Presentations at PIC International 2026 are grouped into 4 key themes which collectively provide complete coverage of the compound semiconductor industry.
If you are interested in speaking at PIC International 2026, please contact info@picinternational.net or call +44 (0)24 7671 8970.
Photonic integrated circuits are rapidly moving from R&D to industrial deployment, raising expectations for testing and characterisation. This presentation reviews the PIC testing landscape, the measurement technologies available today, and what they reveal about device performance. It focuses on user challenges and needs across both research and volume production environments, where requirements differ in speed, performance, automation, and data processing. Recent solutions and example PIC measurements will be presented.
This presentation explores how heterogeneous integration is revolutionizing photonic integrated circuits (PICs) by combining diverse materials with active components. We demonstrate advances in wafer-scale integration, enabling high-speed modulators and photodetectors on low-loss passive platforms for applications in space communication, quantum technologies, LIDAR, and biosensors.
Two-photon grayscale lithography (2GL) enables high-resolution, three-dimensional micro-optics with continuous surface profiles for advanced photonic integration. This talk presents Aligned 2-photon Lithography (A2PL) approaches for wafer-level fabrication of free-space micro-optical elements, supporting efficient optical coupling, beam shaping, and scalable photonic packaging for next-generation integrated photonic systems.
Rapid Photonics is a fabless PIC company that develops TFLN PICs for various applications, including high-speed modulators, narrow line-width tunable lasers and fiber optical gyroscopes. The company has a proprietary TFLN technology that is CMOS compatible, facilitating a robust and flexible supply chain. The TFPN technology is optimized for C-band and O-band and delivers superior performance (including low VPiL and low drift) compared to conventional TFLN technologies. Rapid Photonics has in-house prototyping capabilities and works with selected commercial CMOS fabs for volume production. Rapid Photonics is a startup company based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Silicon photonics is facing growing manufacturing challenges driven by AI-scale bandwidth demands, advanced packaging, and the adoption of new materials. Yield loss, low throughput, and post-fabrication variability remain major barriers to high-volume, cost-effective production. Femtum introduces its patented pulsed fiber-laser platform for wafer-level photonic integrated circuit (PIC) trimming and assembly cleaning. The solution enables permanent, lossless phase correction and highly selective, non-contact cleaning compatible with in-line test and assembly tools. Demonstrated on silicon and silicon nitride platforms, these laser-based processes significantly improve yield, throughput, and power efficiency, enabling scalable manufacturing of next-generation PIC and co-packaged optics technologies.
High-speed modulation is a materials race. While silicon photonics is reaching its natural limit, its performance can be conveniently boosted with the addition of advanced materials. Plasmonics offers a monolithic approach with manufacturing steps similar to standard redistribution layer post-processing. This technology avoids complex layer stacks, intricate alignment, and heterogeneous material bonding; moreover, it is scalable to 300 mm wafers. It has been proven effective in the THz regime, making it sufficient for 400G, 800G, and 1.6T per-lane optical communication.
Glass is the material powering the next generation of photonic integrated circuits. Advanced glass processing lets us create complex 3D PICs with record-low losses, full 3D design flexibility, and new possibilities for advanced packaging. This talk will highlight the technology, the breakthroughs it enables, and how Ephos transforms these innovations into practical, real-world photonic solutions.
Co Packaged Optics (CPO) is rapidly reshaping next generation switch architectures by placing silicon photonics engines directly beside the switch ASIC, unlocking major gains in bandwidth density and power efficiency. But this shift also upends long established optical test practices. As lasers move off the PIC and into high power, multi channel external modules such as the OIF’s new ELSFP standard, test engineers must adapt to new optical distribution models, higher splitter losses, and dramatically expanded lane counts. This talk will outline how external laser architectures fundamentally change PIC characterization and production testing—raising requirements for power stability, linewidth purity, polarization control, and automated high density measurement. We will compare source types used in CPO environments, highlight test strategies that scale to dozens of parallel channels, and show how modern modular platforms enable synchronized wavelength, power, and alignment workflows. Attendees will gain a practical framework for designing CPO ready test benches that preserve measurement integrity, improve throughput, and accelerate the yield ramp for next generation optical switching.
