Rapid Phonics B.V. (RP) develops and commercialises a unique technology for manufacturing Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) in Lithium niobate (LN). LN is a widely used material in conventional optics. RP's technology enables for the first time the use of LN in PICs on an industrial scale. This can both increase the speed and reduce the power consumption of data communications. RP will develop a PDK, a set of tools for PIC designers to use RP's technology, and engage in business development and sales to find early adopters and partners in the PIC value chain.
This funding marks a significant milestone for both Dr. Avci and Rapid Photonics, accelerating their efforts to revolutionize the field of photonics and drive forward the technology that powers our everyday devices.
About Imran Avci
Imran Avci received her PhD degree from the Integrated Optical Microsystems Group at the University of Twente, The Netherlands in 2012. During her PhD research, she developed an on-chip optical coherence tomography (OCT) system, with the goal of cost and size reduction of these bulky systems. Between 2013 and 2015 she was a postdoctoral researcher at Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Harvard Medical School. She worked on a functional imaging system called OCT vibrography for assessing corneal biomechanical properties. In 2015, she received a VENI grant and returned to the Netherlands as a post-doctoral researcher at the Academic Medical Center (AMC). In 2016, she received a Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship. She is an Associate Professor at the VU University Amsterdam, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Biophotonics and Medical Imaging Group.