IQE announces epitaxy agreement with Quintessent
Compound semiconductor wafer firm IQE has announced a purchase agreement with Santa Barbara-based Quintessent for the supply of Quantum Dot Laser (QDL) epitaxy.
Following an initial announcement and purchase order in January 2025, the extension of the companies’ long termr elationship will see IQE supply 6-inch GaAs epiwafers through its foundry-ready service. This will support Quintessent’s customer sampling as its technology progresses towards commercial deployment and new production introductions.
Compared to traditional laser technology, Quintessent’s QDL architecture is designed to enable lower power optical interconnects, simpler manufacturing and improved reliability for next generation AI data centres. IQE and Quintessent have been working together for over a decade to transition the technology from research to large-scale production and previously announced a partnership to establish the world’s first large-scale QDL epitaxial wafer supply chain.
Jutta Meier, CEO of IQE, commented: “After a period of successful development, we are pleased to be enabling customer sampling with our partner Quintessent as its Quantum Dot Laser technology moves towards broader market adoption and commercialisation. IQE’s proven expertise in advanced epitaxy and high volume manufacturing means we are ideally positioned to support the scaling of multiple complementary optical interconnect technologies that are enabling the AI revolution.”
Alan Liu, CEO and co-founder of Quintessent, commented: “We are proud of our long-standing partnership with IQE. The next phase of the AI infrastructure buildout will require deep technology and supply chain partnerships to address the scale required in the AI ecosystem. IQE has been a wonderful production partner, helping Quintessent enable our Laser and SOA technology. We look forward to continued collaboration with IQE.”
