(Editor’s note: This is a special Wednesday edition of the Eindhoven Business Briefing, with Eindhoven being chosen for a new photonic chips fab. Dispatches covers tech because so many of our highly skilled internationals are physicists and engineers.)
For at least the past year, the big question has been, “Where would the two photonic chips foundries, or “fabs,” planned for the Netherlands end up?” Twente and its university got the nod for one last year. But in Eindhoven, there were two options – High Tech Campus Eindhoven, and Brainport Industries Complex.
Now we know … the winner is HTCE. And when we say “winner,” we mean it. In fact, a few months ago, we called landing this photonics research fab “the biggest prize of the decade,” boosting Eindhoven’s position as the deep-tech capital of Europe.
We just got the news release confirming that by the end of 2025, a consortium led by Netherlands’ government-backed R&D giant TNO plans to start construction of a pilot factory at HTCE. The facility will enable industrial-scale production of Indium Phosphide (InP) based photonic chips, a revolutionary step toward transmitting data with photons, aka light waves, and lasers rather than electrons. And that in turn will launch a revolution in data centers, accelerating processing speeds for critical industries such as telecommunications and cloud computing while reducing energy usage.
Photonic integrated circuits, or PICs, are essential to advanced applications including artificial intelligence, 6G networks, medical diagnostics and defense systems, key to enabling future technologies. This is the moment in Europe when data transmission jumps from the Model T era to Ferraris.
Quantum leap
Last November, HTCE officials outlined future expansion plans.
Here was our takeaway:
On one level, the big High Tech NEXT business conference Wednesday was about unveiling the general plan for expanding and updating High Tech Campus Eindhoven through the next decade. On another level, what went unsaid was the real story … how Campus officials are positioning HTCE for the biggest prize of the decade – a photonics fabrication plant for research.
TNO is collaborating on this fab with the Photonic Integration Technology Centre (PITC), Eindhoven University of Technology, and the University of Twente. Dutch companies such as HTCE-based SMART Photonics will use the facilities, “which are intended to strengthen the entire Dutch ecosystem around photonic chips,” according to the release.
The total investment in the Dutch pilot line is projected to be 153 million euros. Additionally, High Tech Campus Eindhoven is investing in the building and the cleanroom.
The pilot line is funded through the EU Chips Act, PhotonDelta, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, and TNO, and is part of the European initiative PIXEurope. SMART Photonics, TNO and PhotonDelta all have operations on High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
For the Netherlands and Europe, photonic chips are also of strategic importance: assuring technological independence from the United States and China while creating innovative economic opportunities for companies in the high-tech sector.
“This … pilot line is a game-changer for Dutch companies and the future earning power and prosperity for the Netherlands,” said Ton van Mol, managing director at TNO, in the release. “It is a critical part of a powerful ecosystem in photonic chips with which the Netherlands can distinguish itself worldwide.”
European Collaboration
The new pilot line connects knowledge institutions and companies and will have a central place in the growing Dutch integrated photonics ecosystem. The factory in Eindhoven will also become part of the European initiative PIXEurope, a collaboration of knowledge institutions in 11 European countries. This project aims to create a European network of pilot manufacturing lines, focused on strengthening the entire value chain for integrated photonics in Europe.
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Read more about photonics here in Dispatches’ archives.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
