The 3.6 million euro loan to NanoLab@TU/e will be matched by TU/e, explains Managing Director Huub Ambrosius. “The total sum of 7.2 million euros will enable us to adapt and expand our equipment. This will put us in a position to continue developing the inventions of the Institute for Photonic Integration in a number of Technology Centers, which we plan to set up. Once this transition has been made, we will be keen to commercialize the inventions as soon as possible.”

NanoLab@TU/e's most important investment will be the purchase of a MOVPE machine costing 3.5 million euros. Capable of metal organic vapor phase epitaxy, this equipment can apply thin layers of what is called III/V semiconductor material with great precision. This is necessary to produce the new generation of integrated photonic chips, in which digital information is processed in the form of light signals. Within NanoLab@TU/e, this work will be mainly the preserve of the JePPIX Technology Center, one of the Technology Centers affiliated to the Institute for Photonic Integration.

The interest-free TOF loans must be spent within five years, after which the university will have fifteen years to repay them.