innovation Archives - EFFECT Photonics

Insights

January 10, 2024

From the Lab Boutique to High Volume Production: How to Scale Up Photonics Manufacturing

Photonics, the science and technology of generating, detecting, and manipulating light, has witnessed remarkable progress…

Photonics, the science and technology of generating, detecting, and manipulating light, has witnessed remarkable progress in recent years. From cutting-edge research in academic labs to breakthrough innovations in startups, photonics is poised to revolutionize various industries, from telecommunications to healthcare. However, despite its tremendous potential, the transition from boutique lab-scale production to high-volume manufacturing remains a significant challenge.

To overcome this hurdle, the photonics industry must draw lessons from the successful scaling of electronics manufacturing. By adopting key strategies and practices that have propelled the electronics industry into the realm of mass production, photonics can pave the way for widespread adoption and integration into our everyday lives.

Learning from Electronics Packaging

A key way to improve photonics manufacturing is to learn from electronics packaging, assembly, and testing methods that are already well-known and standardized. After all, building a new special production line is much more expensive than modifying an existing production flow.

One electronic technique essential to transfer into photonics is ball-grid array (BGA) packaging. BGA-style packaging has grown popular among electronics manufacturers over the last few decades. It places the chip connections under the chip package, allowing more efficient use of space in circuit boards, a smaller package size, and better soldering.

Figure 1: Top, bottom, and side views of a ball-grid array (BGA) style package.

Another critical technique to move into photonics is flip-chip bonding. This process is where solder bumps are deposited on the chip in the final fabrication step. The chip is flipped over and aligned with a circuit board for easier soldering.

Figure 2: Simplified steps of the flip chip bonding process.

These might be novel technologies for photonics developers who have started implementing them in the last five or ten years. However, the electronics industry embraced these technologies 20 or 30 years ago. Making these techniques more widespread will make a massive difference in photonics’ ability to scale up and become as available as electronics.

Adopting BGA-style packaging and flip-chip bonding techniques will make it easier for PICs to survive this soldering process. There is ongoing research and development worldwide, including at EFFECT Photonics, to transfer more electronics packaging methods into photonics. PICs that can handle being soldered to circuit boards allow the industry to build optical subassemblies that are more accessible to the open market and can go into trains, cars, or airplanes.

Supply Chain Optimization

Electronics manufacturers have honed the art of supply chain management to achieve cost-effective and efficient production processes. This includes strategies like just-in-time inventory management, lean manufacturing principles, and global sourcing. In contrast, the photonics industry often faces challenges related to specialized materials and components, resulting in longer lead times and higher costs.

Photonics manufacturers can learn from electronics by implementing supply chain optimization strategies. This involves diversifying sources, streamlining production workflows, and leveraging economies of scale. By fostering strategic partnerships with suppliers and embracing advanced inventory management systems, the photonics industry can overcome the hurdles that have hindered its growth.

Figure 3: Key locations of EFFECT Photonics’ global supply chain. This includes our offices but also some locations where manufacturing is outsourced. We don’t mention the locations of our off-the-shelf component suppliers.

The Advantages of Moving to a Fabless Model

Increasing the volume of photonics manufacturing is a big challenge. Some photonic chip developers manufacture their chips in-house within their fabrication facilities. This approach has some substantial advantages, giving component manufacturers complete control over their production process.

Figure 4: Simplified value chain diagram of a vertically-integrated optical transceiver developer. The developer handles the PIC design, manufacturing, and packaging.

However, if a vertically-integrated chip developer wants to scale up in volume, they must make a hefty capital expenditure (CAPEX) in more equipment and personnel. They must develop new fabrication processes as well as develop and train personnel. Fabs are not only expensive to build but to operate. Unless they can be kept at nearly full utilization, operating expenses (OPEX) also drain the facility owners’ finances.

Especially in the case of an optical transceiver market that is not as big as that of consumer electronics, it’s hard not to wonder whether that initial investment is cost-effective. For example, LightCounting estimates that 55 million optical transceivers were sold in 2021, while the International Data Corporation estimates that 1.4 billion smartphones were sold in 2021. The latter figure is 25 times larger than that of the transceiver market.

Electronics manufacturing experienced a similar problem during their 70s and 80s boom, with smaller chip start-ups facing almost insurmountable barriers to market entry because of the massive CAPEX required. Furthermore, the large-scale electronics manufacturing foundries had excess production capacity that drained their OPEX. The large-scale foundries ended up selling that excess capacity to the smaller chip developers, who became fabless. In this scenario, everyone ended up winning. The foundries serviced multiple companies and could run their facilities at total capacity, while the fabless companies could outsource manufacturing and reduce their expenditures.

