- You recently became an IRT Nanoelec partner. Tell us about your company.
Almae Technologies was founded in early 2016 as a spinoff of the III–V Lab to develop and commercialize laser components and integrated laser-modulators to meet the needs of the telecom and datacom markets, mainly. The first components we released were for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and data center interconnect (DCI) networks. The market is now changing rapidly. Customers are seeking more and more bandwidth and economical, upgradeable solutions for the integration of a large number of wavelength channels. To stay ahead in the race, Almae Technologies feels that working with IRT Nanoelec partners to create tomorrow’s photonics platform is strategic.
- What will you bring to the IRT Nanoelec Silicon Photonics program?
Almae Technologies specializes in III–V photonics, which positions us to contribute in-depth knowledge of III–V lasers from design to testing and including epitaxy and specific fabrication bricks. We will also contribute III–V epitaxy know-how and capacity with dedicated machines—four MOCVD and three MBE—which makes us unique in France for this type of technology.
- And how would you like IRT Nanoelec to benefit you?
We hope that, as an IRT Nanoelec partner, we will be able to better anticipate future technological advances and position ourselves on our target markets very early on. For this, we feel that rapid prototyping is essential. In terms of our area of excellence—III–V epitaxy and the development of advanced photonic components—we are also open to talking with other IRT Nanoelec partner companies about ways to work together to position French manufacturers as global leaders by leveraging collaborative innovation.