$LWLG Netherlands wants to conquer the world with photonics
It is a silent revolution with an invisible workhorse Photonics. Microchips that can process data based on light will soon have a huge impact on the tech industry and society. Netherlands is a leader in photonics, but there are pirates on the coast.
The three-year-old Amsterdam OPNT company is a spin-off from the Vrije Universiteit. It runs on € 0.5 million entry fee which has received the KPN Ventures and Cottonwood. working on a second round investment of several million.
CTO Jeroen Koelemeij and CEO Marco Gorter of OPNT were beginning this month with a small ivory box - think of two cigarette boxes next to each other - at CES in Las Vegas, the largest trade fair for consumer electronics in the US With the aid of the photonics chips in the cupboard, in which with light and laser will be operated instead of electrons. may clocks in computer networks are put right with atomic clocks.
"That which clocks are equal will soon be very important if for example, we go to the 4G and 5G network for telecommunications' Koelemeij explains. "Two masts must exactly equal switch from listening to transmitting. That must be pre-synchronized. This cabinet is decisive. It can synchronize all the towers in the rural network over fiber."
Synchronization to within a nanosecond is also important in power supply, trading, navigation, astronomy, and encryption of data traffic. Due to the tables to mount a transmitter, they can also provide very precise positioning. It can not replace GPS - because it is politically sensitive - but location-based photonics is definitely in development at TU Delft and VU University Amsterdam. The current GPS services Koelemeij estimated at about € 200 billion.
Automobiles, aerospace, machinery, health
Photonics is still in the proverbial infancy. Companies like OPNT and Smart Photonics Eindhoven are frontrunners. They make use of the excellent Dutch position in this potentially huge growth market (see box). That optimal use of lead in knowledge and technology must soon more companies are coming to pounce on submarkets. Photonics can have a major impact on the automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering and healthcare. Each one billion markets, where the US and countries in Asia also eagerly watching.
Photonics
The new chip
Thanks photonics raging light signals on a chip instead of electrical signals. The chip contains lasers, photodetectors, optical amplifiers, extremely fast light switches in order to produce zeros and ones, and ingenious channels which distribute the light over the chip and thereby be able to distinguish between different colors.
Lidar: for autonomous cars
In the US Quanergy Systems in the course of this year with a 'lidar' for autonomous cars from $ 250. The device, a small black box, costs only $ 250 because it is going to be mass produced. The 'lidar' car measured by laser distance to other objects, which is important for self-steering cars.
Catheter for Crohn's and colitis
Vanderbilt University in Tennessee is using photonics developed a catheter that the diagnosis of chronic bowel diseases Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis improves greatly. The next phase of the study is to measure the reaction, for example, drugs and diets, and investigate the cause of these diseases.
NanoLabNL
The universities of Delft, Groningen, Eindhoven and Twente together for twelve years NanoLabNL. The laboratories are also open to startups and larger companies. A voucher for research is about 7500 Euros worth, which amounts to 50-75 hours of independent study. forgiven ten vouchers per year.
Moore's Law
The capacity of computers doubling every two years: that is the law of Moore. For over fifty years this is going on, but many scientists say that the law begins to pinch. With photonics is in the speed and cooling computers Moore's Law again for decades, experts say.
Netherlands thinks for one and a half to two years to lie on the rest of the world. But, says Koelemeij, and many with him: "We must now capitalize on our leading position in the market, for which knowledge advantage can quickly disappear. It is also vital that we invest in academic research and its valorisation. Something I'm discussing with Ton Backx."
Ton Backx is CEO of Photon Delta platform in Eindhoven, the heart must be for everyone in the Netherlands and abroad that has something to do with photonics. Also Backx was with the Dutch mission to Silicon Valley, which followed the CES. Backx photonics called a quiet revolution. "You can do similar things with it as with microelectronics. It will bring about considerable social upheaval and it is really going to happen. It gets stuck deep into the foundations of society, only it is not very visible. It's a workhorse."
Examples in which the workhorse will revolutionize, Backx does not lack. "Data communication is growing so rapidly and requires so much energy that we stuck about five to seven years. Then we would need before all power generated. With fiber you need to repeat a signal once per hundred kilometers. That's three hundred times better than coaxial cables, and therefore uses less energy, but fiberglass is not yet fully developed long. It is thanks photonics perhaps a million times better than coaxial. For 5G photonics is definitely needed. In health care we will soon put this new technology on top of a catheter. Then we can see better without an expensive MRI scan whether a cell is healthy or whether it grows normally. In chemistry soon throw some chips in a reactor and you have a breakdown. Autonomous driving, operating robots: all thanks to photonics.
America: do research, but few companies
During the session at Stanford University crawled Backx with twenty international photonics experts in a cramped hall for summit. The majority of those present naturally came from Stanford and businesses in the neighborhood. For a layman was eighty percent do not follow the conversations among physicists, but it became clear that there is a knowledge gap in the 'foreigners' had little evidence.
