Always one photon ahead – with industry ready 3D nano-printing and a full solution portfolio for Photonic Integration
Our technology and products are rooted in a decade of industry near research and development in integrated photonics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and 20 years of experience in building high-precision assembly machinery for photonic packaging.
Headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, we develop technology and products including machines, software, materials and processes for creating low-loss photonic interconnects between passive and active optical components. Since April 2024, Vanguard Automation joined Mycronic, a Swedish high-tech group, listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.
These photonics interconnects are fabricated leveraging our unique and growing IP portfolio for Photonic Wire Bonding (PWB) and Facet-Attached Micro-Lenses (FAML).
Building on nano-print technology, our solutions enable high packaging density, increased design flexibility and fabrication throughput.
How is Vanguard Automation essential in daily life?
Everyday millions of people connect to the internet through mobile devices that rely on fiber-optical networks and networks which are built using optical components such as chips, lasers, amplifiers, and fibers.
Vanguard Automation’s technology and products simplify the development and production of such optical systems. In particular the technology is used to produce photonic interconnects, enabling light to transport und process information much more easily, and at larger volumes, while reducing the power consumed in comparison to incumbent methods.
In addition to telecom and datacom applications, integrated photonics is proliferating into many more fields of application such automotive lidar, AI and optical computing, quantum computing and sensing, and more.
List of Publications
Magazine Articles
Bringing Tomorrow’s Photonics to Life with Fully Automated Photonic Wire Bonding and Facet-Attached Micro-Lenses
SiS Magazine Issue 8, November 2024 Vanguard Automation is enabling a bright future for photonic packaging and integration with scalable industry-ready 3D nano-printing solutions. Our technology driven world of AI (Artificial Intelligence), cloud computing and 5G...
Photonic integration and packaging with Photonic Wire Bonding and facet-attached micro-optical elements
PIC Magazine, October 2023 The rapid growth of photonic integrated circuits is driving the need for fast innovation, and this is made possible by the development of Photonic Wire Bonding (PWB), which creates low-loss, 3D free-form connections between optical...
Enabling next generation photonic integration and packaging solutions
PIC Magazine, November 2022 Enabling next Generation Photonic Integration and Packaging Solutions with Photonic Wire Bonding (PWB) and Facet-Attached Micro-Lenses (FAML). With the growth of photonic integrated circuits comes the need to innovate quickly. This...
Integrated photonics for quantum applications | Laser Focus World, September 2022
Laser Focus World, September 2022 Integrated quantum photonics offers a paradigm shift for quantum computing, quantum communications, and quantum sensing. Highly flexible, low-loss photonic multichip integration In a fully functional optical quantum computer, the...
Photonic Wire Bonding: Using Lasers to Integrate Lasers | Photonics Spectra, August 2022
Photonics Spectra, August 2022 Femtosecond fiber lasers enable 3D nanoprinting to connect components in the high-volume assembly of hybrid photonic integrated circuits, minimizing alignment requirements. Just as electronic integrated circuits have revolutionized...
As PIC Production Ramps Up, Fabricator Eye Alignment Options | Photonics Spectra, June 2022
Photonics Spectra, June 2022 New demand for PICs promises to erupt across multiple end markets over the next few years, forcing fabricators to contemplate options for streamlining the optical alignment of these components. The early 2000s saw the rapidly growing...
Webinars
Optical Product Innovations with Photonic Wire Bonding – Lightwave webinar
With the growth of Photonic Integrated Circuits comes the need to innovate quickly. And this innovation acceleration is made possible by the creation of Photonic Wire Bonding. Much as electrical integrated circuits have benefitted from electrical wire bonding,...
Conference Publications
Optimization of edge couplers for low-loss photonic wire bonds on the thin film lithium niobate platform
Mo Lu, et al., Proc. SPIE 13012, Integrated Photonics Platforms III, 1301204 We developed and optimized a double-layer edge coupler design and fabrication process to ensure the compliance of low-loss photonic wire bonding on the lithium niobate platform under the...
3D-printed Beam Expanding Lens for Chip to Fiber Vertical Coupling
Y. Mizuno et al, 2024 IEEE 74th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), Denver, CO, USA, 2024, pp. 107-111, (28-31 May 2024) To achieve scalable manufacturing and improve the performance of Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) technology, there is an expectation...
Spectrally Sliced Optical Arbitrary Waveform Measurement (OAWM) Using a Photonic Multi-Chip Receiver Assembly
D. Fang et al., 2024 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC), San Diego, CA, USA, 2024, pp. 1-3. (24-28 March 2024) We demonstrate the first spectrally sliced OAWM receiver assembly that combines slicing filters and optical receivers in a hybrid...
Integrated Non-sliced OAWM Engine Enabling 320 GHz Photonic-Electronic Analog-to-Digital Conversion
D. Drayss et al., in Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2024, Technical Digest Series (Optica Publishing Group, 2024), paper W3B.4 (24-28 March 2024) We demonstrate an optically and electrically packaged silicon photonic receiver system for non-sliced...
Fiber-coupled quantum dot single-photon source via photonic wire bonding
M. De Gregorio et al., Proc. SPIE 12911, Quantum Computing, Communication, and Simulation IV, 129110Y (13 March 2024) Photonic wire bonds have been developed as an interface for the collection of single photon emission from quantum dots within a Bragg waveguide. When...
