Dutch photonic chip accelerator PhotonDelta has announced the opening of a new office in North America. The move is part of the organization’s goal to grow the photonic chip industry by promoting collaboration between European and North American organizations, both leaders in this emerging key enabling technology.

Besides the usage of PIC technology in datacenters for enhanced performance and reduced energy consumption, integrated photonics also holds enormous opportunities for quantum computing and sensing solutions for new applications in healthcare, agriculture and automotive. To drive this innovation, PhotonDelta secured 1.2 billion dollars to run numerous R&D programs, lead international roadmapping activities and invest in pioneering startups that apply PIC technology.

Over the last five years, PhotonDelta has raised over 500 million dollars for companies such as Smart Photonics, Effect Photonics, Phix Photonics Assembly, Astrapé Networks, Mantispectra, Surfix Diagnostics, Delta Life Science, Scantinel Photonics, Amazec, and many more.

PhotonDelta believes a unified photonic chip industry is essential to fulfill its potential and contribute to solving the challenges the semicon industry is facing. This is because Europe and America have key strengths in complementary integrated photonic chip technologies.

The Netherlands is home to the largest concentration of photonic chip technology organizations in the world. It is also one of the global leaders for the development of photonic chips based on indium phosphide and silicon nitride. The US is paving the way in silicon photonics as it benefits from its extensive infrastructure and greater scale of productions due to the compatibility with traditional semicon manufacturing.

Silicon photonics needs indium phosphide to function, as one cannot integrate active components on silicon. Silicon nitride, in turn, is particularly useful for sensing applications and quantum computers, as it benefits from extreme low-loss characteristics. In short, depending on the application, a combination of different platforms is needed to unlock the optimal functionalities and characteristics.

Based in Silicon Valley, PhotonDelta’s new hub will bring the Netherland’s world class photonic chip capabilities to North American organizations. The PhotonDelta ecosystem currently covers over seventy different organizations that form a complete value chain, including design services, multiple foundries for photonic chip fabrication, packaging, assembly and testing, and an increasing number of fabless companies that use PIC technology for innovative solutions.

Jorn Smeets, managing director North America at PhotonDelta, said: “We want to tap into the North American market and partner with industry leaders to help accelerate this key enabling technology. As we stimulate the internationalization of our value chain, we need to leverage on each other’s strengths and bring our know-how, operations and funding to North America.”

Further reading: Comprehensive roadmap to drive the integrated photonics industry forward: PhotonDelta and MIT Microphotonics Center’s roadmap initiative involves contributions from more than 400 organizations, wileyindustrynews.com, 02 April 2024