Dutch Photonic Chip Pilot Line reaches highest point at High Tech Campus Eindhoven
The Dutch Photonic Chip Pilot Line at High Tech Campus Eindhoven has reached its highest point. Hosted by TNO and part of the European PIXEurope initiative, the facility will become the world’s first industrial factory for the production of Indium Phosphide photonic chips at 6-inch wafer scale.
The milestone marks another major step in the rapid development of the new facility. From the first plans onwards, the project has progressed at an unprecedented pace, reflecting the shared ambition of partners across industry, research and government.
Just months after construction officially started in March, the factory and cleanroom facilities are already taking shape. This progress is made possible by construction partners BAM Nederland, Broekbakema, Deerns, Equans Nederland, Adviesbureau Tielemans and vb&t Vastgoed en Huisvesting.
The highest point was marked in true Dutch construction tradition, with the raising of the flag and a shared lunch for everyone involved.
Connecting research and scalable production
The new facility will connect R&D with scalable production, providing the infrastructure needed to test and validate photonic chip technology at industrial scale. In doing so, it will help accelerate the route from research and development to applications in areas such as energy-efficient AI data centers, 6G networks, medical innovation and supercomputers.
The €150 million investment is part of the European ambition to strengthen technological sovereignty and semiconductor production under the European Chips Act. The factory forms part of the pan-European PIXEurope consortium.
The project is a public-private partnership between TNO, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), PhotonDelta, SMART Photonics and High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
Reaching the highest point is another milestone for the many organisations and people working together to build this new piece of photonics infrastructure at High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
