MicroAlign has secured a €2.5 million ($3 million USD) Accelerator Grant and equity investment from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to industrialize the production of high-precision fiber arrays. These components are essential for photonic quantum architectures, which require thousands of arrays per system to maintain qubit preservation and control. The capital will transition the company’s manufacturing from pilot-scale to high-volume production, addressing a critical bottleneck in the photonic quantum computing supply chain.
The company utilizes patented micro-manipulation technology to achieve nanometer-scale active alignment of individual optical fibers. Unlike passive assembly methods used in standard telecommunications, this micro-actuator-based approach minimizes photon loss at the fiber-to-chip interface. For the 2026 product cycle, MicroAlign is miniaturizing this platform to deliver ultra-high-accuracy arrays with channel pitches reduced to 127 μm, meeting the density requirements of integrated photonic circuits.
Beyond quantum computing, the technology is being deployed for high-end optical components such as MEMS switches, wavelength-selective switches, and optical amplifiers. These applications increasingly require optical-coupling loss targets below 0.5 dB across multi-channel interfaces. By 2029, the firm intends to provide the optical interconnect infrastructure for a significant portion of the global photonic quantum market, facilitating advances in materials science and large-scale diagnostic imaging.
For further technical details, view the official announcement on IO+ here, review the EIC Accelerator funding objectives here, or access the OFC 2026 exhibition schedule here.
February 18, 2026
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