Lightium, a Swiss photonics start-up, has raised $7 million in seed funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) chip foundry services.
Lightium is the first company to design and manufacture TFLN-based photonic chips at an industrial scale.
The technology hopes to overcome the technical challenges faced by semiconductor-based interconnects in data centres at greater data rates, to help meet the exponential demand for processing power with the emergence of AI.
Semiconductor-based interconnect face significant technical challenges
Data centres fundamentally comprise large clusters of central processing units (CPUs) and graphic processing units (GPUs) to accelerate compute-intensive tasks and optical interconnects, transmitting data at lightning speed between these processors.
While companies like Nvidia have made significant strides in making GPUs more powerful, a critical gap remains in optical interconnects’ data transmission speed and power efficiency.
Semiconductor-based interconnects, widely used today, face significant technical challenges beyond 800 Gb/s, falling short of the speeds needed to manage the exponential growth in data.
TFLN is one of the most difficult materials to process
Lightium offers production-grade TFLN chip foundry services at a commercial scale. TFLN, a glass-like material, enables a significant boost in transmission rates and reduces power consumption. This means data rates of 1.6 or 3.2Tb/s while reducing the environmental impact and cost of ever-growing digital consumption.
However, TFLN is one of the most difficult materials to process and has, up until now, been restricted to prototyping in academic and R&D settings. Lightium addresses this challenge with its proprietary manufacturing process geared towards volume production.
Dr Amir Ghadimi, CEO of Lightium, said: “Current semiconductor-based technologies that are powering data centres have reached their limits – they cannot run faster or more efficiently.
"Lightium uses TFLN to solve this problem, and we have now developed the manufacturing capability to provide this technology at scale for the industry. What used to be limited to academic and R&D cleanrooms has now become an accessible reality for the industry to adopt.”
Dr Jakob Lingg, Investment Manager at Vsquared, added: “Optical communication companies have clear roadmaps for future data transmission and energy requirements.
"As silicon struggles to meet these demands, there is a strong market pull for alternative materials with superior electro-optical properties. These materials must not only meet strict performance standards but also endure the harsh environments of data centers. TFLN emerges as a promising solution.”
Lightium’s TFLN platform extends to other applications and markets, such as satellite communication, quantum computing, novel optical computing architectures, and lidar applications. This makes its open-access foundry model ideal for meeting diverse technological needs across these sectors.
Over the next year, Lightium will enhance its manufacturing, design and testing capabilities, optimise its process design kit (PDK), and expand its partnership network to support wide-scale commercialisation.
Currently in a closed beta run with strategic partners, Lightium aims to launch its foundry services at the beginning of 2025. The company is actively recruiting talent to help fuel the company’s growth and innovation.
The recent financing round was led by Vsquared Ventures and Lakestar.
