Welcome to our July Newsletter. The first half of 2026 has seen new funding, new customer projects, new products, and a new €1M contract with the European Space Agency! We finally have some time to collate all the news and deliver them to your inbox.
Want to get the news first? Follow our LinkedIn! All our news and blogs get hosted on our website, of course. And if you prefer a human touch, we have a list of events we will be at at the close of this newsletter.
Now for some updates!
In This Issue...
€10.4 Million for Pilot
EIC Accelerator success to fund scale-up!
Finchetto & MBRYONICS Pick Pilot
Fast tunable lasers for the most advanced applications
Optical FGU Whitepaper released
PIC-enabled upgrade to RF frequency generation
The Future of Optical Datacom
PICs and datacom have a long road ahead together
€10.4 Million for Pilot
We have been approved for a recommended investment of up to €10.4m from the Horizon Europe European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator! The funding will support Pilot Photonics’ next phase of growth, including product qualification, high-volume manufacture, and expansion of the team in Ireland and internationally. "This support gives us the platform to move from breakthrough innovation to industrial scale-up, building a stronger team in Ireland, qualifying our products for global customers, and establishing the supply chain required to compete internationally.” - William Oppermann, CEO.
Finchetto is developing the world’s first fully optical passive network switch for energy-efficient AI. MBRYONICS is integrating PIC devices in satellite and ground station modules for the New Space market. Both have chosen Pilot's tunable laser.
Finchetto's optical switching approach needs an ultra-fast switching laser, while MBRYONICS finds the laser's fast continuous tunability crucial for optical Doppler compensation in coherent space communications.
The goal is to make good on the potential of PICs: reducing network power consumption, improving network coverage and throughput, and making new advanced applications possible.
In all cases, both customers represent proud votes of trust in our laser capabilities. "We haven't been able to find a faster laser on the market,” said Mark Rushworth, CEO and co-founder of Finchetto.
Finchetto and MBYRONICS put out joint press releases with us, announcing the deployment of Pilot's ultra-fast tunable lasers in their devices.
Let us introduce you to our latest PIC-powered device with our whitepaper on the Optical Frequency Generation Unit! OFGU is a low profile module which uses an integrated optical comb laser and heterodyne techniques to generate stable tunable RF carriers from 6 GHz to 220 GHz. It delivers low phase noise at < -75 dBc/Hz @ 100 Hz offset, wide frequency agility, and seamless integration with optical networks and systems.
"This year, that demand was still there, likely even stronger, but there was also a shift in tone. People were starting to worry about supply chains, capacity, and the industry's ability to meet the demand. That worry is also a motivator. As some of the largest suppliers in the industry see huge investment from Nvidia to secure capacity, it creates an opportunity for smaller players like Pilot Photonics to have an impact."
Pilot Photonics' booth at OFC '26
With ECOC around the corner, we have been reflecting on the first half of this year. CTO Frank Smyth was part of our team at OFC, and noted distinct changes in the industry's response to AI demand. Scaling to a billion optical links annually, scale-across networking, O-band lasers for network monitoring, new standards in scale-up and scale-out, and at least one Los Angeles bar that actually pull a decent pint of Guinness. Can Màlaga compete?
With so many space projects recently wrapped up, we have plenty to share at ESA's Space Optics
We hope that you are interested in this newsletter content. It is never our intention to spam so if you prefer not to receive these updates, please follow the unsubscribe link below and we will remove you from any future mailings.
On the other hand, if you want more frequent updates from Pilot Photonics, please follow us on social media using the links below!
