PIC Summit Europe 2024: day 2 afternoon round-up

Irene Rompa and Peter van Arkel welcomed back attendees to the Philips Hall to unpack two more hot topics: imaging and the wireless revolution. At the same time, the second session got underway on the Future of Integrated Photonics. Here’s a recap of the key moments.  

Demoing new applications

Throughout the day, the Brasserie NEXT restaurant played host to a great collection of ongoing projects and applied research from a variety of institutions and organisations including, Eindhoven University of Technology, Imec, and the University of Twente. 

The Dutch integrated photonics ecosystem continues to demonstrate its strength and the hall was packed with attendees who talked through the innovations that are being developed as well as their practical applications, in areas like consumer wearables and agriculture.

Applications in imaging 

Imaging or ‘seeing without seeing’ helps us better understand the world around us. It’s a diverse field, and today’s third session covered a range of applications. Nokia Bell Labs’ Nicolas Fontaine kicked off proceedings on the use of ultra-stable lasers in fibre networks. The key question: could the 5 million submarine cables that cover the planet be used to measure environmental markers in remote locations in real time? Thanks to photonics, the research says ‘yes’.

During the next series of pitches, Denis Ganin of Scantinel Photonics shared a groundbreaking innovation: a hybrid integrated laser source on a PIC-designed for long-range automotive LiDAR. Also, Jeroen Hoet of Eyeo posed a powerful question: what’s the most important thing for people buying a phone? Answer: the camera. He went on to describe how a light-splitting technology – built on silicon photonics – could revolutionise camera technology in smartphones.

The session closed with an exciting announcement – PhotonDelta’s Global Engineering Contest – with prizes of €50000 and up to €2 million in pre-seed funding – to design a next-gen application with photonic chips.

The future of integrated photonics

It’s always fantastic to see just how integral to modern applications PICs are becoming, and the opening talk from Prof. Sonia Garcia Blanco of the University of Twente took the audience through a brief history of point-of-care diagnostics systems and how, in recent years, developments in PICs have enabled both increased testing capability in devices and miniaturisation.

Alongside the broad topic of health, there was a series of presentations offering great coverage on the topic of spintronics. A presentation from Dr. Mark Gubbins, Director of Seagate Technology, highlighted the challenge of introducing a photonics system into the inherent heat fluctuations found inside a hard drive and how their work has been focused on making the system totally reliable.

The wireless revolution

Exchanging ever-increasing amounts of data wirelessly and securely is an unsolved global challenge. During the second session in the Philips Hall, Mark Gunther from Signify explained the main advantages of LiFi – using light for secure, high-speed communication – and how PICs can accelerate its mass market deployment. Mark shared real-world use cases from the defence industry in Europe and the US.

Next, Sytze Kampen of Airbus Netherlands explained the need for new applications in the optical communication sector. After unpacking some of the main challenges facing the transmission of lasers through the Earth’s atmosphere, he outlined recent R&D successes in lasercom at Airbus Netherlands. He stressed that the need for miniaturised photonic solutions will be driven by mobile terminals.

Lastly, we heard two pitches. The first came from Martin Hauer, who shared KEEQuant’s vision for transforming quantum key distribution (QKD) into a widely accessible commodity. The second came from Luis Oliviera at Aircision on developing Free Space Optical Communication links (FSOC) for use in terrestrial applications.  

And that’s a wrap! 

PIC Summit 2024 is officially over, and what an event it’s been! Beginning with a big bang – thanks to the musical intro on day one – it’s maintained that energy throughout the two days of talks and breakout sessions. The overarching theme from start to finish was fading boundaries, and after two full days, it’s safe to say that the boundary we’re most excited to see fading is the one between each and every member of the PIC industry.

While the technology, its applications, and its potential have all been on the show, seeing academia, industry, and investment come closer together under one roof has been the overriding takeaway. With that in mind, we want to say thank you to everyone who made it possible. We cannot wait to see you in November 2025 for the next edition of PIC Summit Europe.

To pre-register for PIC Summit Europe 2025, click here.