This fabless model, with companies designing and selling the chips but outsourcing the manufacturing, could also be the way to go for photonics. The troubles of scaling up for photonics developers are outsourced and (from the perspective of the fabless company) become as simple as putting a purchase order in place. Furthermore, the fabless model allows photonics developers to concentrate their R&D resources on the end market. This might be the most straightforward way for photonics to move into million-scale volumes.

Takeaways

Scaling up photonics manufacturing from boutique labs to high-volume production is a pivotal step in realizing the full potential of this transformative technology. By taking a page from the electronics industry’s playbook, focusing on standardization, optimizing the supply chain, and embracing automation, the photonics industry can overcome the challenges that have impeded its growth. With concerted efforts and strategic investments, the future of photonics looks poised for a paradigm shift, bringing us closer to a world illuminated by the power of light.

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Tags: automation, BGA packaging, EFFECT Photonics, electronics, Fabless model, Flip-chip bonding, Global sourcing, innovation, Integrated circuits, Integrated Photonics, Just-in-time inventory, Lean manufacturing, Manufacturing, Optical transceiver, Photonics, PICs (Photonic Integrated Circuits), R&D, Scaling up, Semiconductor, Standardization, supply chain

Insights

September 20, 2023

Beaming with Potential – Why Integrated Photonics is Worth It

In today’s rapidly evolving world, traditional technologies such as microelectronics are increasingly struggling to match…

In today’s rapidly evolving world, traditional technologies such as microelectronics are increasingly struggling to match the rising demands of sectors such as communication, healthcare, energy, and manufacturing. These struggles can result in slower data transmission, more invasive diagnostics, or excessive energy consumption. Amidst these challenges, there is a ray of hope: photonics.

Photonics is the study and application of light generation, manipulation, and detection, often aiming to transmit, control, and sense light signals. Its goals and even the name “photonics” are born from its analogy with electronics: photonics aims to transmit, control, and sense photons (the particles of light) in similar ways to how electronics do with electrons (the particles of electricity).

Photons can travel more quickly and efficiently than electrons, especially over long distances. Photonic devices can be manufactured on a semiconductor process similar to the one used by microelectronics, so they have the potential to be manufactured in small packages at high volumes. Due to these properties, photonics can drive change across multiple industries and technologies by enabling faster and more sustainable solutions manufactured at scale.

Integrated Photonics Enables New Networks and Sensors

Two of the biggest sectors photonics can impact are communications and sensing.

Light is the fastest information carrier in the universe and can transmit this information while dissipating less heat and energy than electrical signals. Thus, photonics can dramatically increase communication networks’ speed, reach, and flexibility and cope with the ever-growing demand for more data. And it will do so at a lower energy cost, decreasing the Internet’s carbon footprint.

The webpage you are reading was originally a stream of 0 and 1s that traveled through an optical fiber to reach you. Fiber networks need some optical transceiver that transmits and receives the light signal through the fiber. These transceivers were initially bulky and inefficient, but advances in integrated photonics and electronics have miniaturized these transceivers into the size of a large USB stick.

Figure-Module-Power — Figure 1: Coherent module size and power consumption evolution from OIF MSA line card modules to pluggable modules like CFP and QSFP.

Aside from fiber communications, photonics can also deliver solutions beyond traditional radio communications. For example, optical transmission over the air or space could handle links between different mobile network sites, cars, or satellites.

Figure 2: Simplified wireless optical system diagram

There are multiple sensing application markets but their core technology is the same. They need a small device that sends out a known pulse of light, accurately detects how the light comes back, and calculates the properties of the environment from that information. It’s a simple but quite powerful concept.

This concept is already being used to implement LIDAR systems that help self-driving cars determine the location and distance of people and objects. However, there is also potential to use this concept in medical and agrifood applications, such as looking for undesired growths in the human eye or knowing how ripe an apple is.

Integrated Photonics Drives Down Power Consumption

Photonics can make many industries more energy efficient. One of the photonics’ success stories is light-emitting diodes (LEDs) manufactured at scale through semiconductor processes. LED lighting sales have experienced explosive growth in the past decade, quickly replacing traditional incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs that are less energy efficient. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that residential LED sales have risen from around 5% of the market in 2013 to about 50% in 2022.

