ThreeFive Photonics, the Netherlands-based manufacturer of next-generation optoelectronic chip technology, reports it has completed its first round of financing by securing Euro 7 million from venture capital companies Atlas Venture and Gilde IT Fund. (Gilde provided the seed capital to launch ThreeFive Photonics inearly 2001.) The company will use the capital for the development of next-generation optical chips, with the goal of integrating complete network subsystems on a single chip.
“We are very pleased with the support of Atlas Venture and Gilde IT Fund, who both are reputable investors in communications technology,” says Wouter Deelman, CEO and co-founder of ThreeFive Photonics. “The funding will enable us to complete the development of our first chip, codenamed Argo, and to prepare it for production. We will have a working prototype of Argo by the end of this year. Production will start in 2002.”
Worldwide, telecom network operators are under severe pressure to reduce their investments in network equipment, which drives their suppliers to develop systems that yield improved functionality at a lower price. Deelman believes that this trend creates a favorable market for the solutions that ThreeFive Photonics is in the process of developing.
ThreeFive Photonics focuses on miniaturizing and integrating the functional components and devices that make up today's telecommunication network subsystems. Realizing this on a large scale could ultimately result in a major cost reduction of those subsystems, leading to fundamentally new network architectures.
The chipmaker focuses on monolithic integration of optoelectronic components on indium-phosphide-based materials, using concepts that have been proven on a laboratory scale. Deelman reports that the company now follows a phased development path that will yield a sequence of products of increasing complexity and functionality, culminating in the production of complete network subsystems integrated on a single chip.
The Board of Directors of ThreeFive Photonics now consists of messrs. Dimmes Doornhein (chairman), Anton Arts, and Gerry Montanus.