The BLOODLINE project is part of the first Innovate UK fund to be allocated to a collaborative, research initiative with Japan. The £1.5m project will commercialise Vector Photonics all-semiconductor, PCSEL technology for 3D, metal, laser printing. The project is guided by the Eureka Network international, development programme, in conjunction with Innovate UK’s counterpart in Japan, NEDO.
Vector Photonics is leading the collaboration, supported by QD Laser Inc., a Japanese, semiconductor, epitaxy manufacturer, spun out of Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. Device reliability testing is provided by the UK’s Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult. A leading, Japanese, industrial equipment manufacturer will assess the generic, laser chips for production.
“The opportunity for Vector Photonics to lead the UK side of BLOODLINE, with Japan, is an honour,” explained Dr. Richard Taylor, CTO of Vector Photonics. “Professor Richard Hogg, Chair of Vector Photonic’s Advisory Board, and I are the co-inventors of the PCSEL technology. We have both participated in research at the University of Tokyo and both lived in Japan. My research post was under Professors Nakano and Tanemura. Professor Hogg’s research was in Professor Arakawa’s Laboratory and at NTT Basic Research Laboratories in Tokyo. We have also already been involved in research projects with QD Laser Inc. All this has given us the essential collaborative experience, critical to winning this project.”
The prestigious BLOODLINE project will position Vector Photonics and QD Laser at the forefront of 3D, metal, laser printing technology – a market set to quadruple to $10bn by 2025*.
Project BLOODLINE’s full name is Bright Laser diOdes fOr aDvance metaL addItive maNufacturing systEms.
*SmarTech Analysis: Additive Manufacturing with Metal Powders, 2019.
