Montana State awarded $1.1 million to expand facility for photonics research and development

BOZEMAN - The Montana Microfabrication Facility at Montana State University recently received a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration through its Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs program. The funding will support current and new Montana Microfabrication Facility customers to rapidly develop, assemble and test photonic integrated circuits, or PICs.

"PICs are similar to computer chips, but they manipulate and make use of light instead of electrons," said Andrew Lingley, manager of the MMF. "PICs already enable technologies like video conferencing and AI data centers, and they are increasingly being developed for sensing applications like lidar and precision agriculture."

In 2023, the Economic Development Administration named the state of Montana one of 31 Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs. As a result, MSU joined a statewide consortium of companies, academic institutions, regional economic development organizations, and state, local and tribal governments to develop the Headwaters Regional Technology and Innovation Hub, or HTH. The HTH later received $41 million for programs to promote growth by strengthening the region's capacity to build, commercialize and deploy critical technologies and smart photonic sensing systems. The Montana Photonics and Quantum Alliance, a membership-based nonprofit established in 2013, received part of this $41 million to create an Integrated Photonics Ecosystem, or IPE, to support Bozeman as a regional hub for optics, photonics and quantum technology. The IPE is expected to accelerate the timeline from product introduction to market adoption, foster businesses that can thrive in the global market and help prepare Montanans to enter the region's expanding tech workforce.

The MMF is an MSU core facility located in Barnard and Cobleigh halls that provides shared access to advanced nanofabrication tools, clean room space and technical expertise for students, faculty researchers and industry. As part of the Montana Photonics and Quantum Alliance's IPE project, the MMF will use $1.1 million over 30 months to strengthen the region's photonics infrastructure. Specifically, the facility will purchase new equipment for PIC assembly and testing, hire a dedicated photonics equipment engineer and support undergraduate employment positions. Lingley said these new capabilities will be particularly useful for researchers from MSU's Optical Technology Center, which was established in 1992 as a multidisciplinary research and education center focused on optics, photonics and related technologies such as PICs.

"We currently have the tools and expertise to prototype specialized PICs using semiconductor manufacturing equipment, but we have no capability in-house to verify that they are producing the desired results," Lingley said. "Testing PICs and assembling them into packages at MSU will allow our students, researchers and industrial clients to complete the whole prototyping cycle right here with rapid iterations and design improvements. With the MPQA driving the IPE, we expect these new capabilities to grow the local ecosystem in a meaningful way."

"Bozeman will continue to attract photonics businesses, and MSU will continue to spin out new photonics companies," Lingley added. "This is especially true because we produce well-trained students who have extensive hands-on experience."

Alison Harmon, MSU's vice president for research and economic development, noted that MSU's faculty and staff are leaders in smart photonic sensor systems, which is the core technology for the Headwaters hub.

"The MMF is an MSU core facility with very strong industry ties in addition to providing students with valuable learning experiences and training," Harmon said. "The IPE exemplifies MSU's commitment to economic development and will allow us to continue to build testing capabilities that speed up the process of research translation for MSU researchers and Montana businesses."