InP foundry Svedice spins out of Northlight
A new foundry called Svedice is offering InP chip processing and design services from its base in Järfälla, Sweden.
The company, which currently has 14 employees, was previously the chip manufacturing operation of Northlight Optronics.
Northlight was acquired by the French company Highwave Technologies in April this year, but it appears that the fabrication facility was not part of that deal.
Svedice CEO Dirk Sinerius, who was previously in charge at Northlight, told Compoundsemiconductor.net: "Northlight has reduced its burn-rate tremendously and is now break-even."
According to Sinerius, Svedice is supplying chip-on-carrier products to Northlight for use in standard butterfly packages and transmitter and receiver modules. He adds that the foundry already has other customers in both Asian and US locations.
A Swedish investor consortium comprising Acreo, Stockholm Innovation and Growth, and the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA), is financing Svedice, while Sinerius also owns a substantial part of the company himself.
As well as Aixtron 2400 multi-wafer reactors, Svedice has characterization, electron-beam, lithography, etching and metallization capability in its 800 m2 Class 1000 cleanroom facility.
The company specializes in 1310 nm and 1550 nm lasers, including tunable devices, and can also make PIN and avalanche photodetectors for 2.5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s optical links.
But it isn't just fiber-optic applications that Sinerius is targeting: "There is a high demand for InP foundry solutions, particularly for sensors, and for medical and military applications," he said. "From what we are seeing, the demand for telecom applications is picking up, too."
Sinerius adds that Svedice offers flexibility and a short lead time for its services, in combination with over 20 years of expertise in InP device manufacture.
