VLC Photonics secures €5.38m IPCEI funding
Spanish photonic integrated circuits company VLC Photonics, part of the Hitachi High-Tech group, has secured significant funding to advance photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design and testing, focusing on research, upgraded infrastructure, and industry collaborations to accelerate commercialisation and innovation in optical communications, signal processing, and sensing.
The company, a fabless design and test house, has been officially selected to receive a €5.38m grant as an associate partner under the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies.
This funding has been awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Tourism under the second call of the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation in Microelectronics and Semiconductors. Moreover, VLC Photonics has also secured additional funding from the Hitachi High-Tech group to complement the IPCEI grant.
The company will reinforce its capabilities for modelling, simulation, and design of III-V epitaxies, fab processes, and advanced photonic components, including lasers, modulators, and filters, for process design kits (PDKs) in silicon, SiN, InP, and other emerging materials. Simultaneously, VLC Photonics will also scale up its back-end capabilities for chip and wafer level testing at multiple wavelengths and very high speeds, while expanding towards thermal reliability testing.
"This funding is a significant milestone for VLC Photonics and the broader Spanish semiconductor ecosystem," said Iñigo Artundo, CEO at VLC Photonics. "It enables us to further enhance our R&D capabilities in photonic design and test, to develop groundbreaking technologies and solutions for our customers, and ultimately to reinforce Europe’s ambitions in the global semiconductor landscape."
The IPCEI framework is designed to support ambitious, cross-border innovation and industrialisation efforts of strategic relevance to the EU. Through this project, VLC Photonics keeps on supporting its strategic growth roadmap on its two main business lines of PIC design and test, expanding its role as a critical enabler in the European photonics supply chain.
