VTT enters cooperation with Hitachi on silicon photonics

20 Mar 2018

"Mutually beneficial" agreement will see co-development of silicon photonics plus joint presentations at shows and conferences.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the Japanese engineering giant Hitachi High-Technologies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on the development and commercialisation of silicon photonics and optical data transfer components.

The cooperation will provide VTT with greater opportunities to facilitate adaptation of new silicon photonics technologies developed at VTT, while Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation's customers will gain greater added value in their products.

"This is a mutually beneficial operating model which will enable us to expand our international customership. Together, we can provide our customers with complete solutions," said Himadri Majumdar, Head of Sales and Customer Partnerships at VTT.

Joint research and development

In practice, this new arrangement will be reflected in joint research and development projects, in which the parties combine their technological competences to create new solutions meeting end users' needs. Another aim is to utilize the manufacturing capability of VTT Memsfab, which engages in the contract manufacture of micro and nano-electronics materials and components.

VTT Memsfab provides low-to-medium volume wafer processing services. Working alongside research organisation VTT, it enables the rapid development of new MEMS and optical components based on its established technology platforms, IPR and expertise. VTT Memsfab's team of more than 30 people jointly operate the Micronova facility in Espoo Finland, the largest R&D-to-production’ fab in the Nordic countries.

In addition to joint projects, the partners says that they will participate together in international conferences and fairs. The first joint appearance was at this month’s Optical Fibre Communication (OFC) Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, the world's leading global conference and exposition for optical communications and networking professionals.