A technology transfer center is being established at Park Innovaare located in Villigen in the canton of Aargau. At the start of the year, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) founded the Swiss Photonics Integration Center (Swiss PIC) alongside a series of partners, further details of which can be found in a press release issued by PSI. Swiss Photonics and OST - Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences are specified as founding partners of the center in the press release, in addition to the two optical systems specialists Ligentec and Polariton Technologies.
The Swiss PIC is intended to support start-ups and SMEs in the development and integration of optical systems. Such systems are required in “future-oriented industries” such as optical communications and sensor technologies, as well as for the development of quantum computers, autonomous driving, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and augmented and virtual reality, PSI explains in the press release. The spectrum of services offered at the Swiss PIC ranges from design advice to consulting on the construction of custom infrastructures for embedding photonic systems in closed components. This is known as “photonic packaging” and forms one of the focus topics for the Swiss PIC.
“Swiss PIC is ideally positioned to support Swiss industrial partners as well as start-ups and to strengthen the technology transfer of its academic partners”, comments Kirsten Moselund, head of the Laboratory for Nano and Quantum Technologies at PSI, in the press release. For Benno Rechsteiner, CEO of Park Innovaare, Swiss PIC represents “yet another milestone in assembling the photonics cluster we are establishing at the Park Innovaare”.
