VLC Photonics can manufacture any photonic circuit design for the main material platforms (InP, GaAs, SOI, SiO2/PLC, Si3N4/TripleXTM) through its foundry network, in what is known as fabless operation. In this way, VLC Photonics works closely with several foundries to always provide the best solution in terms of cost, timing and performance, but also reliability and yield.
- R&D and prototype runs usually range from a single PIC to a few tens. Risk and cycle time are greatly minimized through our years-long experience with all foundry partners. Additionally, cost can be significantly reduced through Multi-Project Wafer runs (also known as shuttle runs), where fabrication area and cost are shared among several users.
- Dedicated runs can scale the number of PICs to several tens or hundreds of dies from a batch of 1-20 wafers, allowing for more flexibility in chip sizes, fabrication timing, or custom fab processing. VLC Photonics can also provide these, including complete mask layout and process definitions and modifications if required for pilot production.
- Finally, VLC Photonics can support you when moving to volume production, where larger amounts of wafers (+20/100/1000) are manufactured. Depending on the end market, this can mean from thousands to millions of PICs, and we have the expertise to guide you through the hurdles of re-designs, transfer to larger foundries and production logistics.
