Europe wants to become less dependent on foreign chip production, and will have to scale up itself to do so. Photonics is considered one of the technologies that can make a difference. In Eindhoven, that ambition is taking shape as we speak. ‘If you want to play along, you have to be one of the first.’
Photonics as a critical link in the global chip race
TNO and High Tech Campus Eindhoven have started construction of a factory for the production of indium phosphide photonic chips on 6-inch wafers. ‘In the summer of 2024, we submitted the proposal to the EU and the government.’ The plan was approved last year and the factory needs to be ready in a year and a half, because speed is important’, says Ton van Mol, managing director of Holst Centre and very closely involved in the project, which is a public-private partnership between TNO, TU Eindhoven, PhotonDelta, SMART Photonics and High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
Photonic chips are currently still manufactured on 4-inch wafers. The new line in Eindhoven must make that same process possible on 6 inches. That may sound simple but in practice, the difficulty lies in hundreds of details. ‘It takes about 450 steps to make a chip’, Van Mol explains. ‘And they all need to be scaled up. That requires a high level of precision.’ It involves deposition, lithography, etching and polishing, and structures that must maintain the same thickness across the entire wafer in layers of a few nanometres. ‘On a wafer that is more than twice as large, that’s not evident, while a stable production process with a high yield is the prerequisite for building a real industry.
Foundry
The scaling up must yield two things simultaneously. The cost per chip must come down, and volumes up. Van Mol calls the new pilot line a step in a larger process. ‘TNO will soon conduct research and development together with its partners to get that entire process to 6 inches. Once that is sorted out, we’ll transfer it to a commercial party’, he says. SMART Photonics, also based in Eindhoven, seems like an obvious option. Van Mol does not want to make any firm statements about that, but he does expect that that company will be ‘one of the parties that will raise their hand soon’.
Another aspect that makes the photonics pilot line unique is that it focuses on a pure play foundry model, just as TSMC is for electronic chips. ‘While many players in photonics are vertically integrated and manufacture their chips only for their own products, this factory will serve as a foundry: a place accessible to all photonics designers’, Van Mol explains. An ecosystem of designers, suppliers, and new chip companies must emerge around the factory. ‘Such a foundry is an enabler for that. Because you want all kinds of chip companies to emerge that start designing and can order chips from that foundry.’
Under pressure
The fact that this step is being taken now has everything to do with the applications for which photonics is rapidly becoming more important. Van Mol points to AI data centres, where communication is becoming an increasingly large bottleneck. ‘They want to switch from copper connections to fibre optics, and that requires optical chips’, he says. Given the explosion of data centres worldwide, the demand for such components is growing very fast. ‘The world is waiting for it. And if you want to play in that market, you have to be quick.’
The factory is being set up as a foundry, where external parties can have their photonic chips produced.
The United States and Asia are also scaling up to 6 inches. ‘We’ll be one of the first in the world to manufacture complex photonic indium phosphide chips on 6 inches’, Van Mol says. InP is one of the material platforms for photonics and is highly suitable for critical active components, such as lasers and detectors. That’s exactly what you need for the next step in datacom. There’s enormous pressure to scale up indium phosphide and bring it to the data centres.’
Safety
When asked why this factory must be located specifically here, Van Mol points to the combination of knowledge, industry and timing. ‘With the university and SMART Photonics, we have an enormous heritage in indium phosphide-based photonics in Eindhoven’, says Van Mol, who immediately places the development in a broader context. ‘If you don’t want to be dependent on other geopolitical blocs, it’s important that in Europe, we seize our opportunities to develop and retain unique technology like this.’
It is precisely for this reason that Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Henna Virkkunen, Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy Heleen Herbert, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Dilan Yeşilgöz were present at the kick-off. According to the latter, the war in Ukraine shows how quickly and technologically conflicts are changing. ‘Secure optical communication, made possible by photonic chips, ensures that information keeps flowing’, says Yeşilgöz. ‘This factory is not only a technological milestone, but also a strategic one. Safety is not determined solely by ships, aircraft, and soldiers. It also happens here, in labs and cleanrooms. We’re taking an important step towards strengthening our technological base in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. We’re reducing our vulnerability. Safety is not a spectacle. It’s something we’re building together as a team.’
Indispensable
Minister Herbert states that the pilot line is necessary because the demand for photonic chips is growing fast. ‘These chips are faster and more energy-efficient, and are becoming indispensable for applications ranging from AI to quantum and healthcare’, she says. ‘We’re now bringing that technology from lab to fab. The project is the result of collaboration between knowledge institutions from eleven European countries. The European Commission and the Dutch government are jointly investing 172 million euros.’
In a world where technology is increasingly being used geopolitically, she calls this collaboration essential. ‘The new European Chips Act aims to stimulate investments in chip innovation and production, and photonic chips play a key role in this. By further expanding our unique technology and knowledge, Europe can become indispensable within the global chip supply chain. At the same time, we must strengthen our resilience and strategic autonomy so we stand firmer in these uncertain geopolitical times. With the photonic chips, we have the ultimate opportunity to build our own autonomous value chain.’
Being relevant
Former ASML CEO Peter Wennink also underscores the importance of the new pilot line, because he views photonics as a promising technology with which Europe can play a relevant role on the world stage. ‘In China and the US, this is at the top of the agenda. You can also see that in the investments they make’, says Wennink, referring to Nvidia, which recently invested 2 billion dollars in both Coherent and Lumentum, the two largest American manufacturers of photonic chips.
According to Wennink, that also immediately shows the challenge that lies ahead. ‘We’re far too risk-averse in Europe’, he believes. ‘We’re good in the early stages, but as soon as it gets really significant, we drop out.’ According to him, the pilot line is intended to make that next step possible. ‘The step from lab to fab is already difficult, but from lab to fab to customer is even more important. You need these kinds of facilities for that. But this is just the beginning. If you want to scale up, you need a lot of capital and have to show a greater risk appetite.’
Wennink calls on governments to ensure the right preconditions: ‘Legislation is one of the biggest hurdles. Take the European state aid rule; it must be amended as soon as possible because it slows us down. This is not about a hopeless market either, but about building a new market, and about the future of our children and grandchildren.’ On the stage of the High Tech Campus, his message is clear: ‘Stop the conservatism. If we don’t do that, we lose our place at the table.’