The continuously growing demand for automated assembly, testing, and packaging of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) is increasingly driven by the need for high-volume manufacturing, placing new constraints on throughput, cost efficiency, and time-to-market. The intrinsic complexity of photonic production processes—combined with short product life cycles and the need for rapid ramp-up to high volume—requires smarter, more adaptive manufacturing solutions to ensure high yield and low cycle time. Traditional process optimization approaches are reaching their limits. Data-driven and AI-enabled optimization of production opens new opportunities to improve PIC assembly and testing beyond conventional technology constraints. By leveraging intelligent manufacturing frameworks—integrating automation, real-time data analytics, and closed-loop process control—photonic production can scale with the reliability, speed, and efficiency required to support next-generation AI, cloud computing, and high-performance computing infrastructures. In this context, photonic intelligent manufacturing emerges as a critical enabler for the deployment of Artificial Intelligence at scale, bridging the gap between advanced photonic technologies and the industrial capacity required to monetize AI.
Lithium niobate (LN)-based photonic integrated circuits will play a major role in many future applications. Current structuring techniques using plasma-based etching tools face significant challenges in achieving high-quality waveguides. Ion beam etching delivers high-quality structures with low optical loss, thanks to low roughness and strongly reduced fencing. The ion beam etching technology also enables new options for designers, such as variable sidewall angles. scia Systems will demonstrate novel structuring techniques with the scia Mill 200 system and yield-improving techniques with the scia Trim 200 system.
To meet AI-driven performance requirements, or to enable emerging application domains, it is necessary to integrate silicon photonics and silicon nitride photonics platforms with new materials. We will discuss these materials—including lithium niobate, III–V, GeSi, BTO, and polymers—alongside the devices they enable and their associated challenges, particularly in the context of gain elements such as lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), as well as modulators.
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The adoption of co-packaged optics using silicon integrated photonic circuits has created a new paradigm of automated solutions for wafer and chip level test and assembly at scale. The addition of photonics probe to conventional electrical test, comes with a variety of challenges for coupling strategies that address sub-micron spatial tolerances that enable consistent, repeatable, and stable coupling in high-vibration production environments. Here we present on direct fiber array to fiber array-based measurements and analysis to understand the impact of vibration sources on photonics alignment automation systems and mitigation strategies to prevent insertion loss from direct and indirect disturbances. Our findings demonstrate how to enhance efficiency and enable large-scale implementation in photonic device manufacturing. This work integrates precision automation with photonic testing and probing, bridging the gap between research and scalable, high-volume production.
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Today’s leading CPO interconnect approaches rely on complex micro-optics and precision assembly, creating performance ceilings, manufacturing bottlenecks, and fragile supply chains that fundamentally limit scale. As AI systems push toward ever-higher bandwidth density, insertion loss and packagability at the fibre–chip interface are becoming the dominant constraints. In this talk, we present our latest results on UPIc (Universal Photonic InterConnect) — a passive, detachable fibre-to-chip interconnect based solely on standard fibre and standard PIC processing. UPIc achieves ultra-low insertion loss (~450 mdB) with large alignment tolerance (>60 µm) and supports repeated plug-and-unplug operation, enabling scalable, high-yield manufacturing flows for co-packaged optics. We will discuss recent performance results, manufacturability considerations, and why our solution is essential for scaling CPO to high-volume deployment.
Integrated photonics will revolutionize both optical communications and quantum computing, yet mass-production scalability remains in early stages of development. In this talk, Bühler Leybold Optics presents unique perspective on its experience with high vacuum equipment, highlighting systems that enable thin films with high uniformity, low losses and roughness, as well as production scalability. We aim to advance Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) manufacturing to its expected mass market by showcasing surface correction capabilities such as Ion Beam Trimming (IBT Series) and optical coating systems like Magnetron Sputtering (HELIOS Series) and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD 1200) on wafers up to 300 mm in diameter.
