Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is one of Europe’s largest higher education and research organizations with about 10,000 employees, 25,000 students, and a total annual budget of more than 800 million Euros. Within KIT, the activities associated with this project will be carried out by the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics (IPQ), headed jointly by Prof. Sebastian Randel and Prof. Christian Koos. The associated research groups comprise approximately 30 researchers and are internationally recognized in the field of photonic integration, optical communications, and ultra-broadband photonic-electronic signal processing. In CombTools, KIT will be responsible for overall project administration, overseeing financial, as well as technical/scientific reporting (WP2).

Deeplight GmbH (DLT), a spin-off company of the laboratory of Prof. Tobias J. Kippenberg, was founded by CombTools PIs Andrey Voloshin, Prof. Tobias J. Kippenberg and Prof. Christian Koos. Prof. Tobias J. Kippenberg demonstrated the first soliton frequency comb in optical microresonators and together with Prof. Christian Koos pioneered the real-world applications of the frequency combs. Andrey Voloshin demonstrated the first fully integrated soliton frequency comb. DLT manufactures advanced photonic integrated light sources such as optical frequency combs or highly frequency-agile continuous-wave lasers to customers in scientific, industrial, and consumer markets. DLT will define the concepts along with other partners (WP2), provide ultra-low noise frequency-agile lasers for soliton generation (WP3), design
the programmable photonic processor (WP4), and assemble and perform photonic packaging of the systems (WP3, 4). DLT will also lead the commercialization of the outcomes of the project (WP6).

Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) is a highly-rated technical university located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. With an annual budget of 500 million euros, TUE has over 3,000 staff members and 13,000 students and is dedicated to groundbreaking research and education in engineering, science, and technology. TUE has created the new Eindhoven Hendrik Casimir Institute for Photonic Integration and Quantum Technology. Relevant to CombTools, the High-Capacity Optical Transmission Laboratory (HCOT) Lab of Dr. Chigo Okonkwo specializes in developing innovative advanced signal processing techniques for optical channels including free-space optical communications. Dr. Okonkwo has published over 300 conference and journal papers and has contributed to over 10 relevant EU projects, and 2 Marie Curie Doctoral Network. He has been recently awarded National Growth Fund projects for Photonics (PhotonDelta) and Quantum Technology (QuantumDelta). TUE leads the Application Demonstration in WP5 leveraging the FSO testbed “PhotonLoop”

Nokia Networks France (NBL). Nokia is a global leader in the technologies that connect people and things. NBL, Nokia’s research and innovation arm, creates the disruptive technologies that are shaping the way the world communicates and connects. For 90 years, scientific breakthroughs at Nokia Bell Labs have fundamentally transformed the ICT industry and won 8 Nobel Call: [EIC Transition 2023] – [HORIZON-EIC-2023-TRANSITION-01] CombTools Part B – Page 15 of 20 Prizes. NBL is located in Nokia Paris-Saclay “Innovation City“, in Nozay, close to Paris, as well as in the „Innovation Campus“ in Lannion. Nokia Bell Labs France will contribute to the project with industry-driven guidance while being at the forefront of innovation. Nokia Bell Labs will contribute to design concepts (WP2) and subsystem specifications and assessments (WP4), as well as to system-level demonstrations (WP5) thanks to long-term expertise in coherent transmission systems, including fiber nonlinearities and digital signal processing.

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). EPFL is a world-renowned technical University in Lausanne, Switzerland with 12,000 staff and 12,000 students and an annual budget of 770 million Euros. The laboratory of Prof. Tobias J. Kippenberg has pioneered chip-scale frequency combs and cavity optomechanics. Prof. Tobias J. Kippenberg is co-founder of the startup Ligentec SA which has democratized access to low-loss Si3N4 photonic circuits – a company established 6 years ago with 35 employees. He has been Clarivate analytics highly cited physicist since 2014 and has published 10 papers in Nature/Science in the last 3 years. EPFL is at the forefront in the field of chip-scale frequency combs having first discovered the generation of optical frequency combs using high Q microresonators. In CombTools, EPFL will contribute to silicon nitride chip design, fabrication, testing, soliton microcomb generation and packaging (WP3), subsystem specifications (WP4), and application demonstrations (WP5). It provides project management support to KIT in WP1 given its extensive Coordination experience.