Building a Scalable Testing Ecosystem for Photonic Chips

As photonic chips make their way out of research environments and into real-world products, testing becomes one of the most critical, and most underestimated, challenges.

Within the PhotonDelta ecosystem, partners are working together to build a coordinated, future-ready testing infrastructure that supports photonic chips across the full manufacturing journey: from early prototypes through to high-volume production.

The aim is simple, but ambitious: remove the bottlenecks in photonic integrated circuit (PIC) testing so innovation can scale reliably, cost-effectively, and at speed.

In doing so, PhotonDelta and its partners are laying the foundations for nationally coordinated PIC testing facilities: one capable of offering globally competitive test services. Achieving this requires more than individual capability. It means building a shared base of technology, equipment, knowledge, and crucially, collaboration between partners.

The Challenge

Testing photonic chips is fundamentally more complex than testing electronic ICs. PICs are deployed across numerous domains: including optical, electrical, thermal, and radio-frequency applications – often simultaneously, at different stages of maturity.

Today, many testing capabilities exist in isolation:

• Lab-scale characterisation supports early R&D, but doesn’t scale
• High-volume test infrastructure exists in semiconductors, but isn’t yet optimised for photonics
• Low- and mid-volume manufacturing is fragmented and inefficient

The result is familiar: long lead times, rising costs, and increased risk when moving from prototype to production. Without coordination, testing slows progress rather than enabling it.

The Opportunity

Setting up nationally-coordinated PIC testing facilities changes that dynamic. By aligning capabilities across the value chain, the Netherlands can remove one of the key barriers to scaling integrated photonics; while strengthening its position as a global leader in the field.

A shared testing framework makes it possible to:

• Shorten the transition from lab to fab
• Support both low- and high-volume manufacturing
• Anchor advanced testing capabilities within the Dutch ecosystem
• Strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in photonic chip manufacturing

However, this only works if the PhotonDelta ecosystem moves together. No single organisation can cover the full testing landscape alone.

The Collaborative Solution

Therefore, this PIC Testing initiative brings together partners with complementary expertise across both high-volume (HVM) and low-volume (LVM) manufacturing. Together, they are aligning testing methodologies, equipment, data flows, and workflows, and turning a fragmented landscape into a coherent and scalable system.

High-Volume Manufacturing (HVM)

For HVM, a coordinated “lab-based” approach is being developed:

• Salland Engineering applies its semiconductor test expertise to photonic chips, developing scalable wafer-, die-, and module-level solutions through a dedicated Production Lab.
  
• PITC focuses on advanced metrology and process optimisation at the front end of the value chain; including high-speed RF electro-optical testing, O-band DC optical testing, and structural wafer inspection: through a Metrology Lab designed for multichannel, in-line testing.
  
• IMEC leads a Characterisation Lab focused on next-generation PIC measurement. By extending high-frequency and electro-optical capabilities, they enable deeper insight into performance and yield: helping designs move more quickly up the technology readiness (TRL) ladder.

Low-Volume Manufacturing (LVM)

Building cost-effective LVM test services presents a different challenge, particularly due to high non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs. Here, two partners take the lead:

• Bright Photonics bridges design and test, ensuring solutions reflect real-world development needs. Their work focuses on increasing standardisation, introducing automation to reduce debugging time, and developing flexible, reconfigurable test setups that reduce retooling per client. They’ll also build the expertise required to offer cost-effective die-level testing across a wide range of coupling methods, wavelengths, and product types.
  
• Workflow develops the software layer that connects everything together: standardising test definitions, enabling automation, and managing data across process steps. This allows test data to be used effectively in analysis, assembly, and further processing.

Ecosystem Benefits

Treating PIC testing as part of a shared infrastructure delivers clear benefits across the PhotonDelta ecosystem:

• Faster time-to-market: Reduced delays between design, validation, and production
  Lower scale-up risk: More predictable pathways from prototype to volume manufacturing
• Improved manufacturability: Earlier feedback loops between test, design, and fabrication
• Stronger international competitiveness: A testing ecosystem capable of supporting global customers and applications

Most importantly, it ensures that testing evolves alongside photonic innovation: not behind it.