Co-packaged optics (CPO) is accelerating the demand for scalable, high-performance photonic integrated circuit (PIC) manufacturing technologies. In this presentation, we introduce SHINCRON’s INACO RF magnetron sputtering system, designed to enable large-area, uniform, and low-temperature epitaxial thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) deposition for advanced PIC and CPO applications. INACO supports wafer-scale processing with precise control of film crystallinity, thickness, and optical properties, addressing key challenges in device performance, yield, and manufacturability. By engaging directly with leading CPO device makers and foundries, this talk aims to highlight INACO as a practical platform for joint development, PoC activities, and future volume production in next-generation optical engines.
Moderated by Jon Pugh, Director of PIC and Quantum Technologies at OPTICA. This panel brings together a new generation of innovative PIC startups pushing beyond traditional transceivers and into emerging applications across AI infrastructure, lighting, sensing, quantum technologies, and advanced communications. Founders and technical leaders will share how they are translating breakthrough photonic architectures, materials, and integration approaches into manufacturable, deployable products. The discussion will explore what differentiates these startups from incumbent solutions, where PICs are genuinely adding value today, and what barriers still exist around packaging, yield, reliability, and ecosystem readiness.
The rapid expansion of AI is driving unprecedented demand for high‑performance optical integration, exposing critical bottlenecks in bandwidth, latency, and energy efficiency. As photonic technologies advance in areas such as optical communications, laser systems, 3D sensing, and spectral imaging, scalable and cost‑effective integration becomes essential. However, traditional manufacturing approaches struggle to meet requirements for increasing integration density, precise alignment, and efficient fiber‑to‑chip coupling. Wafer‑level fabrication offers a path forward, enabling compact and reliable photonic components through precise control of nanostructure geometries, including lenses, gratings, mirrors, and waveguides. Within this landscape, UV Nanoimprint Lithography (UV‑NIL) has emerged as a key enabling technology, providing high‑resolution patterning, large‑area scalability, and accurate alignment for complex 3D structures. Its compatibility with diverse materials and suitability for both R&D and mass production make it particularly valuable for AI‑driven applications such as Silicon Photonics, Co‑Packaged Optics, microlens arrays, DFB laser gratings, and advanced coupling interfaces.
As PICs grow in size and complexity, their performance must be evaluated not only as isolated components but also within the full system. This presentation highlights how system-level validation can help to overcome impairments and architectural bottlenecks, enabling more reliable, scalable, and efficient PIC designs for next-generation high-speed data networks.
Next-generation data networks require PICs that combine speed, energy efficiency and scalable manufacturability. This presentation shows how advances in thin-film lithium niobate processes are moving TFLN PIC manufacturing toward greater reliability and reproducibility. We illustrate how design choices gain real impact only when supported by stable, scalable fabrication delivering low-power, high-density interconnects.
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Photonic wire bonds and facet-attached micro-lenses are 3D freeform structures that enable high design flexibility while maintaining low loss, reproducibility, high reliability and packaging compatibility. These attributes are crucial for high-volume production of compact optical integration platforms in advanced photonics packaging. Here we will address the critical aspects of progressing photonic integration of PICs to scalable, high-volume production: broad compatibility with various material platforms, reproducibility, long-term reliability in Telcordia testing and seamless integration with existing packaging technologies.
Artificial intelligence is changing our lives in countless ways. Let’s pull away the curtain and explore what hardware is running state of the art AI systems. More specifically, let’s take a look at how integrated optics plays an increasingly important role in enabling ever larger models and new applications. Finally, we’ll take a look at what future AI factories will look like.