Greater integration is also vital for energy efficiency. In many electronic and photonic devices, the interconnections between different components are often sources of losses and inefficiency. A more compact, integrated device will have shorter and more energy-efficient interconnections. For example, Apple’s system-on-chip processors fully integrate all electronic processing functions on a single chip. As shown in the table below, these processors are significantly more energy efficient than the previous generations of Apple processors.

𝗠𝗮𝗰 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹	𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
𝗠𝗮𝗰 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹	𝗜𝗱𝗹𝗲	𝗠𝗮𝘅
2023, M2	7	5
2020, M1	7	39
2018, Core i7	20	122
2014, Core i5	6	85
2010, Core 2 Duo	10	85
2006, Core Solo or Duo	23	110
2005, PowerPC G4	32	85
Table 1: Comparing the power consumption of a Mac Mini with an M1 and M2 SoC chips to previous generations of Mac Minis. [Source: Apple’s website]

The photonics industry can set a similar goal to Apple’s system-on-chip. By integrating all the optical components (lasers, detectors, modulators, etc.) on a single chip can minimize the losses and make devices such as optical transceivers more efficient.

There are other ways for photonics to aid energy efficiency goals. For example, photonics enables a more decentralized system of data centers with branches in different geographical areas connected through high-speed optical fiber links to cope with the strain of data center clusters on power grids. The Dutch government has already proposed this kind of decentralization as part of its spatial strategy for data centers.

Figure 3: High-speed fiber-optic connections allow data processing and storage to be moved to locations where excess (green) energy is available. Data can be moved elsewhere if power is needed for other purposes, such as charging electric vehicles.

More Investment is Needed for Photonics to Scale like Electronics

Photonics can have an even greater impact on the world if it becomes as readily available and easy to use as electronics.

We need to buy photonics from a catalog as we do with electronics, have datasheets that work consistently, be able to solder it to a board and integrate it easily with the rest of the product design flow.
Tim Koene – Chief Technology Officer, EFFECT Photonics

Today, photonics is still a ways off from achieving this goal. Photonics manufacturing chains are not at a point where they can quickly produce millions of integrated photonic devices per year. While packaging, assembly, and testing are only a small part of the cost of electronic systems, they are 80% of the total module cost in photonics, as shown in the figure below.

Graph-InP-PIC-based-module-breakdown — Figure 4. Process cost breakdown of an indium phosphide (InP) photonic integrated circuit (PIC) module as a percentage of the overall manufacturing cost. Source: Latkowski et al., 2019

To scale and become more affordable, the photonics manufacturing chains must become more automated and leverage existing electronic packaging, assembly, and testing methods that are already well-known and standardized. Technologies like BGA-style packaging and flip-chip bonding might be novel for photonics developers who started implementing them in the last five or ten years, but electronics embraced these technologies 20 or 30 years ago. Making these techniques more widespread will make a massive difference in photonics’ ability to scale up and become as available as electronics.

The roadmap of scaling integrated photonics and making it more accessible is clear: it must leverage existing electronics manufacturing processes and ecosystems and tap into the same economy-of-scale principles as electronics. Implementing this roadmap, however, requires more investment in photonics. While such high-volume photonics manufacturing demands a higher upfront investment, the resulting high-volume production line will drive down the cost per device and opens them up to a much larger market. That’s the process by which electronics revolutionized the world.

Conclusion

By harnessing the power of light, integrated photonics can offer faster and more sustainable solutions to address the evolving challenges faced by various sectors, including communication, healthcare, energy, and manufacturing. However, for photonics to truly scale and become as accessible as electronics, more investment is necessary to scale production and adapt existing electronics processes to photonics. This scaling will drive down production costs, making integrated photonics more widely available and paving the way for its impactful integration into numerous technologies across the globe.

