News: Optoelectronics
9 November 2020
Vector receives £280,000 Innovate UK grant
Vector Photonics Ltd of Glasgow, Scotland, UK has received a £280,000 government grant to support the project LOCAL (Lasers for Communications Applications), validating its unique photonic-crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) all-semiconductor laser technology for use in datacoms applications. The grant comes from Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund, run in collaboration with the University of Glasgow (from which Vector was spun out).
“The government grant clearly demonstrates the strategic importance of our PCSEL technology to the UK and the worldwide photonics industry,” says CEO Neil Martin. “Project LOCAL allows Vector Photonics to focus on Cloud data-center applications - a huge growth market driven by the proliferation of mobile devices, Internet of Things (IoT) and the 5G roll-out.”
The LOCAL project will see Vector Photonics’ PCSELs used in data-center transceivers. However, PCSEL technology is said to be equally applicable to light detection & ranging (LiDAR), mobile consumer, biometric and sensing markets, where semiconductor lasers enable critical new functionality.