PICadvanced accelerates the evolution of high-speed access networks through photonics, connecting the opportunity with R&D innovation stack and scalable production. This presentation showcases cost-efficient 50G and beyond optoelectronic platforms, merging optics and electronics for next-gen fiber access. Attendees will see how the full-stack integration and manufacturing support enable faster, more reliable, and future-proof network upgrades.
The presentation discusses the evolving role of optics in AI Clusters, covering connectivity and switching. It includes sales data for optical transceivers and AOC and DAC cables for compute nodes and AI Clusters in Cloud data centres for 2022-2025, along with a forecast for 2026-2030. The forecast includes projections for linear drive pluggable (LPO/LRO) and co-packaged optics (CPO). Also discussed are optical circuit switches, coherent optics, and scale-across networks, and the expediency of the hyperscalers to keep scaling AI.
Quantum key distribution will transform the existing digital security, by establishing networks that are intrinsically secure against quantum computers. The main barriers to adoption of quantum key distribution systems are their costs and form factors. This is ultimately due to the widespread use of fibre-based solutions to encode and decode the quantum optical signals. At KETS we have pioneered chip-based commercial quantum key distribution systems which open the way to truly scalable quantum key distribution solutions. All the core quantum photonic components used to generate, distribute and detect quantum signals have been implemented onto photonic integrated circuits, and manufactured in commercial photonic foundries. Several photonics platforms have been used to implement our solution, which includes Silicon-on-Insulator transmitter chips, and Indium Phosphide optically self-contained quantum random number generators. As our most recent breakthrough, our receiver chips have been co-integrated with single-photon avalanche detectors, in a highly compact solution. This has solved the last remaining hurdle towards the miniaturization and large-scale deployment of discrete-variable quantum key distribution systems and opening further opportunities for future quantum internet applications.
As data-center architectures scale to support rapidly expanding AI, HPC, and cloud workloads, interconnect requirements are growing at an unprecedented pace. Increasing pin counts per package, larger silicon footprints, and rising I/O power consumption are pushing traditional electrical interconnects toward fundamental limits in reach, bandwidth, and energy efficiency. Against this backdrop, optical interconnects are becoming an essential enabling technology, offering superior scalability, higher aggregate bandwidth, and improved energy efficiency for next-generation systems. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and co-packaged optics (CPO) are therefore emerging as critical technologies for HPC and AI data centers, where interconnects must simultaneously deliver massive bandwidth density and strict energy-efficiency targets. In this presentation, IDTechEx will take an in-depth look at PIC technologies, examining how PIC-based interconnects are evolving to meet these next-generation requirements. The session will also explore how accelerating AI workloads are driving sustained growth and structural change in the PIC transceiver market over the coming decade.
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Scalable vapor cells technology is a key enabler for atomic quantum sensors that combine high sensitivity with robustness and portability. In collaboration with ICFO and CNR-IFN we introduced a novel fabrication method of laser-written vapor cells (LWVCs) and we demonstrated proof-of-principle atomic spectroscopy and optical magnetometry with picotesla sensitivity. I’ll present the recent progress towards the integration of this technology with PICs and microfluidic channels in all-glass atomic-photonic chips for quantum sensing and metrology applications.
Aluminum nitride (AlN) has emerged as a promising photonic material mainly due to its broad transparency window and remarkable nonlinear optical properties. Recently, we have developed low-loss photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on an AlN-on-sapphire platform that enables various on-chip nonlinear photonic processes such as second harmonic generation (SHG), frequency conversion, and electro-optic modulation which are scalable from the infrared to the visible/ultraviolet (UV) part of the spectrum. As an eminent example, this work will discuss our recent progress on solid-state far-UVC emitters based on our AlN PICs via SHG. With further heterogeneous integration of GaN pump lasers, our AlN PICs can offer tremendous reduction in cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWaP), which shows great potential for numerous applications ranging from human-safe germicidal disinfection and water purification to spectroscopy, frequency metrology, and quantum computing and sensing.