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Tags: Accessibility, Advancements, Biosensors, Challenges, Communication, Cost reduction, Economic growth, Economies of scale, EFFECT Photonics, Evolving demands, Fiber-optic networks, future, Future returns, Healthcare, innovation, Investing in photonics, Investments, LEDs, Light-based technologies, Limitations, Manufacturing, Manufacturing capabilities, Medical imaging, New solutions, Optical diagnostics, Photonic devices, Photonics, Promising industry, Renewable energy technologies, Scalable communication systems, Solar cells, Traditional technologies

08 June 2023 - 09 June 2023

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

EFFECT Photonics

Discover Where Light Meets Digital at the Dutch Technology Festival

Join EFFECT Photonics on June 8th and 9th, 2023 at the Dutch Technology Festival - Klokgebouw Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Insights

March 22, 2023

Transceivers in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) will have a significant role in making optical networks more scalable, affordable,…

Artificial intelligence (AI) will have a significant role in making optical networks more scalable, affordable, and sustainable. It can gather information from devices across the optical network to identify patterns and make decisions independently without human input. By synergizing with other technologies, such as network function virtualization (NFV), AI can become a centralized management and orchestration network layer. Such a setup can fully automate network provisioning, diagnostics, and management, as shown in the diagram below.

Figure 1: Example of a carrier network with different applications (mobile, home, office) automated via NFV control and AI management.

However, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms are data-hungry. To work optimally, they need information from all network layers and ever-faster data centers to process it quickly. Pluggable optical transceivers thus need to become smarter, relaying more information back to the AI central unit, and faster, enabling increased AI processing.

Faster Transceivers for the Age of AI

Optical transceivers are crucial in developing better AI systems by facilitating the rapid, reliable data transmission these systems need to do their jobs. High-speed, high-bandwidth connections are essential to interconnect data centers and supercomputers that host AI systems and allow them to analyze a massive volume of data.

In addition, optical transceivers are essential for facilitating the development of artificial intelligence-based edge computing, which entails relocating compute resources to the network’s periphery. This is essential for facilitating the quick processing of data from Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices like sensors and cameras, which helps minimize latency and increase reaction times.

400 Gbps links are becoming the standard across data center interconnects, but providers are already considering the next steps. LightCounting forecasts significant growth in the shipments of dense-wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) ports with data rates of 600G, 800G, and beyond in the next five years. We discuss these solutions in greater detail in our article about the roadmap to 800G and beyond.

Figure 2: Shipments of high-speed DWDM ports by data rate (historical data and forecast). Source: LightCounting Optical Communications Market Forecast, April 2022.

Coherent Modules Need to Provide More Telemetry Data

Mobile networks now and in the future will consist of a massive number of devices, software applications, and technologies. Self-managed, zero-touch automated networks will be required to handle all these new devices and use cases. Realizing this full network automation requires two vital components.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for comprehensive network automation: For instance, AI in network management can drastically cut the energy usage of future telecom networks.
Sensor and control data flow across all network model layers, including the physical layer: As networks grow in size and complexity, the management and orchestration (MANO) software needs more degrees of freedom and dials to turn.

These goals require smart optical equipment and components that provide comprehensive telemetry data about their status and the fiber they are connected to. The AI-controlled centralized management and orchestration layer can then use this data for remote management and diagnostics. We discuss this topic further in our previous article on remote provisioning, diagnostics, and management.

For example, a smart optical transceiver that fits this centralized AI-management model should relay data to the AI controller about fiber conditions. Such monitoring is not just limited to finding major faults or cuts in the fiber but also smaller degradations or delays in the fiber that stem from age, increased stress in the link due to increased traffic, and nonlinear optical effects. A transceiver that could relay all this data allows the AI controller to make better decisions about how to route traffic through the network.

A Smart Transceiver to Rule All Network Links

After relaying data to the AI management system, a smart pluggable transceiver must also switch parameters to adapt to different use cases and instructions given by the controller.

Let’s look at an example of forward error correction (FEC). FEC makes the coherent link much more tolerant to noise than a direct detect system and enables much longer reach and higher capacity. In other words, FEC algorithms allow the DSP to enhance the link performance without changing the hardware. This enhancement is analogous to imaging cameras: image processing algorithms allow the lenses inside your phone camera to produce a higher-quality image.

Figure 1 Simplified diagram of a network link with Forward Error Correction (FEC). — Figure 3: Simplified diagram of a network link with forward error correction (FEC). The FEC encoder adds redundant bits (overhead) to the transmitted data stream. The receiver can use this overhead to check for errors without asking the transmitter to resend the data.

A smart transceiver and DSP could switch among different FEC algorithms to adapt to network performance and use cases. Let’s look at the case of upgrading a long metro link of 650km running at 100 Gbps with open FEC. The operator needs to increase that link capacity to 400 Gbps, but open FEC could struggle to provide the necessary link performance. However, if the transceiver can be remotely reconfigured to use a proprietary FEC standard, the transceiver will be able to handle this upgraded link.

