-deterministic operation, and enable real-time communication with guaranteed service quality.
SPRINTER’s developed technology will be evaluated within application scenarios that will be deployed in a relevant industrial environment incorporating a fully operational closed-loop control system.
More Information
Please visit the project website or download the project’s press release for more details.
