Phortify unites universities, research institutes and industry to build a harmonized European photonics education and training network. The project will enhance Master’s education, expand flexible mobility, and develop lifelong-learning modules or micro-credentials supported by an open-access digital library, aligned with Europe’s evolving skills needs and aimed at boosting its digital capabilities.

Phortify Grants for Master Thesis Projects

Phortify Grants for Master Thesis Projects provide financial support to Master’s students undertaking a thesis project that is aligned with the thematic areas and objectives of the Phortify project. The grants support the carrying out of Master’s thesis projects offered by and implemented in collaboration with SMART Photonics, allowing students to gain hands-on experience in an industrial research and innovation environment while addressing real-world challenges in photonics and related digital technologies.

For more information and applications, click here

This project will focus on the realization of accessible R&D&I infrastructure for light source integration in semiconductorThis project will focus on the realization of accessible R&D&I infrastructure for light source integration in semiconductor photonics solutions. To this end, we bring together unique and highly complementary expertise from the Netherlands (III-V materials from SMART Photonics) and Flanders (silicon, semiconductor photonics from imec and printing technology from Ghent University).

These partners are jointly setting up an open pilot line to print III-V materials (via micro-transfer printing) on silicon semiconductor photonics wafers2 for light source integration. The pilot line combines three highly scalable technologies. This ensures that companies using the pilot line can use the same integration process for prototyping and limited runs as well as for high-volume applications (millions of products per year, just like with electronics chips).

The role of SMART Photonics
SMART Phtonics will manufacture the InP coupons

More information
https://interregvlaned.eu/en/lightup/over-ons

Contact person
Ruud Vullers

Check the poster here

SEQRET is an EU funded project in the frame of the Digital Europe Programme focusing on the development of secure and industrialized Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems for European telecommunication networks.

In today’s telecommunication, cryptography plays a crucial role in protecting data from unauthorized access and therefore keeping critical or even classified information secret. QKD is a paradigm shifting technology, offering unparalleled long-term security and protection of data. For this, QKD generates keys that are private to the legitimate users and unknown to any attacker, now or in the future. Using these keys with the already-deployed symmetric cryptography enables a future-proof cryptographic solution.

Our goal is to advance QKD to a larger market, to secure Europe’s sovereignty in the digital era. To do this, we are taking advantage of the latest scientific breakthroughs in telecommunication, high-frequency electronics, photonic integration, and digital post-processing. We focus on a special type of QKD based on continuous variables (CV-QKD), which can be realized by operating standard coherent telecommunication technology at the quantum limit. By piggybacking existing telecommunication technology, we can propel quantum technology from the lab directly into the real world.

SMART Photonics will manufacture quantum-limited photonic integrated circuits optimised for high-volume and cost-effective production

SEQRET (seqret-project.eu)

For more information please contact ruud.vullers@smartphotonics.nl

The project is funded under the Digital Europe Programme within the framework of EuroQCI under the DIGITAL-2021-QCI-01-INDUSTRIAL call with the project ID 101091591

CLOSER stands for Circular raw materials for European open strategic autonomy on chips and microelectronics production, and is an I3 project that aims to establish a European closed loop for semiconductors, organising the ecosystem for Critical Raw Materials from e-waste, back into sustainable chips and microelectronics. 32 partners from 8 European countries act together in building and scale up a European circular supply chain for semiconductors.

Four areas are the main focus:

1.⁠ ⁠Techniques in collection, extraction, purification, revamping, and reclaiming for sustainable e-waste processing.

2.⁠ ⁠Boosting EU semiconductors production for open strategic autonomy.

3.⁠ ⁠Promoting circularity in photovoltaics for sustainable energy solutions.

4.⁠ ⁠Advancing digitisation to support circular value chains and the digital product passport.

