Today's AI-driven digitization requires exponentially more data processing and transport. At the same time, chips are reaching physical and economic limits in terms of speed, energy consumption, and scalability. Integrated photonics offers a solution, since it uses light instead of electricity to transmit and process information. This results in faster, more energy-efficient, and more sustainable technologies that can form the basis for the next generation of digital infrastructure.
The range of applications for photonics is broad: from hyperscale data centers and AI accelerators to medical diagnostics, mobility, and sustainable agriculture. As a key technology, integrated photonics has been recognized by the EU and the Dutch government as a strategic pillar for Europe's future digital and industrial autonomy.
Photonics is, increasingly, the technology of light. Instead of electrons–as in electronics–photonics uses photons (light particles) to generate, manipulate, transport, and detect information, energy, or signals. Photonic technology forms the basis for a wide range of applications, from data communication and lasers to sensors, medical imaging, precision agriculture, and energy conversion.
Photonic chips, also known as Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), integrate various optical and functions into a single microchip. By harnessing the power of light, PICs can detect, process, and transmit information at lightning speed. Sensing solutions using PICs are typically much smaller, as a wide range of optical and electronic functions can be integrated directly onto a single chip.
Energy Efficient PIC-Based Systems
In data and telecom applications, PIC-based systems are often significantly more energy-efficient and have higher bandwidths than their electronic counterparts. As with traditional chips, the manufacturing process uses automated technology on a wafer scale. This allows chips to be mass-produced, thereby reducing costs.
PICs have numerous important applications, and each one has the potential to boost productivity in a variety of industries:
Data & Telecom
Demand for data traffic is exploding due to AI and cloud-based services. Electronic interconnects on copper are approaching their physical limits: although smaller nodes under Moore's Law still offer incremental improvements, they can no longer keep pace with the skyrocketing energy and bandwidth requirements.
Photonics, however, provides a fundamental advantage: light travels without electrical resistance and supports extremely high bandwidth with minimal energy loss. As a result, the future of data centers lies in the hybrid integration of electronics and photonics. PIC-based optical transceivers already underpin today's hyperscale data centers.
The next step, Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), pushes optics even closer to the compute core by tightly coupling processors with optical interfaces. Other key developments in datacom include Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) and Optical Compute. Ultimately, only deeper integration of electronics (for computation) and photonics (for data transport) will enable digital infrastructure to sustain the massive bandwidth and speed demands of AI growth and future 6G networks–without energy consumption spiraling out of control.
Healthcare
Major challenges for Europe in the field of life sciences and health include an aging society, the increase in age-related diseases, and rising healthcare costs. The development of mobile, wearable photonic devices (combined with advanced biosensors for direct point-of-care diagnostics and treatment that measure the wearer's medical condition and well-being) can contribute to early detection and diagnosis of diseases, as well as earlier and more targeted treatment. Photonics eliminates the need for hospital visits for many treatments or consultations.
Mobility
A major challenge for the automotive sector in the coming years is the availability of affordable, high-performance sensors to support increasing levels of autonomous driving. Photonic chips offer clear advantages in terms of weight, speed, precision, and cost, enabling scalable and reliable self-driving systems that improve road safety and turn travel time into productive time.
Beyond sensing, PIC-based optical transceivers are emerging as a promising solution for in-vehicle datacom, providing high-bandwidth, low-latency links between sensors, compute units, and control systems–an essential capability as vehicles evolve into data centers on wheels.
Photonics also plays an important role in battery management for electric vehicles, offering more accurate monitoring and improved efficiency, as well as in the control systems of conventional cars. In the aerospace sector, the emphasis similarly lies on advanced, lightweight, and robust photonics-based sensing systems.
AgriFood
Feeding a global population that is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050 will require a drastic increase in food production. However, this must be done in a sustainable manner: without nitrogen surplus or excess CO2 emissions and, preferably, in a way that replaces animal proteins with plant proteins. In addition, food safety is an important prerequisite.
The solution lies in precision agriculture, something in which photonics can play a major role. Sensor systems that run on photonics ensure that all requirements relating to safety, health, and sustainability can be met.
Quantum
Quantum computers, networks, and sensors have enormous potential, but large-scale application is still technically challenging. Integrated photonics makes it possible to generate qubits in a stable and scalable manner and to integrate complex optical functions on a single chip, often even operating at room temperature. This makes quantum computers more compact and realistic in size.
Photonics is also indispensable for quantum communication and networks: compact sources and circuits of entangled photons can be produced robustly and in volume using PIC technology. Integrated photonics is therefore not just a tool, but an enabling platform that brings quantum technology from the lab to industrial scale and can give Europe a strategic advantage.
Report: An Urgent Need for Action
Peter Wennink, former CEO of ASML, authored an independent advisory report, "The Route to Future Prosperity." The focus is on solving what Wennink and his allies see as the central challenges facing the Netherlands: "sluggish growth and technological dependency". The report concluded that "the Netherlands must take action now."
The report, as commissioned by the Dutch government, serves as the outline for a strategic roadmap for strengthening the country's long-term economic resilience, productivity, and global competitiveness. The very first major concrete project proposal highlighted in the report is the creation of a high-volume production facility for photonic chips.
A Strong Integrated Photonics Ecosystem
The Dutch integrated photonics ecosystem is very strong–and it's enabling excellent positioning for their companies and universities. The country's strengths in PIC-focused R&D builds on decades of national expertise in semiconductors, optoelectronics, and high-precision manufacturing.
The technological leadership of Philips played a major role in shaping this foundation–both by influencing research directions at Dutch universities and by giving rise to industry giants such as NXP and ASML, who in their turn gave birth to a dense network of specialized high-tech suppliers.
Combined with the strengths of institutions (like TNO and IMEC), this heritage enabled The Netherlands to industrialize two globally leading PIC platforms–Indium Phosphide and Silicon Nitride–and to establish one of the world's most advanced and complete environments for photonic chip innovation.
In recent years, the Dutch ecosystem has expanded into a complete value chain where photonic chips and solutions based on these chips can be conceived, developed, and manufactured.