The city of Vigo in Spain will host a new state-of-the-art foundry for III-V semiconductor-based photonics, called SPARC (III-V Semiconductor Foundry and Advanced Photonics Research Center). This new company will consist of a 1,600 m2 clean room for wafer production and a research centre that will help customers bring fully certified photonics products to market. The foundry will be operational around the first half of 2026.

SPARC aims to harness the potential of III-V semiconductors (GaAs, InP, GaN,…) to accommodate the growing number of markets and applications that rely heavily on light, photonics and high-speed electronics. III-V semiconductors are the only class of materials that can be used to create very compact and efficient light sources and detectors over a wide wavelength range, from ultraviolet to mid-infrared. As a result, SPARC will have the ability to address a broad customer base in markets as diverse as optical communications, displays, lighting, aerospace, automotive, biomedical, sensing and quantum technologies, as well as high-speed and/or high-power electronic applications for which III-V semiconductor technology is equally well suited.