PICs are broadly accepted as a solution for many different application area's, from mobility to healthcare and from computing to agrifood. A lot of investments have been made in developing technologies and infrastructure on which these applications can be built, yet widespread adoption has not yet occurred. PhotonDelta's 3 year program, worth €240M, pushes towards adoption. Driven by directly involved customers the program and its 37 partners will deliver 11 solutions to the directly involved potential customers by the end of 2029. In this presentation, Peter will highlight the selected 11 solutions and explain how you can collaborate with our program.
The advent of multiple AI applications is skyrocketing the data center capacity and power consumption. The use of optical engines is essential for reducing the power consumption by shortening electrical interconnects, but they also require scalable laser sources capable of delivering multiple precisely spaced wavelengths. Multi-wavelength external laser sources are required to fulfill this need, along with the development of co-packaged (CPO), optical IOs (OIO), and special silicon photonics engines. Pilot Photonics is developing three different types of sources to address the industry's various needs with their 1. 16-channel Laser Array ELSFP 2. Optical Frequency Comb + Laser Array ELSFP and 3. Multichannel Discrete Laser source offerings. This talk will provide the details of these laser sources and discuss data transmission results.
AIM Photonics, a Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII), offers end-to-end services in photonic integrated circuits (PICs), interposers, heterogeneous integration (HI), electronic photonic design automation (EPDA), and packaging. AIM Photonics leverages the world-class 300 mm NY Creates’ Albany NanoTech Complex, which houses the Center for Semiconductor Research, CMOS Fabrication, Heterogeneous Integration, and High NA EUV Centers. The Institute’s PIC technologies include a full-featured CLO Silicon Photonics (SiPh) base technology, quantum-optimized SiPh, SiN-only for sensors and other applications, and base SiPh with III-V quantum dot lasers providing a broad set of PICs across all the major photonic application areas. 300 mm electronic-photonic interposers provide a unique platform for large-area packaging substrates with SiPh and waveguides. The NY Creates HI center provides dense interconnects, including C4, C2, Cu-Cu, wafer, and die-to-wafer hybrid bonding and advanced packaging build capabilities, including wafer and chip-level assembly and packaging. EPDA, process design kits, and assembly design kits enable design across all PIC, interposer, and packaging offerings. The rapid expansion of AI is driving the development of co-packaged optics (CPO), arguably the most challenging application area in photonic packaging. Addressing the challenges of CPO requires a coordinated development of PIC fabrication processes and packaging technologies. Systems will typically include custom-designed PICs, dense interconnects to electronic integrated circuits, interposers/substrates, lasers, and detachable fiber array units (DFAUs). Having all the parts developed in one foundry and leveraging an advanced 300 mm tool set maximizes the ability to optimize custom designs for CPO. Another challenge is building a skilled workforce for the industry. This talk will share an overview of AIM Photonics and NY Creates education and workforce development programs, including online and hands-on offerings.
As electronic computing approaches fundamental limits in bandwidth, power efficiency, and scalability, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are emerging as a foundational technology for future computing architectures. This talk highlights thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) as a uniquely powerful PIC platform, combining ultrafast electro-optic modulation, low optical loss, and strong nonlinearities on a scalable wafer-level process. We share insights from QCi’s TFLN foundry ecosystem and its role in accelerating design-to-deployment for next-generation computing hardware.
Photonic quantum computing offers a promising path to scalable quantum processors by using single photons as carriers of quantum information. This presentation introduces the photonic integrated circuit platform developed at Quandela and its architecture for a photonic quantum processing unit. We discuss the system-level principles enabling core quantum computing functions and how integrated photonics supports scalability toward large-scale photonic quantum computing.
IMEC presents its vision for integrating photonics into next-generation computing architectures. This talk explores silicon photonics platforms enabling optical computing, AI acceleration and neuromorphic architectures. Attendees will gain insight into device innovations, scalable fabrication approaches and system-level integration strategies shaping future photonic computing ecosystems.
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