InnoSuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency, has awarded Lightium AG a 2.67 million CHF ($2.9 million) grant. The grant will accelerate commercialization of Lightium’s proprietary thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform. Lightium aims to open beta access to its foundry services in the fourth quarter of 2024, with capabilities ranging from rapid prototyping to volume production.

The company further said that it will use the InnoSuisse funds to transfer its manufacturing process to a commercial CMOS fab, enabling volume production. This will make Lightium the first production-capable player in Europe for TFLN, securing the continent’s strategic independence for the next generation of photonic devices, it said.

Lightium’s technology platform is particularly relevant for next-generation photonic technologies in the telecommunication and data center sectors, which face escalating demand for higher data rates and energy efficiency. Additionally, the platform extends benefits to other applications and markets like satellite communication, quantum computing, and lidar applications, said Lightium CEO and co-founder Amir Ghadimi.

Over the next nine months, Lightium plans to optimize collaborations to fine-tune its manufacturing process and process design kit. Additionally, the company expects to open beta access to the TFLN platform by the end of 2024.