PhotonDelta launches €50,000 photonics engineering contest

Photonics chips, also known as Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), enable smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient devices by sensing, processing, and transmitting data far more effectively than traditional electronic chips. Crucially, they surpass the limits of Moore’s Law and are used in semiconductors, telecom, agriculture, quantum computing, and automotive technologies.

The engineering contest is a global competition for innovative ideas for PIC-based solutions that address some of the world's most pressing societal and technical challenges, from combating climate change and advancing healthcare to addressing energy sustainability challenges. The competition invites engineers to use the characteristics of Photonic ICs to revolutionise fields like healthcare, autonomous vehicles, AI, and agriculture by enabling advanced sensors for earlier diagnostics, safer infrastructure, or more efficient food production. The ultimate goal of the contest is to discover future applications in segments that are yet to be invented.

The contest is backed by a €60 million fund from PhotonDelta, set up to stimulate the creation of new startups and innovative applications in the photonic integrated circuits (PIC) industry. By offering favourable loans to (pre-)seed companies, the fund supports entrepreneurs and researchers in turning their ideas into viable businesses. This initiative aims to foster innovation at the earliest stages, encouraging the development of new technologies and applications that can shape the future of the PIC ecosystem. 

The winner will receive €50,000 worth of services to bring their idea to life as well as global exposure at an industry event. On top of that, participating in this challenge will provide the unique opportunity to position the company for raising a favourable loan of up to €2 million by PhotonDelta. The contest is held in collaboration with engineering community and knowledge platform Wevolver, and supported by imec, SMART Photonics, LioniX International, Bright Photonics, Epiphany and PHIX Photonics Assembly.

Eelko Brinkhof, CEO at PhotonDelta, says: “One of the most exciting and compelling aspects of PIC technology is the sheer breadth of applications it can be used for and its capacity to tackle some of the most pressing problems we face as a society. We want to encourage people to come forward with their most innovative ideas. We will provide the winner with significant support to get their ideas off the drawing board and into production.”

The Global Photonics Engineering Contest is open to startups, established companies, engineers, researchers, students, and academic organisations working on innovative photonic chip applications.

The contest is officially being launched at PIC Summit 2024 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands on 15 October 2024. Submissions will be open until the 3 March 2025 with the winner and runners up announced on the 2 April 2025.

Contest entries will be judged on the level of innovation, technical, and commercial feasibility, and how effectively the design addresses current industry challenges. Participants are required to submit detailed descriptions of their projects, including team information and supporting visuals or videos. A jury panel of experts from the integrated photonics industry will review the submissions, with the winners announced on 8 April 2025.