Finchetto Photonic Integrated Circuits – Finchetto, the company developing the world’s first fully optical packet switch for energy-efficient AI, today announced that it has commenced a ten-month programme of work to establish a manufacturing process for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in Cardiff University’s sbarc|spark innovation building. The company secured a grant through the Investor Partnerships Programme, alongside private investment from Development Bank of Wales. It will enable Finchetto to utilise Cardiff University’s Institute for Compound Semiconductors cleanrooms.
The company will develop thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonics integrated circuits to carry its patented fully optical packet switching technology, capable of greatly reducing latency by 700x and power by 20x compared with traditional electro-optical network switches.
Finchetto already has an established office in Cardiff—in addition to an office and lab in Guildford, Surrey—and has continued to hire in the area. The company’s participation in the programme represents a step forward for the development of sovereign manufacturing capacity for photonic technologies in the United Kingdom.
Jack Christopher, Senior Investment Executive from Development Bank of Wales, said, “Wales has strong capabilities in compound semiconductors and photonics, which is why we’re delighted to support Finchetto’s work at Cardiff University. Bringing specialist process engineering to Cardiff will strengthen the region’s competitiveness and deepen the growing cluster of photonics innovation.”
“This programme takes our fully passive optical networking technology towards a manufacturable product and builds upon the UK’s strong photonics manufacturing capabilities at the same time,” said Mark Rushworth, CEO of Finchetto. “Photonics is emerging as a pathway to radically more efficient AI and data communications; sovereign capacity will be crucial if the UK is to compete, and we’re delighted to be contributing to that.”
For more information visit: www.finchetto.com .