Reconfigurable transceivers can also be beneficial to auto-configure links to deal with specific network conditions, especially in brownfield links. Let’s return to the fiber monitoring subject we discussed in the previous section. A transceiver can change its modulation scheme or lower the power of its semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) if telemetry data indicates a good quality fiber. Conversely, if the fiber quality is poor, the transceiver can transmit with a more limited modulation scheme or higher power to reduce bit errors. If the smart pluggable detects that the fiber length is relatively short, the laser transmitter power or the DSP power consumption could be scaled down to save energy.

Takeaways

Optical networks will need artificial intelligence and machine learning to scale more efficiently and affordably to handle the increased traffic and connected devices. Conversely, AI systems will also need faster pluggables than before to acquire data and make decisions more quickly. Pluggables that fit this new AI era must be fast, smart, and adapt to multiple use cases and conditions. They will need to scale up to speeds beyond 400G and relay monitoring data back to the AI management layer in the central office. The AI management layer can then program transceiver interfaces from this telemetry data to change parameters and optimize the network.

Tags: 800G, 800G and beyond, adaptation, affordable, AI, artificial intelligence, automation, CloudComputing, data, DataCenter, EFFECT Photonics, FEC, fiber quality, innovation, integration, laser arrays, machine learning, network conditions, network optimization, Networking, optical transceivers, photonic integration, Photonics, physical layer, programmable interface, scalable, sensor data flow, technology, Telecommunications, telemetry data, terabyte, upgrade, virtualization

Insights

January 25, 2023

The Whats and Hows of Telcordia Standards

Before 1984, the world of telecom standards looked very different from how it does now.…

Before 1984, the world of telecom standards looked very different from how it does now. Such a world prominently featured closed systems like the one AT&T had in the United States. They were stable and functional systems but led to a sluggish pace of technology innovation due to the lack of competition. The breakup of the Bell System in the early 1980s, where AT&T was forced to divest from their local Bell operating and manufacturing units, caused a tectonic shift in the industry. As a result, new standards bodies rose to meet the demands of a reinvented telecom sector.

Bellcore, formerly Bell Communications Research, was one of the first organizations to answer this demand. Bellcore aided the Regional Bell Operating Companies by creating “generic requirements” (GR) documents that specified the design, operation, and purpose of telecom networks, equipment, and components. These GRs provided thorough criteria to help new suppliers design interoperable equipment, leading to the explosion of a new supplier ecosystem that made “GR conformant” equipment. An industry that relied on a few major suppliers thus became a more dynamic and competitive field, with carriers allowed to work with several suppliers almost overnight.

Bellcore is now Telcordia, and although the industry saw the emergence of other standards bodies, Telcordia still plays a major role in standardization by updating and producing new GR documents. Some of the most well-known documents are reliability prediction standards for commercial telecommunication products. Let’s discuss what these standards entail and why they matter in the industry.

What is the goal of Telcordia reliability standards?

Telecommunications carriers can use general requirements documents to select products that meet reliability and performance needs. The documents cover five sections:

General Requirements, which discuss documentation, packaging, shipping, design features, product marking, safety and interoperability.
Performance Requirements, which cover potential tests, as well as the performance criteria applied during testing.
Service Life Tests, which mimic the stresses faced by the product in real-life use cases.
Extended Service Life Tests, which verify long-term reliability.
Reliability Assurance Program, which ensures satisfactory, long-term operation of products in a telecom plant

Several of these specifications require environmental/thermal testing and often refer to other MIL STD and EIA / TIA test specifications. Listed below are a few common Telcordia test specifications that require the use of environmental testing.

Telcordia Generic Requirement	Description/Applicable Product
GR-49-CORE	for Outdoor Telephone Network Interface Devices
GR-63-CORE	for Network Equipment-Building System Requirements (NEBS): Physical Protection
GR-326-CORE	for Single Mode Optical Connectors and Jumper Assemblies (Fiber Optics)
GR-468-CORE	for Optoelectronic Devices Used in Telecommunications Equipment
GR-487-CORE	for Electronic Equipment Cabinets (Enclosures)
GR-974-CORE	for Telecommunications Line Protector Units (TLPUS)
GR-1209-CORE	for Fiber Optic Branching Components
GR-1221-CORE	for Passive Optical Components

Table 1: Common Telcordia GR documents that require environmental testing.

