Europe's most influential event in the photonic chip industry - PIC Summit Europe - took place at the spaceship-like venue Evoluon in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, on Nov. 7 and 8, 2033. It was the first event where photonixFAB was present with its own booth, presenting the project to over 400 visitors from more than 20 countries.
In the conference part, the project was presented by Joni Mellin from X-FAB, introducing the project in his talk entitled "PhotonixFAB – The EU-Funded Pilot Line To Empower Photonics Innovations".
Building a resilient European PIC supply chain
Another highlight of the event: Industry CEO recommendations for world-leading, resilient European PIC supply chain.
CEOs from eight of Europe’s integrated photonics companies presented European Commission officials with a plan to build a resilient European supply chain for photonic ICs at the PIC Summit in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The plan calls for €4.25 billion in funding over eight years which would help build-out a photonic IC manufacturing ecosystem in Europe, ensuring that smaller companies have access to manufacturing for small volumes and test runs.
The proposal makes several recommendations including:
- Provide over €2 billion in incentives for industrial scale InP and SiN photonic IC manufacturing capacity in Europe.
- Provide incentives for advanced, industrial scale, wafer and micro-assembly, test and packaging (ATP) facilities for PIC and other advanced photonics chips.
- Access for EU SMEs to industrial photonic test and experimentation facilities that partly mirror commercial lines, with the latest commercial wafer processing equipment and tools, at the relevant industry standard wafer sizes.
- Access to industrial micro-assembly, test and packaging TEF facilities, that partly mirror commercial lines, as a first step to rebuilding advanced ATP capabilities in the EU.
- Establish an industrial photonic IC ‘manufacturing supply chain’ resilience fund of €200 million to support the investments needed to strengthen linkages and minimize vulnerabilities.
- Provide a €360 million fund to stimulate application development through offering design tape-outs, leading to industrial photonic design IP creation and validation based on hardware testing.
- Promote and incentivize collaboration amongst vertical clusters and the European photonic IC ecosystem.
The eight CEOs involved are: Rudi De Winter, X-FAB; Johan Feenstra, SMART Photonics; Felix Grawert, Aixtron; Albert Hasper, PHIX Photonics Assembly; Iñigo Artundo, VLC Photonics; Jean-Louis Gentner, Almae; Thomas Hessler, Ligentec; Ewit Roos, PhotonDelta.