US Navy funds Aeluma to develop high-speed photodetectors
The company says its large-diameter wafer platform has demonstrated high-speed photodetectors for optical interconnects, with potential applications in defence and aerospace, high-performance computing, and AI infrastructure
Aeluma, a semiconductor company focusing on high-performance, scalable technologies, has announced it has won a contract with the US Navy, which it says could accelerate development of high-speed photodetectors for government and commercial applications.
Aeluma's large-diameter wafer platform aims to combine the performance of compound semiconductors with the scale of mainstream silicon manufacturing, enabling cost-effective solutions across high-growth markets including mobile, AI, defence and aerospace, automotive, AR/VR, and quantum computing. The company says its platform has demonstrated high-speed photodetectors for optical interconnects with the potential to provide massive bandwidth scaling, critical for government applications, high-performance computing, and AI infrastructure.
According to Aeluma, the new contract is for up to $1.3 million in funding, includes a major global interconnect manufacturer as a proposed subcontractor, and involves support from a top-tier government prime contractor. In addition to scaling for high-volume commercial markets, Aeluma says its large-diameter wafer platform is designed to be compatible with wafer-scale integration with CMOS electronics using advanced packaging, a technology that is being pursued by major compute, datacentre, networking, and module suppliers for next-generation optical interconnects.
“This award is a clear vote of confidence in Aeluma's breakthrough technology and its potential to scale both in performance and in volume,” said Matthew Dummer, director of technology at Aeluma. “Building on our successful demonstrations of large-wafer photodetectors for sensing and communication applications, this funding will enable us to accelerate commercialisation for high-growth commercial markets while meeting the demanding requirements of our customers in defence and aerospace.”
