Aeluma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALMU), a semiconductor company specializing in high-performance, scalable technologies for AI, mobile and consumer, defense and aerospace, and quantum, announced today it has executed an agreement with Sumitomo Chemical Advanced Technologies (SCAT) to accelerate development and production of photonics wafers for the AI datacom market. The agreement will initially leverage existing metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) capabilities at SCAT’s Phoenix, Arizona manufacturing facility, and provides a path for increasing capacity in the future.

Aeluma’s large-diameter non-indium-phosphide (non-InP) photonics platform combines best-in-class materials with mass-market microelectronics manufacturing. With InP substrates in short supply, and geopolitics adding risk and uncertainty, alternative approaches are being considered to meet the demand for high-performance photonics components such as photodetectors and lasers. Traditional InP manufacturing is carried out on 100mm substrates and smaller. While 150mm InP lines are being established, new fabs require time and resources to qualify, and InP substrates are expensive and in short supply.