However, there was an explanation for the US arrears. "The US stabbing billions of public money into research into photonics, but as soon as a company resulting from the government withdraws because that is industrial policy," said Dan Holladay of the University of Central Florida.'We would also come to public-private cooperation to do with universities, such as in the Netherlands. I went to the Netherlands to talk about that vision, and technology."
Michael Lebby is president and CEO of two companies on the west coast of the USA: Oculi and OneChip Photonics Corporation. He's been more than two years by the European Commission photonics consultant and known in Washington. He has worked on several roadmaps in recent years for photonics are arranged both at universities and in political circles. According to him, everyone sees in the US the potential of photonics, but more time is needed to make it profitable products on a large scale. Lebby: "In ten years we have been there."
Still a world to win
Richard Visser Smart Photonics at Stanford was also in the hall. He thinks all structurally end of this year to have a positive cash flow. Because he has five years must slog. With that cash, and what remains of more than € 10 million venture capital, he wants to build two plants in addition to the TU Eindhoven. His company does not product, but it allows large and small businesses their proprietary photonics chips and sensors tests cheap. Now it takes on average three years to reach a product from the first design that the market can. Visser estimates that this could be halved.
Fisherman comes from semiconductors corner and only sees parallels with photonics. "We are where we were with photonics semiconductors about forty years ago. So there is still a lot to develop, "he says enthusiastically. "But there are already sensors that are better based on light 8,000 times faster than the best has to offer the market. They can accurately measure down to a thousandth of a millimeter how to bend a wing of an airplane. And soon the sensors can deduce from your breath if you are sick, so it can be taken that much faster and cheaper. "
The goals and challenges
The Netherlands has three points ahead in photonics. Integrated photonic chips are built in the Netherlands in accordance with the Lego system. Different functionalities are in building blocks that can be added to one another endlessly. And by working with indium phosphide instead of silicon active components can be put on a chip, such as a laser source. The third aspect is lower cost: at Smart Photonics can on a plate with chips (wafer) can be reserved one square centimeter to make prototypes of new chips, and then test. This way of working - open foundry "- takes a time Euro 8000, while costs elsewhere in the world around Euro 100,000. The threshold to try something new is so much lower.
The challenges facing the Netherlands, explains director Ewit Rose of Photon from Delta, investment in infrastructure, making mass production possible and the chips are packaged better and tested. "In data centers, such as Facebook and Google need them every three to five years new chips. Which must therefore be packaged as cheaply as possible and so that they connect easily to other components in the computer. "Now takes such an integrated photonic chip more than Euro 10 and that should go to less than Euro 1 to be attractive to data centers.
(copy) - SteveS / F2
It is a silent revolution with an invisible workhorse Photonics. Microchips that can process data based on light will soon have a huge impact on the tech industry and society. Netherlands is a leader in photonics, but there are pirates on the coast.
The three-year-old Amsterdam OPNT company is a spin-off from the Vrije Universiteit. It runs on € 0.5 million entry fee which has received the KPN Ventures and Cottonwood. working on a second round investment of several million.
CTO Jeroen Koelemeij and CEO Marco Gorter of OPNT were beginning this month with a small ivory box - think of two cigarette boxes next to each other - at CES in Las Vegas, the largest trade fair for consumer electronics in the US With the aid of the photonics chips in the cupboard, in which with light and laser will be operated instead of electrons. may clocks in computer networks are put right with atomic clocks.
"That which clocks are equal will soon be very important if for example, we go to the 4G and 5G network for telecommunications' Koelemeij explains. "Two masts must exactly equal switch from listening to transmitting. That must be pre-synchronized. This cabinet is decisive. It can synchronize all the towers in the rural network over fiber."
Synchronization to within a nanosecond is also important in power supply, trading, navigation, astronomy, and encryption of data traffic. Due to the tables to mount a transmitter, they can also provide very precise positioning. It can not replace GPS - because it is politically sensitive - but location-based photonics is definitely in development at TU Delft and VU University Amsterdam. The current GPS services Koelemeij estimated at about € 200 billion.
Automobiles, aerospace, machinery, health
Photonics is still in the proverbial infancy. Companies like OPNT and Smart Photonics Eindhoven are frontrunners. They make use of the excellent Dutch position in this potentially huge growth market (see box). That optimal use of lead in knowledge and technology must soon more companies are coming to pounce on submarkets. Photonics can have a major impact on the automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering and healthcare. Each one billion markets, where the US and countries in Asia also eagerly watching.
Photonics
The new chip
Thanks photonics raging light signals on a chip instead of electrical signals. The chip contains lasers, photodetectors, optical amplifiers, extremely fast light switches in order to produce zeros and ones, and ingenious channels which distribute the light over the chip and thereby be able to distinguish between different colors.
Lidar: for autonomous cars
In the US Quanergy Systems in the course of this year with a 'lidar' for autonomous cars from $ 250. The device, a small black box, costs only $ 250 because it is going to be mass produced. The 'lidar' car measured by laser distance to other objects, which is important for self-steering cars.
