Spain launches foundry for III-V semiconductors
Spain launches its first commercial foundry for III-V Semiconductors targeting integrated photonics.
According to Sparc Foundry’s website, the city of Vigo in Spain will be the location of a new state-of-the-art foundry for III-V-Semiconductor-based photonics, called Sparc (III-V Semiconductor Foundry and Advanced Photonics Research Center).
This new company will consist of a 1,600 square metre cleanroom for wafer production, and a research centre that will assist customers in bringing fully-certified photonic products to the market.
Sparc aims to capitalise on the potential of III-V semiconductors (GaAs, InP, GaN) to accommodate an increasing number of markets and applications that rely heavily on light, photonics, and high-speed electronics.
The company says it will have the capability and capacity to address a large customer base across a wide range of different markets, including optical communications, displays, lighting, aerospace, automotive, biomedical, sensing, and quantum technologies, as well as high-speed- and/or high-power electronic applications
According to an Linkedin update by Jose Pozo, Chief Technology Officer at Optica, an optics and photonics organisation, Sparc was formally incorporated last week, on September 26th. Pozo further states that the facilities will have a total capacity of 1,500 wafers per year.
The foundry will be operational around late 2023.
