PolyPhotonics Berlin e. V., which emerged from the PolyPhotonics Berlin regional growth core of the same name and was officially founded at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI in Berlin in April 2019, has begun its work. The aim of the newly founded association is to promote science and research related to the exploration and development of optical base elements for compact functional components using the polymer-based PolyPhotonics technology platform.

Board of PolyPhotonics Berlin e. V. (from left to right): Arne Schleunitz (micro resist technology GmbH), Crispin Zawadzki (Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute), Christian Kutza (FOC – fiber optical components GmbH)

Eleven founding members appeared at the inaugural meeting on April 10, representing well-known and established figures from the field of optical communication and sensor technologies with a regional focus on Berlin and Brandenburg. The board of directors is formed by Crispin Zawadzki (Fraunhofer HHI), Arne Schleunitz (micro resist technology GmbH) and Christian Kutza (FOC – fibre optical components GmbH). Other founding members are Allresist GmbH, eagleyard Photonics GmbH, Finisar Germany GmbH, Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V., Loptek GmbH, optricon GmbH, Sentech Instruments GmbH and VPIphotonics GmbH.

Eleven regional companies and three research institutions have joined forces within the PolyPhotonics Berlin growth core of the BMBF innovation initiative “Unternehmen Region”. In this alliance, the partners are able for the first time to realize comprehensive solutions in the application field of polymer-based optical components that are not yet available worldwide in this form. The aim is to develop innovative materials and processes for the production and assembly of photonic components that can be used in a wide range of applications. With the PolyPhotonics Berlin technology platform, a new technology is emerging on the world market alongside the established platforms based on semiconductors or glass, which is superior to the established approaches in many respects. The entrepreneurial vision of the alliance is to take over the world’s leading position in polymer-based integration technology and, in addition, to open up and make this platform available to other technology platforms, thereby opening up new fields of application, e.g. in medical or environmental technology.