3D-printed aspherical lens with moth-eye anti-reflection structure
Y. Mizuno et al., Proc. SPIE 12898, Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics XVII, 128980R (13 March 2024) 3D-printed lens by two photon polymerization is promising technology in the filed of optics thanks to its free-form writing with...
Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) integrated on silicon photonic chip using photonic wire bonds (PWBs)
T. Wang, et al., Proc. SPIE 12889, Integrated Optics: Devices, Materials, and Technologies XXVIII, 128890Q (12 March 2024) In this paper, we demonstrate near-C-band semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) integrated on silicon photonic chips using photonic wire bonds...
Photonic multi-chip integration enabled by photonic wire bonds (PWB)
Q. Liu et al., Proc. SPIE 12966, AOPC 2023: AI in Optics and Photonics, 129660S (21 December 2023) Photonic wire bonding (PWB) is an enabling technology that allows the combination of the complementary strengths of different optical integration platforms in advanced...
Low-Loss Photonic Wire Bonds and Facet-Attached Micro-Lenses: from Telecom to Quantum Applications
L. E. Horan et al., in British and Irish Conference on Optics and Photonics 2023, (Optica Publishing Group, 2023), paper Th5A.4. (13–15 December 2023) Photonic wire bonds and facet-attached micro-lenses are 3D freeform structures that enable high design flexibility...
Journal Papers on Photonic Wire Bonds
High-power and narrow-linewidth laser on thin-film lithium niobate enabled by photonic wire bonding
Cornelis A. A. et. al.; in APL Photonics 1 February 2025; 10 (2): 026107 Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) has emerged as a promising platform for the realization of high-performance chip-scale optical systems, spanning a range of applications from optical...
Using Industry Ready Photonic Wire Bonds & Facet Attached Micro-Lenses
Mo Lu et al., in IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, doi: 10.1109/TCPMT.2025.3531206. Photonic wire bonds and facet-attached micro-lenses are 3D freeform structures that enable high design flexibility while maintaining low loss,...
On-chip hybrid integration of swept frequency distributed-feedback laser with silicon photonic circuits using photonic wire bonding
S. J. Chowdhury et al., Opt. Express 32, 3085-3099 (2024) This paper presents a novel co-packaging approach through on-chip hybrid laser integration with photonic circuits using photonic wire bonding. The process involves die-bonding a low-cost semiconductor...
Plug-and-Play Fiber-Coupled Quantum Dot Single-Photon Source via Photonic Wire Bonding
M. De Gregorio et al., Advanced Quantum Technologies, 7.10.1002/qute.202300227 The collection of single-photon emission from a quantum dot (QD) in a Bragg waveguide through a photonic wire bond (PWB) via free-space resonant frequency pumping at 1.6 K is demonstrated....
Cryogenic Optical Packaging Using Photonic Wire Bonds
B. Lin et al., July 2023, 2307.07496 We present the required techniques for the successful low loss packaging of integrated photonic devices capable of operating down to 970 mK utilizing photonic wire bonds. This scalable technique is shown to have an insertion loss...
Self-Injection-Locked Kerr Soliton Microcombs with Photonic Wire Bonds for Use in Terahertz Communications
Y. Chen et al., in CLEO 2023, Technical Digest Series (Optica Publishing Group, 2023), paper STh3J.1. We demonstrate single-soliton Kerr-comb generators, exploiting photonic wire bonds to connect Si3N4 resonators and self-injection-locked InP pump lasers. The assembly...
Frequency-Agile Self-Injection-Locked Lasers With sub-100 Hz Linewidth based on In-Package Photonic Wire Bonds
Y. Chen et al., in CLEO 2023, Technical Digest Series (Optica Publishing Group, 2023), paper STu4P.4. We demonstrate frequency-agile self-injection-locked lasers that exploit photonic wire bonds for connecting piezo-tunable Si3N4 microresonators to DFB lasers. Our...
Journal Papers on Facet-Attached Micro-Lenses
Sub-kHz-Linewidth External-Cavity Laser (ECL) With Si3N4 Resonator Used as a Tunable Pump for a Kerr Frequency Comb
P. Maier et al., in Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 41, no. 11, pp. 3479-3490, 1 June1, 2023, doi: 10.1109/JLT.2023.3243471 Combining optical gain in direct-bandgap III-V materials with tunable optical feedback offered by advanced photonic integrated circuits is...
3D-printed facet-attached microlenses for advanced photonic system assembly
Y. Xu et al., [J]. Light: Advanced Manufacturing 4, 3(2023). doi: 10.37188/lam.2023.003 Wafer-level mass production of photonic integrated circuits (PIC) has become a technological mainstay in the field of optics and photonics, enabling many novel and disrupting a...
Low Insertion Loss 128-Gbaud HB-CDM with 3D-Printed Spot Size Converter Integrated InP-based Modulator
Y. Mizuno et al., 2023 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC), San Diego, CA, USA, 2023, pp. 1-3, doi: 10.1364/OFC.2023.Th2A.8. We demonstrate 128 Gbaud HB-CDM with InP-based modulator having 3D-printed SSCs on chip facet. Optical coupling loss...