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Photonics—the science of creating, manipulating, transmitting and detecting light—is powering some of today’s most important technological advances, with applications ranging from optical communications to imaging, lighting and displays, industrial sensing and automation, life sciences, healthcare, security and safety.
Silicon photonics integration enables cost-effective, low-power optical interconnects in high-performance computing systems and data centers. An ecosystem is forming around light-based interconnects, with established players and new entrants emerging to advance the technology.
Europe has a long history of contributing to the development of photonics technology. This was demonstrated in 2022, when European scientists Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger, along with John F. Clauser of the U.S., won the Nobel Prize in Physics “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.”
Europe is now the world’s second largest supplier of photonics components and systems after China, with a 16% share of the global photonics market in 2022, according to an April 2023 report compiled by the European Technology Platform Photonics21.
The global market last year was worth more than US$800 billion —about US$105 billion in photonics components and over US$700 billion in photonics systems, the report found.
In recent years, the European Commission has taken full measure of the potential of photonics technologies to strengthen EU strategic supply chains and reduce trade dependency. Photonics is one the six Key Enabling Technologies selected by the EC and one of 11 co-programmed European Partnerships implemented through the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan. The value of integrated photonic solutions is also recognized by the EU Chips Act, which will accelerate investment in semiconductor chips, including photonic integrated circuits.
The European photonics industry now comprises over 5,000 SMEs and large companies and directly employs more than 400,000 qualified professionals within the EU. These figures are bound to grow, as the current trends are exponential.
In this Special Report, we navigate the European and global innovation ecosystem and shed light on the promise and pitfalls of transmitting data via photons. It includes contributions by Lightelligence and IDTechEx and reflects our discussions with the University of Amsterdam, the U.K. National Physical Laboratory, PsiQuantum, Quantum Computing, pureLiFi, X-FAB, CEA-Leti, Aryballe, TriEye and Coherent.
Moving Time: Bringing Quantum Clocks Out of the Lab
By Rebecca Pool
Portable optical clocks will change the ways in which the world measures time, space and much more.
Photonics and Quantum Computing: A New Frontier in Information Processing
By Saumitra Jagdale
Photonics is being leveraged to power a wide range of quantum computers.
Using Silicon Photonics to Accelerate HPC Workloads
By Hal Conklin, Lightelligence
Silicon photonics enables unprecedented data-transfer speeds and is isuited for data centers, bringing benefits for handling HPC workloads that require faster data-transfer speeds, better energy efficiency and lower latency.
The Networking Standard That Could Change the Wireless Industry
By Rebecca Pool
With an 802.11 spec in tow, Li-Fi is ready to join Wi-Fi and take data transmissions to unprecedented speeds.
Photonics for 5G Networks: Opportunities and Challenges
By Stefano Lovati
Sophisticated photonics technologies will greatly facilitate the implementation of 5G network infrastructure.
Road to Commercialization for Optical Chip-to-Chip Interconnects
By Leo Charlton, IDTechEx
The I/O bottleneck problem is caused by resistance in the electrical traces between chips.
A Silicon Photonics Supply Chain for Europe
By Rebecca Pool
The EU-funded photonixFAB project is set to take photonic integrated circuits to market, and fast.
Revamping Design Implementation Infrastructure for Silicon Photonics
By Ron Swartzentruber, Lightelligence
Foundries are upgrading their processes to better support silicon photonics designs, but design implementation innovations are leading the way.
The Electronic Nose Knows—Thanks to Silicon Photonics
By Pat Brans
Based on photonic sensors, a reliable electronic nose is already solving a range of problems in the industry.
Leti Develops Optical See-Through AR and MR Systems
By Pat Brans
The retinal projection systems cast light onto the user’s eye to scan the retina.
How Photonics Can Transform Sensing for Imaging Systems
By Saumitra Jagdale
Photonics-enabled medical imaging techniques hold immense potential for early disease detection.
