LIGENTEC SA, the leading supplier of high performance, low loss, silicon nitride Photonic Integrated Circuits opened its first subsidiary abroad. The R&D Centre in France allows to do research and development close to specialty semiconductor producer X-FAB Silicon Foundries, a strategic partner of LIGENTEC.
Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are ready to repeat the success story of electronic integrated circuits (ICs). PICs work with light instead of electrons and will play a key role in tomorrow’s crucial infrastructure in communication, sensing, transportation, and quantum computing.
LIGENTEC, originating from western Switzerland, has established its first foreign subsidiary in Corbeil-Essonnes near Paris. The newly formed company, LIGENTEC France SAS, will primarily act as a R&D centre to advance the LIGENTEC base technology as well as to expand it with new functionalities. The centre’s expertise will cover the whole chain in PIC development, from design, wafer processing to characterization and is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. The newly formed company has already built a core team in Corbeil-Essonnes and plans to expand further in the next months.
The centre is located in a new development area in Corbeil-Essonnes south of Paris, hosting a range of highly innovative high-tech semiconductor companies. This local density of semiconductor technology, the great support by the tenant and the flexible options for expansion were key criteria for the location selection.
“This centre allows us to perform research and development very close to our strategicX-FAB partner and will increase our efficiency,” says LIGENTEC’s co-founder Michalis Zervas, President of the new entity. “Furthermore, we benefit from the ideal boundary conditions for innovation given by the European Union, the French Government, the Region and the great talent pool in the metropolitan Paris region.”
In September 2021 LIGENTEC has implemented its proprietary, patented, low-loss silicon nitride process technology within X-FAB’s existing high-throughput foundry workflow. Since then LIGENTEC PICs are commercially available in high volumes out of Europe, a key requisite enabling the secure and independent supply of the quantities foreseen in relation to sensors for self-driving cars, environment monitoring, quantum computers and an array of other applications.
(Press release / SK)
Picture: LIGENTEC
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