The INGENIOUS project, a transatlantic collaboration funded under the Eureka Xecs cluster, has secured €7.6 million to address a critical limitation in next-generation photonic platforms: the lack of integrated detection and light sources in Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN).
Detection and lasers. Soon native to TFLN.
TFLN is widely recognized as the high-performance platform for next-gen photonic integrated circuits (PICs), offering ultra-fast modulation, sub-1V driving voltages, and low losses. But it has a fundamental gap: it cannot detect or generate light.
INGENIOUS closes that gap.
Led by a consortium of leading European and Canadian photonic players, the project will develop a production-grade platform that combines TFLN with InP-based detectors and lasers, integrated at wafer scale using micro-transfer printing (µTP).
From Top Performance to Complete Platform
At the heart of INGENIOUS is the goal to turn TFLN into a complete system platform, enabling all key photonic functions (generation, modulation, routing, and detection) on a single die. This eliminates the need for complex, expensive hybrid assemblies and unlocks new levels of scalability for high-speed telecom, datacom, AI, and quantum applications.
Lightium’s Role: €3.1M Investment in the Core Platform
Supported by Innosuisse, Lightium is leading the platform development, backed by a €3.1 million project budget—the largest single share in the consortium. As the first open-access 200 mm TFLN foundry, Lightium will:
- Develop the wafer-scale TFLN+InP integration process
- Expand its production-grade PDK to include active and nonlinear components
- Provide end-to-end support: design enablement, test, and packaging readiness
This project reinforces Lightium’s roadmap to deliver sovereign, scalable, and high-performance photonic manufacturing infrastructure in Europe.
Consortium & Scope
The INGENIOUS project brings together key players across the full PIC value chain:
- Foundries & Tech Providers: Lightium AG (CH), Sivers Semiconductors (UK)
- Design & Tools: Luceda Photonics (BE), Epiphany BV (NL), Optiwave Systems Inc. (CA), CMC Microsystems (CA)
- Packaging: ALTER TECHNOLOGY TÜV NORD UK Ltd. (UK)
- End-users & Demo Partners: PICadvanced SA (PT)
Demonstrators will include real-world applications in telecom and data center interconnects, proving the viability of the new platform for commercial deployment.
ABOUT LIGHTIUM AG
Lightium AG is a Swiss startup offering Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) foundry & design services based on its proprietary, production-grade, thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform. Lightium’s solution accelerates the photonic breakthroughs of our customers, offering them unmatched photonic performance, a simplified and cost-effective supply chain, and rapid scale-up capabilities from prototyping to large-volume manufacturing. As Europe’s first production-grade TFLN foundry, Lightium empowers the next generation of photonic solutions in a wide range of industries, including Telecom, Datacom, Quantum Computing, AI, and Space.
FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
INGENIOUS is supported through the Eureka Xecs cluster (Project No. 2024032) and funded by the national funding agencies of Switzerland (Innosuisse), UK (Innovate UK), Portugal (Agência Nacional de Inovação) and Belgium-Flanders (VLAIO).