indie Semiconductor, an automotive solutions innovator, has extended its photonics offering with the addition of in-house photonics integration, packaging and system test capabilities. By combining a class-leading optical component portfolio through indie’s prior acquisitions of TeraXion and EXALOS, with the latest in-house advanced automated assembly, packaging and optical test capabilities, indie can now offer customers complete photonics sub-systems for rapid solution evaluation, pre-production validation, and low volume production. This strategic capability supports automotive and mobility applications including Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) sensing, head-up displays, gyroscopes, and several adjacent industrial segments which also mandate similar precision, quality and reliability performance as the automotive sector.
S&P Global Mobility estimates that the market in 2023 for optical components in the automotive segment alone was $6.5 billion, growing to an impressive $9.2 billion by 2030. The integration of these discrete optical components such as lasers, Superluminescent Emitting Diodes (SLEDs), photodiodes and gratings into photonic sub-systems drives substantial additional value by enabling system integrators and OEMs to practically and rapidly deploy optics-enabled capabilities into their user-end applications with higher reliability and significantly simplified supply chain logistics.
“indie has built a world-class optical components portfolio through targeted acquisition and organic growth. In our engagements with key customers, a consistent request to indie – beyond supplying innovative optical components – has been to also solve their component integration, reliability and supply chain logistics challenges by offering complete photonics sub-systems,” said Mathieu Drolet, executive vice president of indie’s photonics business unit. “Our turnkey photonic design, integration and full-system test capability will help unlock time-to-market and commercial deployment opportunities for a broad customer and segment base.”
indie is currently developing commercial photonics integration solutions for multiple customers, with first production deployments anticipated in the first half of 2025.