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Scaling All Nitride Photonic Integrated Circuits for future markets

Project description

Big plans for photonic integration

Imagine shrinking complex and often big optical systems on a tiny chip; this is known as photonic integration. It is the dominant technology in high bandwidth communications and is set to take over in many fields of photonics. Swiss company LIGENTEC has developed a thick silicon nitride (SiN) technology that enables the manufacturing of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) using processes of better performance and lower cost than common approaches. The technology has reached TRL 7 and gained a lot of customer traction in prototyping. The EU-funded SPECTRA project will industrialise the manufacturing processes and prepare for scale-up including a quality control line for production. It will also certify the technology to industry standards.

Objective

The Sensing and Communication markets are predicted to increase tremendously over the next few years, especially pushed from medical instrumentation, diagnostics, autonomous driving, quantum computing and communication. Photonic Integration, the ability to shrink complex optical systems on a small chip, is one of the key technologies with an enabling and highly disruptive potential in those verticals.

LIGENTEC has developed a unique thick Silicon Nitride (SiN) technology which enables the manufacturing of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) at better performance and lower cost than common approaches. The technology has reached TRL 7 and gained a lot of customer traction in prototyping.

LIGENTEC has estimated its serviceable available market in the Sensing and Communication segments of €400m by 2023 and €1.5bn by 2027 respectively. First customers are ready to enter volume manufacturing in 2022/2023.

This EIC project focus is to industrialise the manufacturing processes and prepare for scale-up including a quality control line for production and certify the technology to industry standards. It is strategic to the company as it enables LIGENTEC to enter the volume market.

At the end of this project LIGENTEC will:
• Have World leading PIC technology for quantum, LiDAR and Space vertical at industrial scale
• Setup and validated a quality control and metrology line
• Have certified reference designs to industry standards allowing easier design for customers enabling new applications in new markets
• Be ready to enter volume market and acquire customers with a need of PICs up to 1’000’000 units / year
• Have demonstrated increased production repeatability, yield and proven product reliability

LIGENTEC is managed by an experienced team which has successfully scaled a high-tech business in photonics in the past.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

LIGENTEC SA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 893 150,00
Address
CHEMIN DE LA DENT D OCHE 1B EPFL INNOVATION PARK BATIMENT L
1024 ECUBLENS
Switzerland

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Région lémanique Vaud
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 3 571 250,00

Participants (1)

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