CORNERSTONE 2

南安普敦大学和格拉斯哥大学目前正在为一个名为基石的项目做出贡献，该项目已经为英国的学术研究人员建立了基于绝缘体上硅(SOI)平台的新的硅光子学制造能力。该项目将于2019年12月结束，之后基石制造能力将自我维持，用户为服务付费。根据英国首屈一指的光子学研究人员的需求，该提案寻求资金，以扩展向英国研究人员提供的能力，使其超越当前的SOI平台，包括新兴的硅光子学平台，以及促进光子电路与电子、激光和探测器集成的能力。这些新兴平台支持过去几年出现的大量新应用，其中一些不适合SOI平台，有些通过服务其他波长的应用来补充SOI平台。南安普敦大学和格拉斯哥大学将共同努力，使新平台处于就绪状态，通过多项目晶片(MPW)机制提供新功能，以满足显著增长的需求，并在项目的最后六个月免费提供给英国学术用户(向用户)，以建立可信度。这将鼓励在英国境内更广泛地使用世界级设备，符合EPSRC的政策。我们寻求在两年期间为两所大学的3个PDRA和2名技术人员提供资金，以促进访问这两所大学非常重要的设备库存，包括访问英国唯一的深紫外光投影光刻能力。在这两年的时间里，我们将描绘英国对继续作为EPSRC国家研究机构运行的能力的需求，如果是这样的话，建立一份需求声明。我们目前有50个合作伙伴/用户提供价值1,705,000 GB的实物支持和173,450 GB的现金。

Southampton and Glasgow Universities currently contribute to a project entitled CORNERSTONE which has established a new Silicon Photonics fabrication capability, based on the Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) platform, for academic researchers in the UK. The project is due to end in December 2019, after which time the CORNERSTONE fabrication capability will be self-sustaining, with users paying for the service. Based upon demand from the UK's premier photonics researchers, this proposal seeks funding to extend the capability that is offered to UK researchers beyond the current SOI platforms, to include emerging Silicon Photonics platforms, together with capabilities facilitating integration of photonic circuits with electronics, lasers and detectors. These emerging platforms enable a multitude of new applications that have emerged over the past several years, some of which are not suitable for the SOI platform, and some of which complement the SOI platform by serving applications at other wavelengths. Southampton, and Glasgow universities will work together to bring the new platforms to a state of readiness to deliver the new functionality via a multi-project-wafer (MPW) mechanism to satisfy significantly increasing demand, and deliver them to UK academic users free of charge (to the user) for the final six months of the project, in order to establish credibility. This will encourage wider usage of world class equipment within the UK, in line with EPSRC policy. We seek funding for 3 PDRAs and 2 technicians across the 2 institutions, over a 2 year period, to facilitate access to a very significant inventory of equipment at these 2 universities, including access to UK's only deep-UV projection lithography capability. During this 2 year period, we will canvas UK demand for the capability to continue to operate as an EPSRC National Research Facility, and if so, to establish a statement of need. We currently have 50 partners/users providing in-kind support to a value of to £1,705,000 and cash to the value of £173,450.