La Luce Cristallina’s new Texas fabrication facility will scale up wafer production
La Luce Cristallina today announced it has launched its new 200-mm (8-inch) barium titanate (BaTiO₃) wafer and opened a state-of-the-art fabrication facility in Austin, TX. The facility expands capacity for wafer-scale fabrication of its crystal-on-glass BaTiO₃ substrates, supporting growing demand from data centers, telecommunications, sensing, computing and integrated photonics markets. With equipment provided by DCA Instruments, a Finnish manufacturer, the facility will enable closer collaboration with partners and customers worldwide through a secure U.S.-based supply chain. La Luce Cristallina is now taking orders for its 200-mm wafer, with delivery slated for early Q1 2026.
With the global optical interconnect market expected to reach $34.54 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.1 percent, La Luce Cristallina’s 200-mm BaTiO₃ platform arrives at a critical inflection point for AI and data center photonics. The company’s 200-mm wafer offers better speed, a smaller size and lower power consumption than silicon photonics modulators while addressing the integration challenges of alternative materials. La Luce Cristallina’s solution delivers a high-performance, foundry-compatible, electro-optic platform that supports the capacity demands of AI workloads and high-density optical interconnects. BaTiO₃ offers more longevity and multiple generations of device innovation (over 10 years) when compared to materials such as lithium niobate, helping customers prepare for current and future photonics demands while securing quicker and higher returns on their investments. The company’s solutions also support emerging use cases in quantum computing, aerospace and defense applications.
La Luce Cristallina leverages RF sputtering to achieve scalable manufacturing, enabling the company to produce multiple 200-mm wafers per day, far outpacing the manufacturing volume of other methods of producing BaTiO₃ on silicon. The company maintains a secure supply chain, utilizing U.S.-sourced silicon and qualified international partners for SOI wafers, ensuring reliable sourcing and mitigating the risks associated with overseas manufacturers. La Luce Cristallina’s solution integrates cleanly with silicon manufacturing processes and avoids the chemical contamination issues associated with lithium niobate and similar materials. The company’s 200-mm wafer also offers better reliability than electro-optic polymers, maintaining optimal performance even under high temperatures, high-frequency operations, radiation and other adverse conditions.
“This new facility represents continued progress in our mission to build a secure U.S.-based supply chain for BaTiO₃, helping us serve current and emerging markets across the telecommunications, data center and defense sectors,” said Alex Demkov, CEO and Co-Founder, La Luce Cristallina. “Our new 200-mm wafer helps our customers unlock innovation by solving the speed, size and production limitations of competing materials, signifying the transformation of decades of academic research into a scalable, practical solution.”
La Luce Cristallina’s BaTiO₃ substrates are backed by university researchers, with scientists at UT Austin reporting the lowest propagation loss in a monolithic BaTiO₃ waveguide utilizing the company’s photonic materials. Researchers from the University of Illinois recently achieved an intrinsic quality factor of over one million with La Luce Cristallina’s low-loss BaTiO₃ on insulator integrated photonics. La Luce Cristallina currently supports customers in integrated photonics, quantum computing and other industries.
“La Luce Cristallina’s solutions signify continued technological evolution to support data center interconnection, AI workloads and other high-capacity use cases,” said Ron Kelly, CEO, Ambature, Inc., and recent La Luce Cristallina customer. “The company’s recent capability in manufacturing high-quality 200-mm silicon wafers will enable Ambature to produce its quantum-based SQUID sensors and HPC processors at scale for data centers and AI in the growing military and commercial markets.”