What are Telcordia tests like

For example, our optical transceivers at EFFECT Photonics comply with the Telcordia GR-468 qualification, which describes how to test optoelectronic devices for reliability under extreme conditions. Qualification depends upon maintaining optical integrity throughout an appropriate test regimen. Accelerated environmental tests are described in the diagram below. The GR recommends that a chosen test regimen be constructed upon expected conditions and stresses over the long term life of a system and/or device.

Mechanical Reliability & Temperature Testing
Shock & Vibration	High / Low Storage Temp	Temp Cycle
Damp Heat	Cycle Moisture Resistance	Hot Pluggable
Mating Durability	Accelerated Aging	Life Expectancy Calculation

Table 2: Examples of necessary verification tests for transceivers that will operate in harsh temperatures

Our manufacturing facilities and partners include capabilities for the temperature cycling and reliability testing needed to match Telcordia standards, such as temperature cycling ovens and chambers with humidity control.

Why are Telcordia standards important?

Companies engage in telecom standards for several reasons:

Strategic Advantage: Standards influence incumbents with well-established products differently than startups with “game changer” technologies. Following a technological standard helps incumbents get new business and safeguard their existing business. If a new vendor comes along with a box based on a new technology that gives identical functionality for a fraction of the price, you now have a vested stake in that technological standard.
Allocation of Resources: Standards are part of technology races. If a competitor doubles technical contributions to hasten the inclusion of their specialized technology into evolving standards, you need to know so you may react by committing additional resources or taking another action.
Early Identification of Prospective Partners and Rivals: Standards help suppliers recognize competitors and potential partners to achieve business objectives. After all, the greatest technology does not necessarily “win the race”, but the one with the best business plans and partners that can help realize the desired specification and design.
Information Transfer: Most firms use standards to exchange information. Companies contribute technical contributions to standards groups to ensure that standards are as close as feasible to their business model and operations’ architecture and technology. Conversely, a company’s product and service developers must know about the current standards to guarantee that their goods and services support or adhere to industry standards, which clients expect.

Takeaways

One of our central company objectives is to bring the highest-performing optical technologies, such as coherent detection, all the way to the network edge. However, achieving this goal doesn’t just require us to focus on the optical or electronic side but also on meeting the mechanical and temperature reliability standards required to operate coherent devices outdoors. This is why it’s important for EFFECT Photonics to constantly follow and contribute to standards as it prepares its new product lines.

Tags: accelerated, AT&T, Bellcore, closed, coherent, innovation, monopoly, open, partners, reliability, resource allocation, service life, technology, Telcordia

'National Coalition for Sustainable Digitalization' calls on the government to take an integrated approach to sustainable digitalization

Press Releases

April 14, 2022

PhotonDelta secures €1.1 billion to usher in a new generation of semiconductor technology.

Eindhoven, The Netherlands PhotonDelta, a cross-border ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations, has secured €…

Capital from the Netherland’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and other organizations will be used to build 200 startups, scale up production, create new applications for photonic chips and develop infrastructure and talent
Photonic chips enable the creation of devices that are substantially faster, cheaper to produce, and use considerably less electricity
Development of photonic tech will tackle societal challenges such as sustainability, create a new European industry, and open the door to a huge range of new applications including quantum computing

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

PhotonDelta, a cross-border ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations, has secured € 1.1 billion in public and private investment to transform the Netherlands into the leader of the next generation of semiconductors.

The investment includes €470 million of funding obtained through the National Growth Fund (Nationaal Groeifonds), while the rest is co-invested by various partners and stakeholders. It is part of the Dutch Government’s national plan to cement and expand the country’s position as a world leader in integrated photonics.

The program will run for six years and will enable PhotonDelta and its partners to further invest in photonic startups and scaleups, expand production and research facilities, attract and train talent, drive adoption, and develop a world-class design library. By 2030, PhotonDelta aims to have created an ecosystem with hundreds of companies, serving customers worldwide and a wafer production capacity of 100,000+ per year.

Photonics uses photons (light) to transfer information. Photonic chips, also called photonic integrated circuits (PICs), integrate photonic functions into microchips to create smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices. PICs can process and transmit data much more effectively than their electronic counterparts. Just like with traditional chips, the production process is carried out using automatic wafer-scale technology. This allows the chips to be mass-produced, reducing costs.

Crucially, PICs can overcome the expected limit to Moore’s Law and will also help tackle energy sustainability issues. PICs are currently used in the data and telecom industry to reduce the energy consumption per bit and increase speeds. With data and internet use expected to be around 10% of global electricity consumption by 2027, PICs provide a powerful way to limit the impact on the climate. Photonic circuits will also soon play an important role for innovative sensors that can be mass-produced, leading to earlier diagnostics of diseases, safe autonomous vehicles and infrastructure, and more efficient food production.

