Four projects have been selected under the Netherlands–Taiwan Techbridge Call to develop photonic technologies for wireless communications, optical interconnects and quantum computing. The collaborations combine Dutch expertise in photonic chips and packaging with Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing and electronics capabilities. Their shared focus is making technologies easier to integrate and manufacture at scale.
Smart Photonics and Eindhoven University of Technology will work with Taiwan’s Formerica Optoelectronics and Hon Hai Research Institute on Heroic, a 3.2-terabit-per-second optical transceiver module delivering 400 gigabits per second per lane. The project combines heterogeneous integration, flip-chip technology and immersion cooling. In Map-Connect, Microalign and Taiwan’s Largan will develop mass-producible, 40-channel polarization-maintaining fiber arrays to connect photonic chips with minimal optical losses.
Quix Quantum and Taiwan’s Brillink will develop photonically integrated single-photon detectors that operate near room temperature. Their QSPAD project targets fault-tolerant quantum computing. Meanwhile, Dutch company Sabratha and Taiwan’s TMYTEK will use thin-film lithium niobate photonics to develop millimeter-wave radio units for future indoor 5G and 6G networks, with optical links carrying signals between the radio units and the wider network.
