Pixel Photonics raised 1.45 million euros in seed-funding from HTGF, Quantonation and business angels
Münster, 29th of March 2022 – Pixel Photonics, a start-up out of the physics department of WWU Münster founded in 2020, has raised 1.45 million euros in a seed round from German VC fund High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), French quantum-focused VC fund Quantonation as well as the photonic industry veteran Dr. Hendrik Sabert. Pixel Photonics develops highly scalable integrated-optical single-photon detectors. The underlying waveguide based SNSPD approach will be used to boost performance of photonic quantum computing, quantum key distribution, microscopy, or other sensing applications, that require highly efficient detection of light at single photon level.
Pixel Photonic’s unique technological approach to single photon detection combines scalability with high detection efficiency at very high speed. This makes new applications feasible and helps to scale the number of channels in quantum computing or data rates in quantum cryptography without increasing technical complexity. The team of physicists turned entrepreneurs, which emerged from the groups of Prof. Pernice an Prof. Schuck, persuaded us by its vision and expertise.
Dr. Christophe Jurczak (Quantonation)
The idea behind Pixel’s detector design was born years ago out of research of Prof. Wolfram Pernice and Prof. Carsten Schuck. Researchers were looking for single photon detectors with multiple channels in combination with additional functionality provided by integrated optics. This resulted in the first sale of a detector with four channels for research purposes early this year. Systems with 32 or more channels will be introduced in the near future.
Company website: https://pixelphotonics.com
Selected bibliography:
“Waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors“, by Simone Ferrari, Carsten Schuck and Wolfram Pernice (2018)
“Detector-integrated on-chip QKD receiver for GHz clock rates“, by Fabian Beutel, Helge Gehring, Martin A. Wolff, Carsten Schuck and Wolfram Pernice (2021)
“Low-loss fiber-to-chip couplers with ultrawide optical bandwidth“, by H. Gehring, M. Blaicher, W. Hartmann, P. Varytis, K. Busch, M. Wegener and W. H. P. Pernice (2019)
“Waveguide integrated superconducting single-photon detectors with high internal quantum efficiency at telecom wavelengths“, by Oliver Kahl, Simone Ferrari, Vadim Kovalyuk, Gregory N. Goltsman, Alexander Korneev & Wolfram H. P. Pernice (2015)
