"SDM Germany" Meeting at KIT

With the goal to identify synergies in the context of space-division multiplexing (SDM) for optical communications, five funded projects met for the first “SDM Germany” meeting held at KIT on June 30 and July 1.
Group shot KIT/IPQ

July 2022: The funding program “Forschung Agil - Raummultiplexing in faseroptischen Netzen” of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung - BMBF) provides funding for five research projects on space-division multiplexing (SDM) for optical communications. To explore potential synergies between the projects, the SDM Germany Meeting took place at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on June 30 and July 1. Within the framework of this event, all the involved research projects, i.e., STARFALL, SAMOA-NET, KONFORM, Multi-Cap, and WESORAM, presented initial project results and gave an outlook on the next steps. Topics ranged from fiber designs and fabrication to transceiver optimizations, coupling optics, optical amplifiers, and switches - all optimized for SDM. The numerous collaboration-focused sessions lead to fruitful discussions which brought up many ideas for joining forces.