Amsterdam-based Rapid Photonics, a spin-off from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, announced on Thursday, March 28, that it has secured €300K convertible loan from Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland.
The Dutch company plans to use the funding to make its technology market-ready for the production of integrated photonic chips in lithium niobate, a next-generation material for integrated photonic chips.
What is Lithium niobate (LN)?
Lithium niobate (LN) is a material with immense potential for next-generation Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) due to its unique properties.
It can replace Silicon (Si) and Indium Phosphide (InP) in ultra-high-speed data communication, and also open up new avenues for quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence.
The recent development of thin-film LN wafers, known as Lithium Niobate on Insulator (LNOI), is a significant step towards realising LN-based PICs.
However, the full potential of LN in PICs is yet to be achieved due to the challenges involved in fabricating PICs on LNOI.
PIC development, in general, requires a long lead time and incurs high costs, which often results in high development expenses, increased risk, and unfeasible business models.
Here’s where Rapid Photonics comes into play!
Rapid Photonics: Unlocking Lithium Niobate PICs potential
The Amsterdam-based company has solved these problems through a patented PIC production technology: DEpicT (Direct Etch-less photonic integrated circuits Technology) which overcomes the challenges of LNOI PIC fabrication.
According to the company, DEpicT delivers low-loss waveguides in LNOI with high yield and short lead time at affordable cost. It is 100 per cent CMOS compatible, facilitating seamless scale-up of PIC production in conventional Si PIC foundries.
The company has its fabrication capacity and collaborates with selected partners for electrical and optical integration, packaging, and testing.
Currently, the company’s technology supports the integration of passive and active photonic components such as Mach-Zehnder modulators, ring resonators, couplers, etc.
Other active components, such as surface acoustic wave modulators, amplifiers, and comb generators are in development.
Steven Tan, Co-Founder of Rapid Photonics, says, “Research with photonic chips in lithium niobate has been done for years. In the process, fantastic results have been achieved in terms of data rate and energy efficiency. Unfortunately, until now it has not been possible to produce photonic chips in lithium niobate on an industrial scale. Our technology is going to change that. We are very pleased with the support of the Innovation Fund North Holland that will enable us to take the first steps toward commercialisation.”
The investor
The Innovation Fund North Holland is an initiative of the Province of North Holland, the University of Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, and Sanquin.
The Fund supports entrepreneurs in the province of North Holland in financing innovation in the Proof-of-Concept phase by providing convertible loans.
The Innovation Fund North Holland manages two funds – a fund for innovative startups, supported by the RVO, and a fund for academic startups, supported by ERDF.
Wouter Keij, Fund Manager of Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland, says, “Rapid Photonics is developing innovative technology for an etchless production process of lithium-niobate-based photonic chips. Due to its compatibility with current chip production processes, Rapid Photonics’ technology is scalable. Rapid Photonics thus makes an important contribution to the technological position of the Netherlands in the field of photonics.”
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/rapid-photonics-secures-300k/
