VIGO Photonics, a Polish company specializing in mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) detectors and modules, is becoming increasingly central to European efforts to gain greater autonomy on key semiconductor technologies, especially when the photonics sector sees growing aerospace and defense applications in sensing, optical communication, and laser-based weapons.
As a part of the Polish delegation to SEMICON Taiwan 2023, Adam Piotrowski, VIGO Photonics CEO, pointed to integrated photonics as a development goal and highlighted the need to work with partners to incorporate signal processing into VIGO's sensor platform. In fact, the Polish company opened its Taipei office in 2020 as its first foothold in the East Asian market.
Also in 2023, as a part of the European Union's Important Project of Common European Interest Microelectronics and Communication Technologies (IPCEI ME/CT), VIGO Photonics officially commenced the HyperPIC project to develop photonic IC for mid-infrared sensing applications and subsequently build the world's first production line for mid-infrared photonic IC. The R&D phase runs from 2023 to 2027, while the first industrial deployment phase runs from 2024 to 2029.
"When I was in Taiwan in September, we were just demonstrating the first roadmap for the building blocks of photonic IC, such as detectors, lasers, and waveguides," indicated Piotrowski. "So our roadmap was defined just before my visit to Taiwan, and since then, we have been progressing quite well with demonstrating and testing the building blocks." At this stage, VIGO has all the basic building blocks and can go forward with decreasing the losses and improving efficiency.
Lack of integrators in Taiwan challenges industrial and defense cooperation
Cooperation with Taiwan, however, is not without challenges. "For us, the situation with Taiwan is quite difficult," indicated Piotrowski to DIGITIMES Asia during a recent interview at VIGO Photonics' headquarters on the outskirts of Warsaw. For now, approximately half of VIGO's revenue comes from industrial applications, such as the machines for automotive manufacturing where VIGO's detectors are deployed, and though Taiwan is making a lot of microelectronics components, there aren't many integrators of industrial components, according to Piotrowski. "So we are not having so many customers in Taiwan right now."
Beyond industrial applications, VIGO Photonics is also active in the defense industry. The LWIR detectors offered by VIGO, for instance, can be deployed to IR sensors within smart munitions to detect military vehicles emitting heat in the form of mid-infrared radiation, especially in degraded environments. The MWIR detectors, on the other hand, can be applied to protect aircraft from infrared-homing missiles, such as directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM), as the MWIR region of the IR spectrum is optimal for missile detection. Instead of using single-element detectors that rely on a rotary mechanism for area scanning, VIGO uses multi-element detectors to enable a wider field of view without relying on mechanical scanning.
MWIR detectors can be applied to infrared countermeasure. Credit: Northrop Gruman
"There is a lot of happening in the defense application: we're working with both Polish and European governments, in addition to US defense companies," said the VIGO CEO. The company recently expanded its office in the US to target large defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, restocking the sensors in smart munitions in support of Ukraine. Alongside smart munitions, VIGO is also supplying detectors for drone applications. However, just like for industrial applications, the lack of system integrators in the Taiwanese defense industry has limited the cooperation opportunities with VIGO Photonics. According to the company CEO, VIGO has no contact with Taiwanese arms manufacturers, even when it comes to drones, a sector in which Taiwan lacks system integrators.
"At this stage, Taiwan is a good customer of our customers," said Piotrowski. Though the results of market explorations show that it's not a good moment for doing direct sales, the CEO sees it as a good moment for opening collaboration in the future. Meanwhile, Maciej Nowakowski, Director of Operations at the Polish Technological Forum on Photonics (PPTF), pointed out that though Polish component suppliers see limited opportunities provided by the Taiwanese market at this stage, companies focusing on the manufacturing process are increasingly developing the Taiwanese market.
"There's a growing interest and actual presence - certainly business discussions between Polish companies who are providing manufacturing equipment," observed Nowakowski. "It turns out that we might have some developments in the manufacturing and machinery industry, while in the semiconductor and defense sectors, it is not progressing as easily or as quickly as initially expected."
Limited understanding of Taiwan's market potential
In September 2023, a delegation of the Taiwanese defense industry visited Poland. Led by Hu Kai-Hung, chairman of the Taiwan Defense Industry Development Association (TW-DIDA) and also the chairman of Taiwan's prime contractor Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC), the delegates met with the Polish Chamber of National Defense Manufacturers (PCNDM), and subsequently a MoU was signed between the TW-DIDA and PCNDM. Back in 2022, Taiwan's military also showed interest in acquiring the automatically-loaded 120mm Rak mortar system developed by Poland's biggest defense group PGZ, ultimately seeking to produce them in Taiwan and integrate them with domestically-built chassis.
Taiwan's defense industry delegation visited Poland in Sep. 2023. Credit: TW-DIDA
At the moment, according to Nowakowski, there are challenges with working with Polish defense companies, especially when their capacities are overbooked to support either the Polish military or the defense efforts in Ukraine. Consequently, the responsiveness from Polish companies to engage in new projects at this moment without actionable market information could be difficult, observed the PPTF director who has vast experience in the defense industry and continues to engage with the sector. "Are there programs on the market that we can be involved in ?" said Nowakowski, emphasizing that for Polish companies in the sector, "the general understanding of Taiwan's market potential is actually little when it comes to making priorities in the sales or marketing department, making it hard to for them to engage with Taiwanese market when their agenda is quite occupied."
The need to go beyond simple 'buy and sell'
Regarding potential opportunities for satellite industrial cooperation - an area of strategic interest for both Poland and Taiwan - Nowakowski heeded against a lack of industrial cooperation standards that Polish suppliers are more familiar with. "When it comes to cooperation with the European Space Agency, for example, there are lines of project with clear instructions on how to engage, how to present technologies, and how to set ideas for cooperation," he noted. As nations seek greater autonomy in strategic industrial sectors, particularly those related to national security, cooperation models have to be adjusted as well.
The nation plans to launch EagleEye, the first satellite designed and built in Poland and also its most advanced and largest, in 2024 for high-resolution earth imaging. In 2025, Poland plans to launch its first military observation satellites. "Poland aspires to get a complete set of capabilities in this area, so certainly we would not like to have key decisive components dependent on foreign suppliers," said Nowakowski. He stressed, however, the opportunity for Poland to build capabilities together with partnering nations. "So far, cooperation with Taiwanese companies is largely confined to simple 'buy and sell', while Polish companies are more interested in actual industrial cooperation in terms of 'building something together based on Polish or Taiwanese components'", he indicated. "Building capabilities together and developing a technology that will be manufactured both in Poland and Taiwan would be more in line with our needs, instead of buying key components in Taiwan and building important systems upon them."
