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How Lightspring Aims to Make Photonic Chip Packaging Scalable
Lightspring raised a €3.1 million seed round on September 22, 2026, to industrialise optical connections fabricated directly on photonic chips. A €350,000 grant and other reported public funding put total financing above €3.5 million; that larger figure is not the size of the seed round.
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Key takeaways
- Lightspring raised a €3.1 million seed round on September 22, 2026, to industrialise optical connections fabricated directly on photonic chips.
- A €350,000 grant and other reported public funding put total financing above €3.5 million; that larger figure is not the size of the seed round.
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openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: How is French deeptech startup Lightspring addressing the photonic chip manufacturing bottleneck, and how does its September 22, 2026 fundin. Article summary: Lightspring is tackling the connections to photonic chips rather than chip fabrication itself: it builds optical interfaces directly on chips using 3D lithography, targeting packaging that reportedly represents around ha. Topic tags: general, general web, user generated. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks, charts with fa
Lightspring is addressing a problem that comes after a photonic circuit is made: connecting it reliably to fibres, lasers and other components. The Besançon-based startup uses 3D lithography to form optical interfaces directly on chips, with its September 22, 2026 financing intended to move that process from research toward industrial production. 4
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Why packaging is the target
Photonic chips need optical connections to function in a larger system. Lightspring’s target is the packaging step that makes those connections, rather than the fabrication of the underlying circuits. Reporting puts packaging at roughly half the cost of a photonic chip, making it an economically significant obstacle even when the chip itself can be manufactured. That cost share is a reported estimate, not a demonstrated saving from Lightspring’s process. 4
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The question matters for systems that place optical connections near computing hardware, including proposed co-packaged-optics designs. Lightspring’s approach could simplify integration if it proves repeatable across the connections such systems require. That is a potential application, not evidence that the company has qualified a high-volume process. 17
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How Lightspring’s process works
Lightspring uses two-photon polymerisation, a form of 3D lithography, to fabricate structures such as microlenses, waveguides and beam-shaping elements directly on a chip. Instead of treating every optical connection primarily as an assembly and alignment task, the company aims to make it a programmable fabrication step. Its own description says connections can be written directly in a single process pass. 1
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The company also describes process recipes, component designs and software for optical interconnects. A process design kit, or PDK, could help designers reuse coupling structures rather than develop each interface from scratch. Lightspring identifies fibre-to-chip and laser-to-chip connections among its applications. 1
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Lightspring is targeting losses below 0.5 dB per interface, according to reporting on the funding announcement. That is a target, not an independently verified result across qualified production. The supplied evidence likewise does not establish that the process works with every material or piece of equipment, or that it eliminates alignment work in every use case. 17
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What the funding pays for—and what it does not prove
The €3.1 million seed round was led by Atlantic and OVNI Capital, with Concept Ventures, Ixcore, Plug and Play Ventures and industry business angels participating. A funding listing separately records a €350,000 grant. Those two amounts add up to €3.45 million; other public funding is reported to bring total financing above €3.5 million. One secondary account identifies the grant as an i-Lab award, but the supplied excerpts do not independently establish the precise amount of the additional public funding. 4
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The money supports the transition from a research-derived technique to an industrial offering. Lightspring’s work has roots at the FEMTO-ST Institute, and reporting describes plans to expand its team to 12 and scale fabrication. Its design tools and process recipes could make customer co-design and repeat production easier to pursue; neither funding nor a roadmap, however, constitutes manufacturing qualification. 3
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The next test is practical: whether Lightspring can demonstrate optical loss, reliability, throughput, yield and cost per interface under customer-relevant production conditions. Until those results are available, its strongest claim is a promising way to tackle the packaging bottleneck—not that the bottleneck has already been solved. 17
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What is the short answer to "How Lightspring Aims to Make Photonic Chip Packaging Scalable"?
Lightspring raised a €3.1 million seed round on September 22, 2026, to industrialise optical connections fabricated directly on photonic chips.
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Lightspring raised a €3.1 million seed round on September 22, 2026, to industrialise optical connections fabricated directly on photonic chips. A €350,000 grant and other reported public funding put total financing above €3.5 million; that larger figure is not the size of the seed round.
Sources
tech.euLightspring raises €3.5M to tackle photonic chip ...
frenchweb.frLIGHTSPRING lève 3,1 millions d’euros pour s’attaquer au maillon faible des puces photoniques
techandbusiness.orgLightspring raises €3.1 million to industrialize photonic ...
b2match.comOptical interconnects for photonic integration/packaging