SMART Photonics has two contributions: Participating in the InP stream, collecting the InP after grinding the InP wafers, and subsequently making lasers from recylced InP wafers

More information
‍https://hollandcircularhotspot.nl/CLOSER/

Or contact ruud.vullers@smartphotonics.nl

CLOSER is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

‍

Electronic devices evolved significantly, fuelling the digital transformation towards a connected society. To growing need for performance, speed and efficiency pushes wireless applications to operate at sub-THz frequencies and beyond. Today’s technologies, however, come short to efficiently and effectively utilize these frequencies, even taking into account technological evolutions. A disruptive yet commercially viable technology is urgently needed. Indium Phosphide (InP) has outstanding and unique capabilities to surpass other technologies in terms of high-frequency performance. Today, InP is only adopted in niche markets because of its costly and scarce substrates. Move2THz will transform the InP platform and build a fully integrated European value chain providing commercially attractive, ecology-friendly, mass-market technologies suitable for sub-THz frequency operation and beyond, enabling emerging applications like mobile/data connectivity, imaging and sensing. To achieve this, Move2THz will radically innovate the manufacturing process by establishing a breakthrough InP-on-silicon (InPoSi) global standard. This facilitates to upscale the wafer size & volume compatible with CMOS manufacturing capacities, while minimizing the use of rare InP resources and ecological footprint. Further up the value chain, the European InP platform will be developed, matured and adopted through substrates, manufacturing, design and foundry services, including integration, packaging and education. Through Move2THz, the technical excellence provided by our consortium and the technologies developed in this project will significantly strengthen the competitive and sovereign position of Europe. It will secure its supply of semiconductors in a sustainable way for the next generations of wireless applications, generate a wealth of new market opportunities, and make significant contributions to a highly qualified European workforce. To achieve this, InP’s adoptability must accelerate NOW.

Together with the TU/e, SMART Photonics will manufacture PIC, using 4 inch InPoSi wafers.

More info
https://www.move2thz.eu/
Or contact ruud.vullers@smartphotonics.nl

Move2THz is supported by the Chips Joint Undertaking and its members, including the top-up funding by National Authorities under Grant Agreement n° 101139842.

‍

Building on successes to date, a new PhotonHub framework has been launched to fund photonics innovation projects until December 2028 through a pan-European network of partners which includes SMART Photonics. Called “PhotonHub PHACTORY”, the new €15 million initiative offers expert support, fast-track access to Europe’s leading laboratories, and generous subsidies. Delivered through a trusted one-stop-shop model, the initiative makes high-end photonics support faster, easier, and more accessible than ever. As the science and technology of light, photonics is integral to many applications and is a key enabler to breakthroughs in emergency medical diagnostics, solar energy for a greener future, and quantum communications, for example. This new programme dramatically lowers the barrier to entry, offering EU subsidies that can cover up to 85% of project costs, making it low-risk for businesses. It aims to help companies achieve a wider and faster uptake, integration, and deployment of photonic technologies, boost competitiveness and foster new business.

SMART Photonics is one of the Technology Support Providers, offering InP foundry services.

More info
https://www.photonhub.eu/
Read the press release here
Or contact ruud.vullers@smartphotonics.eu

PhotonHub has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Grant Agreement n*101016665, in Public Private Partnership with Photonics21.

‍

The photonixFAB project aims to empower photonics innovation by SMEs and large entities by providing low barrier access to both low-loss silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based photonics platforms with indium phosphide (InP) and lithium niobate (LNO) heterogenous integration capabilities. In doing so, X-FAB, the leading analog/mixed-signal and specialty foundry, is spearheading a strategic initiative aiming to enable the European semiconductor and photonics industries to gain greater sovereignty. This will strengthen the continent’s manufacturing capabilities in key emerging areas. The photonixFAB consortium is made up of major public and private enterprises, plus highly respected research institutes – all focusing on the development and production of next-generation silicon photonics. These high-profile partners include technology and manufacturing service providers LIGENTEC, SMART Photonics, PHIX Photonics Assembly and Luceda Photonics plus application developers Nokia, NVIDIA, Aryballe, Brolis Sensor Technology and PhotonFirst, as well as the major research organizations CEA-Leti and IMEC.

