image: Christoph Harder, CEO of Swiss PIC, and Kirsten Moselund, head of the Laboratory for Nano and Quantum Technologies in the PSI Center for Photon Science and co-initiator of Swiss PIC. Photographed at the manufacturing centre for photonic integration inaugurated on 24.11.2025.
Credit: © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Markus Fischer
Accelerating the transition from research to market-ready applications: that is the idea behind Swiss PIC, the Swiss Photonics Integration Center. The technology transfer centre was founded in 2023 by a broad alliance of research and industry with PSI participation, and since then it has been located at Park Innovaare in the immediate vicinity of PSI. There, on 24 November 2025, the official inauguration ceremony of Swiss PIC took place with around 150 guests, including representatives from politics and business.
Swiss PIC focuses on photonics, that is, light-based technologies. The goal is to bring photonic microchips, developed at numerous locations throughout Switzerland, to market maturity. Equipped with electrical and fibre-optic connectors, these microchips can be integrated into industrial products. In this way, Swiss PIC supports companies in bringing new technologies to market more rapidly and efficiently.
Expertise in photonic integration
One of the greatest technical challenges is photonic integration, the precise assembly and connection of a system's optical and electronic components. Unlike classical microelectronics, photonics hardly has any standardised processes. Instead, nearly every product demands its own complex solution, which can be quite costly: integration accounts for up to 70 percent of the total costs – even more for small production runs.
To avoid light loss, the components must be aligned with submicrometre accuracy. This requires high-precision machines, specially developed processes, and extensive experience –resources that many companies, especially start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), lack. This is precisely where Swiss PIC comes in: the celebration on 24 November also included the opening of a new manufacturing centre for photonic integration.
“Swiss PIC assembles photonic microchips for technology companies with industry-standard connectors, thus enabling rapid access to a much wider range of applications than would be possible with microchips lacking such connectors,” explains Christoph Harder, CEO of Swiss PIC.
“Especially for photonics companies with low volumes of production, integration presents a major hurdle for launching their products,” adds Kirsten Moselund, head of the Laboratory for Nano and Quantum Technologies in the PSI Center for Photon Science and co-initiator of Swiss PIC. “Swiss PIC’s manufacturing centre for photonic integration, located next to the PICO cleanroom in Park Innovaare, contributes to establishing it as a hub for industrial and research activity in photonics. The strong interest in the opening is proof of the importance of photonics manufacturing as a key technology.”
Bridge to industry
Swiss PIC offers companies state-of-the-art infrastructure and comprehensive expertise to accompany them all the way from the initial idea to small-scale production. Services range from consulting and design to developing suitable integration solutions and assistance in scaling up production. Early collaboration is especially valuable: taking integration into account during the development phase saves time and money and avoids costly redesigns.
Swiss PIC is part of the Swiss network of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Transfer Centers (AM-TTC). Its establishment was made possible by federal funding, supplemented by contributions from research and industry. Partners include the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (OST), the Swissphotonics Association, and the companies Ligentec and Polariton Technologies.
Photonics cluster in Park Innovaare
As the second technology transfer centre in Park Innovaare – alongside ANAXAM – Swiss PIC strengthens the emerging photonics cluster in Villigen, Aargau. “The Swiss PIC manufacturing centre for photonic integration embodies exactly what Park Innovaare stands for: deep-tech research transformed into real industrial solutions,” said Robert Rudolph, CEO of Park Innovaare.
At the opening ceremony on 24 November, Dieter Egli, member of the Government Council of the Canton of Aargau and head of the Department of Economic Affairs and the Interior, also spoke: “We are proud to have a state-of-the-art technology transfer centre in the field of photonics here in Aargau with Swiss PIC. We see the opening of the Swiss PIC manufacturing centre for photonic integration as recognition of our excellent location – here in Park Innovaare, in the immediate vicinity of PSI, where innovation is a living reality, where new ideas are born and developed, where successful products and services emerge that ultimately generate added value.”
Text: Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Stefanie Wiedner and Laura Hennemann
Photonics: Electronics with light
The term photonics refers to the use of light to transmit information. Microchips with so-called photonically integrated circuits combine electronics and light in the smallest space possible: they transform particles of light – photons – into electrical signals, and vice versa. This makes it possible to realise extremely fast, energy-efficient, and compact systems. Photonics forms the foundation for optical communications, sensor technology, quantum computing, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.
About PSI
The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI develops, builds and operates large, complex research facilities and makes them available to the national and international research community. The institute's own key research priorities are in the fields of future technologies, energy and climate, health innovation and fundamentals of nature. PSI is committed to the training of future generations. Therefore about one quarter of our staff are post-docs, post-graduates or apprentices. Altogether PSI employs 2300 people, thus being the largest research institute in Switzerland. The annual budget amounts to approximately CHF 450 million. PSI is part of the ETH Domain, with the other members being the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne, as well as Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology), Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) and WSL (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research).
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