India’s Ampicq has a soft spot for the Netherlands
India’s first integrated-photonics product developer, Ampicq, can take advantage of two worlds. On the one hand, there’s the burgeoning Indian high-tech industry starting to flex its muscles on the global stage. On the other hand, strong ties to the Dutch Photondelta ecosystem provide access to manufacturing and packaging facilities as well as venture capital and other means of support. It goes without saying that both countries stand to gain from this collaboration, not in the least because Ampicq has recently opened an office in Eindhoven.
“Things are coming together very nicely for us,” affirms Prometheus DasMahapatra, Ampicq’s CTO. He spent quite a bit of time in the Netherlands in his younger years, obtaining his PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology, and, briefly, working at ASML. However, personal bias played only a minor reason in setting up a corporate bridge between the Low Countries and his homeland, he assures. “We didn’t really have to give it a second thought here at Ampicq. I don’t think anyone will debate me when I say that as far as integrated-photonics ecosystems are concerned, Photondelta is definitely up there with the best.”
Speaking to Ampicq’s ambitions, long-term the startup even sees opportunities to take Dutch manufacturing prowess to the subcontinent. “Working with Dutch companies as technology partners, we’d like to set up India’s first indium phosphide foundry or a photonics packaging facility,” says Rahul Pulipati, director at Ampicq, who also spent a number of years in Europe before returning home. It’s no secret that India aspires to become a chipmaking superpower, and is putting up ample subsidies to any company that can assist in moving toward that goal.
Roadblocks
For the time being, however, Ampicq focuses on client-driving projects, providing its customers with photonic integrated circuits (PICs) that are ready for system integration. “Fully integrated plug-and-play is a bit of an overused word, but that’s definitely a goal we’re pursuing. We take care of design, simulation and, working with partners, of manufacturing, testing and packaging as well. In the future, we’ll expand into the electronics and software part of the equation, moving to the system level,” says DasMahapatra.
Ampicq’s current projects include one in the secure-communications domain, specifically to realize a pair of quantum key distribution receiver and transmitter chips. The former chip has already been taped out and the latter is to follow soon. Another project to develop a quantum random number generator will see tape-out early next year. Unlike standard electronic solutions, QRNGs generate ‘true’ random numbers by leveraging the non-deterministic nature of quantum processes.
DasMahapatra: “These projects are in the proof-of-concept stage, but we’re working toward manufacturing in higher volumes. High-volume manufacturing is a requirement for us to take on a project. That’s why we’re limiting ourselves to the main platforms and working with partners who can help us achieve production at scale. We’re not involved with specialty materials, as useful as they may be for certain applications.”
As a fast-growing technology, the quantum realm is an attractive market for the Indian startup, but by no means the only one it wants to get involved with. “We’re application-agnostic to a certain degree. We have our own R&D operations to overcome technology roadblocks and then endeavor to apply our solutions across a spectrum of applications. Mind you, we sell hardware. In other words, we retain ownership of the IP and design concepts. Since our proprietary approaches aren’t exclusive to any customer, we can reuse them in different applications. We’re also looking into satellite communications, for example, but as Ampicq grows, I’m sure we’ll venture into many other territories as well,” Pulipati concludes.
This article was written in close collaboration with Photondelta.