SMART Photonics will design and fabricate the InP active and passive components, which will be heterogenous integrated onto SiN and SOI platform using micro Transfer printing.

https://www.photonixfab.eu/

For more information please contact Ruud Vullers.

photonixFAB is co-funded by the European Union under grant agreement no. 101111896. The project is supported by the Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking and its members including top-up funding by Belgium, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland

‍

‍

PHOTONDELTA COOPERATIVE is an international, professional membership organization with headquarters in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. It is open to companies and organizations directly or indirectly involved as supplier, end user or a financer across the entire Integrated Photonics value chain. PhotonDelta Cooperative Collaborative online platform is the Open Innovation and knowledge sharing tool for PhotonDelta members and partners to share knowhow and pre-published Intellectual Property under a secure environment.

EPIC serves the photonics community through a regular series of workshops, market studies and partnering.

The Make Next Platform provides the future generation of manufacturing companies with a unique opportunity to gain access to the networks, knowledge and expertise of the leading Dutch companies ASML, Huisman and Vanderlande.

Our mission is to stimulate photonics innovation by enabling collaborations and cross-fertilization between companies and industries, to increase the level of awareness of the importance of photonics for our economy and to increase the knowledge of photonics at all levels of education.

JePPIX brings together the European InP and Triplex photonic integrated circuit (PIC) supply chain as a coherent force to advance and promote PIC technology. We promote and facilitate an open-access, horizontal and generic foundry model that keeps pace with the market, bringing in new users, enabling specialization, and facilitating the supply chain agility we need for new sectors.

Skyrocketing capacity demands and emerging 5G and industrial internet URLLC applications currently pose a new strict latency-oriented framework calling urgently for new radical architectural changes at the key aggregation infrastructure being in local proximity to the subscribers: the Central Offices (COs). OCTAPUS aims to deliver an agile, low-cost and energy-efficient PIC technology framework that will re-architect the NGCO ecosystem, transparently upgrading its capacity to 51.2Tb/s and beyond, through an innovative optically-switched backplane and transceiver toolkit. To realize its ambitious goals, OCTAPUS will B2leverage the novel integration of antimony-based Phase Change Materials (PCM) on the low-cost SiN deploy a versatile portfolio of InP-based O-band optical components equip its novel PICs with low loss and compact interfaces to fibers, synergize the developed optical components in a novel NGCO architecture,.

Role of SMART Photonics
SMART Photonics will carry out the design and fabrication of O-band DBR lasers, QCSE EAMs, Pin PDs and SSCs. We will also provide the complete photonic O-band transceiver toolkit through 3 fabrication iterations.

For more information go to the OCTAPUS website , Linkedin or contact Ruud Vullers

Press release december 2022

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101070009.

AMBROSIA – “A Μultiplexed plasmo-photonic Βiosensing platfoRm fOr rapid and intelligent Sepsis dIAgnosis at the point of care” is a 4-year EU collaborative project that brings together twelve leading academic and research institutes and companies from eight different countries, aiming to provide the foundations for a multi-sensing future-proof point-of-care unit for sepsis diagnosis. AMBROSIA will be investing in the established ultra-small-footprint and elevated sensitivity of integrated plasmo-photonic sensors reinforced by the well-known on-chip slow-light effect and the functional processing and classification portfolio of integrated photonic neural network engines for processing and classifying at the same time the data from at least 7 biomarkers and pathogens providing in the first minutes an accurate and rapid diagnosis of sepsis. At the same time, on-chip lasers and photodetectors integrated through micro-transfer printing technology on the hosting silicon nitride sensor and neuromorphic chips will drastically decrease costs tailoring them in System-in-Package prototype assemblies, with the sensor being a cheap disposable pluggable module that can rapidly and accurately diagnose sepsis at the bedside in clinical environments.

SMART Photonics will develop and fabricate the C band lasers and detectors, which will be transfer printed onto SiN, operating as a plasmo-photonic sensor

For more information please contact ruud.vullers@smartphotonics.nl

Home (ambrosia-h2022.eu)

Read the Ambrosia Actives Integration Newsletter #5 here (Jan 2026)

This project has received funding from the Horizon Europe – Work Programme 2021-2022 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101093166