Xiver picks up €28M debt finance to aid photonic chip production

Xiver, a specialized chip foundry based at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has agreed a debt financing arrangement with the major Dutch lender ABN Amro enabling it to acquire a deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography system from ASML.

Carved out of the sprawling Philips operation, the startup was acquired by Dutch investors in early 2025 and has extensive expertise in MEMS and photonic chip production, as well as infrared sensors, ultrasonic transducers, and specialist components used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Finer features

Details of the €28 million credit facility comes just a couple of months after Xiver announced a €25 million round of equity funding from a consortium of Dutch entrepreneurs and angel investors.

Shortly after revealing the ABN Amro support, the firm said it had acquired the “PAS 5500“ DUV tool - ASML’s longest-lived lithography platform, first launched more than three decades ago.

Xiver CEO Wil van de Wiel said in a release announcing the tool purchase: “We believe our manufacturing model is successful because we engage with customers very early in their design process.

“Adding DUV lithography expands the capabilities we bring to those engagements, giving customers more freedom to develop differentiated designs while maintaining a clear path to scalable manufacturing.”

For photonics applications, the ASML tool is said to enable finer features and the ability to align the optical, electrical, and material structures that make up complex optical devices more precisely, including photonic waveguides and meta-optics for short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) applications.

“By providing tight layer-to-layer alignment, the stepper is also suited for advanced microfabricated devices built on top of CMOS wafers, including sub-micron-width cantilever structures for sensing applications,” added the firm.

Xiver CTO Joost van Beek commented: “The new DUV tool opens up device structures that were previously beyond the practical limits of our lithography capabilities.

“In photonics, it supports better-defined waveguide geometries, lower propagation losses and tighter bend radii. As these designs move beyond the prototype stage, the same capabilities help deliver the consistency and repeatability required for high-value products with increasingly fine features.”

Strategic sectors

One of Xiver’s partner companies is Milan-based PhotonPath, which is developing a proprietary integrated photonics platform combining silicon nitride and planar lightwave circuits in very compact optical communications modules.

Xiver is set to help the Italian firm scale up production of key elements of its “Oxyn” optical modules on 8-inch wafers, with the DUV stepper expected to become operational in 2027.

In its own announcement of the Xiver credit facility, ABN Amro said that the financing agreement reflected its support for innovative companies working in strategic sectors such as semiconductors and photonics.

Cees Meeuwis, a former member of the Dutch parliament who co-founded Xiver as its lead venture investor, said: “We can now accelerate the further expansion of our position within the European semiconductor and photonics ecosystem.

“Demand for our products and services is being driven by major global developments in AI, defence and the semiconductor industry as a whole. Xiver has the technology, infrastructure and industrialization expertise required to play an increasingly important role in these rapidly growing markets.”