Catheter for Crohn's and colitis
Vanderbilt University in Tennessee is using photonics developed a catheter that the diagnosis of chronic bowel diseases Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis improves greatly. The next phase of the study is to measure the reaction, for example, drugs and diets, and investigate the cause of these diseases.
NanoLabNL
The universities of Delft, Groningen, Eindhoven and Twente together for twelve years NanoLabNL. The laboratories are also open to startups and larger companies. A voucher for research is about 7500 Euros worth, which amounts to 50-75 hours of independent study. forgiven ten vouchers per year.
Moore's Law
The capacity of computers doubling every two years: that is the law of Moore. For over fifty years this is going on, but many scientists say that the law begins to pinch. With photonics is in the speed and cooling computers Moore's Law again for decades, experts say.
Netherlands thinks for one and a half to two years to lie on the rest of the world. But, says Koelemeij, and many with him: "We must now capitalize on our leading position in the market, for which knowledge advantage can quickly disappear. It is also vital that we invest in academic research and its valorisation. Something I'm discussing with Ton Backx."
Ton Backx is CEO of Photon Delta platform in Eindhoven, the heart must be for everyone in the Netherlands and abroad that has something to do with photonics. Also Backx was with the Dutch mission to Silicon Valley, which followed the CES. Backx photonics called a quiet revolution. "You can do similar things with it as with microelectronics. It will bring about considerable social upheaval and it is really going to happen. It gets stuck deep into the foundations of society, only it is not very visible. It's a workhorse."
Examples in which the workhorse will revolutionize, Backx does not lack. "Data communication is growing so rapidly and requires so much energy that we stuck about five to seven years. Then we would need before all power generated. With fiber you need to repeat a signal once per hundred kilometers. That's three hundred times better than coaxial cables, and therefore uses less energy, but fiberglass is not yet fully developed long. It is thanks photonics perhaps a million times better than coaxial. For 5G photonics is definitely needed. In health care we will soon put this new technology on top of a catheter. Then we can see better without an expensive MRI scan whether a cell is healthy or whether it grows normally. In chemistry soon throw some chips in a reactor and you have a breakdown. Autonomous driving, operating robots: all thanks to photonics.
America: do research, but few companies
During the session at Stanford University crawled Backx with twenty international photonics experts in a cramped hall for summit. The majority of those present naturally came from Stanford and businesses in the neighborhood. For a layman was eighty percent do not follow the conversations among physicists, but it became clear that there is a knowledge gap in the 'foreigners' had little evidence.
However, there was an explanation for the US arrears. "The US stabbing billions of public money into research into photonics, but as soon as a company resulting from the government withdraws because that is industrial policy," said Dan Holladay of the University of Central Florida.'We would also come to public-private cooperation to do with universities, such as in the Netherlands. I went to the Netherlands to talk about that vision, and technology."
Michael Lebby is president and CEO of two companies on the west coast of the USA: Oculi and OneChip Photonics Corporation. He's been more than two years by the European Commission photonics consultant and known in Washington. He has worked on several roadmaps in recent years for photonics are arranged both at universities and in political circles. According to him, everyone sees in the US the potential of photonics, but more time is needed to make it profitable products on a large scale. Lebby: "In ten years we have been there."
Still a world to win
Richard Visser Smart Photonics at Stanford was also in the hall. He thinks all structurally end of this year to have a positive cash flow. Because he has five years must slog. With that cash, and what remains of more than € 10 million venture capital, he wants to build two plants in addition to the TU Eindhoven. His company does not product, but it allows large and small businesses their proprietary photonics chips and sensors tests cheap. Now it takes on average three years to reach a product from the first design that the market can. Visser estimates that this could be halved.
Fisherman comes from semiconductors corner and only sees parallels with photonics. "We are where we were with photonics semiconductors about forty years ago. So there is still a lot to develop, "he says enthusiastically. "But there are already sensors that are better based on light 8,000 times faster than the best has to offer the market. They can accurately measure down to a thousandth of a millimeter how to bend a wing of an airplane. And soon the sensors can deduce from your breath if you are sick, so it can be taken that much faster and cheaper. "
The goals and challenges
The Netherlands has three points ahead in photonics. Integrated photonic chips are built in the Netherlands in accordance with the Lego system. Different functionalities are in building blocks that can be added to one another endlessly. And by working with indium phosphide instead of silicon active components can be put on a chip, such as a laser source. The third aspect is lower cost: at Smart Photonics can on a plate with chips (wafer) can be reserved one square centimeter to make prototypes of new chips, and then test. This way of working - open foundry "- takes a time Euro 8000, while costs elsewhere in the world around Euro 100,000. The threshold to try something new is so much lower.
The challenges facing the Netherlands, explains director Ewit Rose of Photon from Delta, investment in infrastructure, making mass production possible and the chips are packaged better and tested. "In data centers, such as Facebook and Google need them every three to five years new chips. Which must therefore be packaged as cheaply as possible and so that they connect easily to other components in the computer. "Now takes such an integrated photonic chip more than Euro 10 and that should go to less than Euro 1 to be attractive to data centers.
(copy) - SteveS / F2
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