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Hitachi acquires global leader VLC Photonics S.L. to add photonic integration engineering, design and test to its portfolio of services

[ 19/11/2020 ]

Hitachi High-Tech Corporation acquired VLC Photonics S.L. (VLC) to become Hitachi High-Tech’s subsidiary company and will continue to provide Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) engineering services as part of the Company’s broader offering.

For the UPV, this sale represents the first successful exit from its spin-off program that began at the beginning of the decade, and an example of high technology transfer from Valencia to the world. Based on technical knowledge acquired in R + D + i projects at the European level, in cooperation with the main public and private agents in the sector, researchers from the Photonics Research Labs of iTEAM founded VLC Photonics in 2011 in response to a real market need in a then emerging sector.

With this operation, the UPV, which has a stake in the share capital of another 16 spin-off companies, contributes to the Spanish university system one of the most relevant knowledge transfer cases in recent years and points out a path that others may follow. companies generated from the results of academic research.

PICs are devices in which optical functions are integrated into wafer materials such as Silicon, Indium Phosphide and Silicon Nitride and have immediate applications in transceivers for optical communications.

Recently internet traffic has been continuing to increase significantly due to the data arising from social media, video streaming services, working from home, IoT and the overall digitization of our economy and environment.

In the optical communications market, higher speeds and increased bandwidth are required to satisfy this growing demand. Meanwhile as demand gets stronger, the market has also had to manage issues of power consumption, size and cost reduction, and manufacturing scalability. Photonic integration provides the means to address all these requirements in a more holistic way than the traditional approach of assembling optical systems from discrete parts.

A long-term provider of components and services to the optical communications industry, Hitachi High-Tech is aware of the increasing need of customers for greater integration and innovation. As the foremost independent provider of PIC design, test and engineering services, VLC is in an excellent position to help Hitachi High-Tech serve the new requirements of its existing customers as well as providing a base for the development of new service provisions.

Besides the optical communications market, PICs are also becoming a critical platform technology within many industrial sectors such as automotive sensing, environmental testing, health sciences and quantum technology.

Going forward, Hitachi High-Tech will not only provide a more complete one-stop service, but also provide engineering services that leverage the strengths of both companies to contribute to solving customers' issues and expand our business.

Hitachi High-Tech is committed to global sales leveraging the personal connections, business relationships and expertise it has cultivated as a specialist trading company, and creating high value-added businesses that start with resolving customer's issues, in order to provide solutions that contribute to resolving the issues facing our customers in the manufacturing sector.

About Hitachi High-Tech Corporation

Hitachi High-Tech Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is engaged in activities in a broad range of fields, including Analytical & Medical Solutions (manufacture and sales of clinical analyzers, biotechnology products, and analytical instruments), Nano-Technology Solutions (manufacture and sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and analysis equipment), and Industrial Solutions (providing high value-added solutions in the fields of social & industrial infrastructures and mobility, etc.). For further information, visit https://www.hitachi-hightech.com/global/

About VLC Photonics S.L.

VLC Photonics S.L. is a photonic design house based in Valencia, Spain, which provides services and turn-key photonic integration solutions towards multiple application fields. It has a wide experience with various material platforms (silicon photonics, indium phosphide, silicon nitride, PLC, polymer) and offers fabless development services for photonic integrated circuits in Telecom/Datacom, microwave photonics, quantum optics, lidar, bio-photonics and optical sensing markets. The company is a spin-off from the Universitat Politècnica de València. To learn more about VLC Photonics, please visit http://www.vlcphotonics.com/

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