Lausanne, Switzerland and Corbeil-Essones, France – April 27, 2022
LIGENTEC opens R&D Centre in France
LIGENTEC, the leader in low loss silicon nitride integrated photonics expands to France
LIGENTEC SA, the leading supplier of high performance, low loss, silicon nitride Photonic Integrated Circuits established a R&D Centre in France.
Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are ready to repeat the success story of electronic integrated circuits (ICs). PICs work with light instead of electrons and will play a key role in tomorrow’s crucial infrastructure in communication, sensing, transportation, and quantum computing.
LIGENTEC, originating from western Switzerland, has established its first foreign subsidiary in CorbeilEssonnes near Paris. The newly formed company, LIGENTEC France SAS, will primarily act as a R&D centre to advance the LIGENTEC base technology as well as to expand it with new functionalities. The centre’s expertise will cover the whole chain in PIC development, from design, wafer processing to characterization and is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment.
The centre is located in a new development area in Corbeil-Essonnes south of Paris, hosting a range of highly innovative high tech semiconductor companies. This local density of semiconductor technology, the great support by the tenant and the flexible options for expansion were key criteria for the location selection.
“This centre allows us to perform research and development very close to our strategic partner and will increase our efficiency,” says LIGENTEC’s co-founder Michalis Zervas, President of the new entity. “Furthermore, we benefit from the ideal boundary conditions for innovation given by the European Union, the French Government, the Region and the great talent pool in the metropolitan Paris region.”
The newly formed company has already built a core team in Corbeil-Essonnes and plans to expand further in the next months.
“LIGENTEC is a fantastic company achieving key breakthroughs in the PIC domain which we love at Jolt Capital. I am therefore delighted to advise Michael (founder and chairman) and Thomas (CEO), to share our network and our know how with them” commented Antoine Trannoy, Managing Partner at Jolt Capital, who recently joined LIGENTEC’s board to support the management team in the scaling phase of the company and in the setup of its French subsidiary.
Acronyms
PIC Photonic Integrated Circuit
LiDAR Light Detection and Ranging
About LIGENTEC
LIGENTEC supplies application specific Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) to customers in high-tech markets such as Quantum Computing, Communication, LiDAR, New Space and Biosensors. LIGENTEC’s proprietary and fully CMOS compatible semiconductor fabrication technology, originally developed at EPFL Lausanne, provides PICs at lower cost and better performance than today’s state of the art. It essentially combines the benefits of known, low loss material such as glass with the benefits of silicon photonics and addresses with its low loss, low cost and short production cycle the main challenges of integrated photonics today. LIGENTEC headquarters are based in Lausanne, Switzerland.