This investment is a game-changer. It will make the Netherlands the home of the next generation of semiconductors which will have a profound impact on the whole European tech industry.

The ongoing chip shortage highlights the pressing need for Europe to create its own production capabilities for strategic technologies. We will now be able to support hundreds of startups, researchers, producers and innovators to boost this industry that will be as impactful as the introduction of microelectronics a few decades ago.

The Netherlands is considered a pioneer in the development of PIC technology, and thanks to the continuous support from the Dutch government, we have been able to build a full supply-chain around it that is globally recognized as a hotspot for photonic integration.

Photonic chips are one of the most important technological breakthroughs of the last decade. Not only do they allow for the creation of devices that are faster, cheaper, more powerful and greener – they also enable radical new innovations like affordable point-of-care diagnostics or quantum computing to become a reality.

Ewit Roos, CEO at PhotonDelta

EFFECT Photonics is honored to be part of the allocation of the National Growth Fund. It is an exciting time for our industry and this kind of on-going support and funding from the Dutch government will bring the maturity and scalability of the Dutch photonics eco-system to the next level and allow us to compete on truly global scale.

For EFFECT Photonics this means that that we will be able to build on our ambition to make photonics simpler, more accessible, and affordable as we further the development of our next generation coherent solutions including the integration of our recently acquired DSP capabilities.

Our thanks go to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate for making this possible and to PhotonDelta for their guidance, organization, and coordination. We very much look forward to working together in the coming months and years to further drive innovations and value in our industry.
Boudewijn Docter at President EFFECT Photonic

The PhotonDelta proposal has been submitted by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy in close collaboration with Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), University of Twente (UT), Delft University of Technology (TUD), Holst Centre, TNO, IMEC, PITC, CITC, OnePlanet, SMART Photonics, LioniX International, EFFECT Photonics, MantiSpectra, PhotonFirst, PHIX, and BRIGHT Photonics.

The PhotonDelta ecosystem currently consists of 26 companies, 11 technology partners and 12 R&D partners. The organization is part of a consortium which has jointly invested €171 million in promising photonics companies including SMART Photonics, PhotonFirst, Surfix, MicroAlign, Solmates and EFFECT Photonics.

ENDS

Notes to Editor

*Conditions include:

Strategic partnership with a foundry agreed
Research activity connected with applications of technology
Ongoing evaluation of PhotonDelta’s ecosystem

Example applications of PICs:

Data & Telecoms: The biggest challenge within this domain is the high energy consumption of data infrastructure. Without any savings made, the share of data and internet use is expected to be around 10% of global electricity consumption by 2027. This includes energy consumption by end-users on the one hand and data centers on the other. 5G, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence will further accelerate this. Photonics provides gains in speed, weight, and energy consumption.

Healthcare: The development of mobile, wearable photonic devices (combined with advanced biosensors for direct point-of-care diagnostics and treatment that measure the medical condition and well-being of the wearer) can contribute to early detection and diagnosis of diseases, as well as an earlier and more targeted treatment. Photonics will eliminate the need for a visit to the hospital for many treatments or consultations.

Mobility: The biggest challenge in automotive in the near future lies in the availability of affordable sensors to enable autonomous driving at various stages. With the advantages of photonic chips (weight, speed, cost), the possibilities for self-driving transport are increasing. This has positive implications for road safety and lost travel time is made available again. Photonics can also mean a lot for battery management in electric vehicles and the control of traditional cars. For the aircraft industry, the emphasis is on sensor systems.

AgriFood: To feed a world population that is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, a drastic increase in food production is needed. But this must be done in a sustainable way: without excess nitrogen or excess CO2 emissions and preferably also in a way in which animal proteins have made way for vegetable proteins. In addition, food safety is an important precondition. The solution lies in precision agriculture, something in which photonics can play a major role. Sensor systems that run on photonics ensure that all requirements regarding safety, health, and sustainability can be met.

