Close to their headquarter in Tres Cantos, Madrid, KDPOF is advancing a high-quality packaging factory for state-of-the-art optoelectronic devices. In addition, the company is developing a new optoelectronics packaging technology. It will be applied for the first time to produce the upcoming transceiver IC for high-speed automotive optical communications. Incorporating AI, sensors, and processors in self-driving vehicles requires the company's technology to interconnect all components robustly and inexpensively using fiber optic links within the vehicle.

The manufacture of a chip consists of three fundamental processes: the first is the creation of a silicon wafer that serves as the basis for the microchip, the second is the assembly, and the third is the testing to ensure quality. It is these last two steps that KDPOF brings to Tres Cantos.

“The funding supports us in making our plans of manufacturing ICs in Europe come true in the near future,” stated Carlos Pardo, CEO and Co-founder of KDPOF. “European fabs only manufacture approximately ten percent of semiconductors worldwide, making us dependent on Asia and the United States. We will pioneer the manufacturing of automotive optoelectronics in Spain in high volume, thus reducing this dependency.”

The project called “IPCEI ME/CT” was jointly prepared and announced by fourteen member states: Austria, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain.The member states will provide up to 8.1 billion euro in public funding, which is expected to unlock an additional 13.7 billion euro in private investments.There are 56 companies participating in this project.The proposal has a deadline of development in 2032, although the intent is that the commercialization of products will take place beginning in 2025. It is also expected that these 68 projects will generate a total of 8,700 direct jobs.