Building a billion dollar integrated photonics industry

Originally started in 2015 as a regional project to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of photonic integration technology, PhotonDelta recently went national. Last December, companies, universities, research institutions and local, as well as national authorities signed a 236 million euro, eight-year covenant to accelerate the development of integrated photonics. The ambitious goal: inflating the current industry turnover, estimated at 60 million euros, to a whopping 1 billion euros by 2026.

According to René Penning de Vries, chairman of PhotonDelta’s supervisory board, as well as the organization’s figurehead, the time invested to expand the scope has been time well spent. “The ambition to build a world-class integrated photonics ecosystem in The Netherlands originated in the research community, which started to push its excellent technology. But what you need are end users to tell you what they really want, that drive you to deliver results,” says Penning de Vries, who as a former Philips and NXP executive had a front-row seat when the innovation model in the tech industry switched from push to pull.