Full list of PhotonDelta partners (47):

Core partners (supply-chain) 25:
LioniX International
BRIGHT Photonics
SMART Photonics
PHIX
PhotonFirst
Aixscale Photonics
EFFECT Photonics
Pilot Photonics
QuiX Quantum
Delta Diagnostics
Surfix Diagnostics
Nostics
EFI Instruments
Amazec
VTEC lasers & sensors
MantiSpectra
OmmatidiaLidar
Demcon
Memscan
Neuruno
Deloq
Fuqon
Tarucca
Aircision

Suppliers (technology partners) 11:
Bruco
ASML
Aixtron
Solmates
Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) Etteplan
Tyndall
Salland Engineering
TNO
IMS
MicroAlign

R&D partners (12):
Photonic Integration Technology Center (PITC)
University of Twente
Eindhoven University of Technology
TU Delft
Imec
Holst Centre
OnePlanet
Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology
TNO
Fraunhofer HHI
MIT
HighTech XL

Technical information on photonics tech: https://www.photondelta.com/how-it-works/

More detail on how the investments will be used:

The goal is for accelerated, far-reaching further development of the photonics ecosystem and industrial development. Spread over 3 axes:

Accelerated industrialization: scaling up and optimizing production processes, new factories and integration with other platforms, such as CMOS or SiPh via ChipLet technology
Application technology: developing new applications via building blocks to meet major societal (and industrial) challenges
Ecosystem development: strengthening the ecosystem with targeted investments in weak spots: support startups, scale-ups, campus development, talent development, shared infrastructure for development, access for new entrants

About PhotonDelta

PhotonDelta is an ecosystem that researches, designs, develops, and manufactures solutions with integrated photonics technology. Connecting pioneers in the field with investors, and viable markets, PhotonDelta helps to take the industry forward with funding, investments and R&D roadmaps. PhotonDelta is located in the Netherlands but connects and collaborates throughout Europe. www.photondelta.com

Background PhotonDelta organization

In December 2018, a covenant was signed in which Dutch companies, knowledge institutions and governments pool a total of € 236 million in cash and in-kind resources, with the aim of exploiting the leading knowledge position in the field of integrated photonics and thus creating a strong economic position in the world.

The PhotonDelta partners together form a cohesive and co-operative industrial cluster. The ambitions and strategy for 2019-2026 are laid down in the PhotonDelta National Plan of the Dutch government, which is structured along four strategic pillars. The PhotonDelta Foundation is the implementing organization for this plan and started its activities on 1 January 2019.

Tags: coherent, Development, Dutch Government, innovation, Ministry of Economics & Climate, National Growth Fund, PhotonDelta, start up

Telecom/Datacom

Emerging Industries

DSP & FEC

Ultra Pure Light Sources

Ecosystems

Pluggable Modules – Direct Detect

Pluggable Modules – Coherent

Sub-Assemblies

ASICs

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Telecom/Datacom

Emerging Industries

DSP & FEC

Ultra Pure Light Sources

Ecosystems

Pluggable Modules – Direct Detect

Pluggable Modules – Coherent

Sub-Assemblies

ASICs

View All

Insights

Press Releases

In the News

Events

Careers

Knowledge Center

Company Info

Contact Us

Telecom/Datacom

Emerging Industries

DSP & FEC

Ultra Pure Light Sources

Ecosystems

Pluggable Modules – Direct Detect

Pluggable Modules – Coherent

Sub-Assemblies

ASICs

View All

Insights

Press Releases

In the News

Events

Careers

Knowledge Center

Company Info

Contact Us

innovation

Learning from Electronics Packaging

Supply Chain Optimization

The Advantages of Moving to a Fabless Model

Takeaways

Integrated Photonics Enables New Networks and Sensors

Integrated Photonics Drives Down Power Consumption

More Investment is Needed for Photonics to Scale like Electronics

Conclusion

Explore Our Demos:

Build Your Own 100G ZR Coherent Module

Tune Your Own PIC (Photonic Integrated Circuit)

Faster Transceivers for the Age of AI

Coherent Modules Need to Provide More Telemetry Data

A Smart Transceiver to Rule All Network Links

Takeaways

What is the goal of Telcordia reliability standards?

What are Telcordia tests like

Why are Telcordia standards important?

Takeaways

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Notes to Editor

Example applications of PICs:

More detail on how the investments will be used:

About PhotonDelta

Background PhotonDelta organization

Telecom/Datacom

Emerging Industries

DSP & FEC

Ultra Pure Light Sources

Ecosystems

Pluggable Modules – Direct Detect

Pluggable Modules – Coherent

Sub-Assemblies

ASICs

View All

Insights

Press Releases

In the News

Events

Careers

Knowledge Center

Company Info

Contact Us