Introduction

While the NWO Gravitation program on integrated nanophotonics is approaching its end, the new PhotonDelta Growth Fund program has just taken off, with over 30 projects starting at TU/e – a large impulse for our field. In the meantime, activities in both fundamental and applied research have been thriving, as you will read in the following pages. Our community is also increasingly active in valorizing research results, as witnessed by the continuous pipeline of spin-off initiatives and the success of existing start-ups and scale-ups in attracting funding. Finally, the active participation in the Dutch Design Week and a royal visit have made our work more visible in society.

Looking at the future, 2023 saw the announcement of the EU Chips Act, amidst a renewed and strong global interest in activities around the broad area of semiconductors. Geopolitical tensions, supply chain challenges, and the ever-increasing impact chips have on our daily lives, made us realize that we cannot be fully dependent on other parts of the world for chip manufacturing. The Netherlands and the EU are now looking into the role they can play, and we, as a photonics community, should do the same. Even though the largest part of the Chips Act is about electronics, integrated photonics is explicitly included. This means there will be new opportunities for research and support for innovation and startups. But the most exciting opportunities might be in the future synergy with electronics.

The Eindhoven Hendrik Casimir Institute was founded with the vision that the future technology would be heterogeneous, and photonic chips would seamlessly merge with electronics, and even with spintronic and quantum functionalities. First steps in this direction have been taken already, and more is coming. We are well positioned to take a leading role in the new “chips” era. We hope you enjoy reading about what we accomplished already, and some of the future plans, in this issue of SPOT ON!

Martijn Heck, Scientific Director, Eindhoven Hendrik Casimir Institute

Andrea Fiore, Scientific Director, Center for Integrated Photonics Eindhoven