Photonics has long been a foundational technology and continues to drive rapid innovation across diverse sectors, including computing, communications, healthcare, defense, automotive, and semiconductor manufacturing. The growing demand for advanced photonics—fueled by AI, quantum technologies, and sensing applications—has intensified the need for compact, high-performance photonic integrated components and systems (PICs), new materials and structures that expand into novel spectral domains, and scalable, reliable manufacturing processes. At the same time, progress in characterization techniques is equally critical, as it can both enable and limit our understanding of failure mechanisms, optimization of device performance, and assurance of reproducibility. With decades of experience in semiconductor metrology, Semilab develops and delivers advanced contact and contactless solutions to precisely monitor the structural, electrical, and optical properties essential to support the evolution of photonic technologies. While photonic devices can leverage a broad range of materials, compound semiconductors—such as III-V materials (e.g. GaAs, InP, InGaAs)—play a pivotal role in modern photonics applications including image sensors, lasers, LEDs, and photodetectors due to their superior optoelectronic properties. Their direct bandgaps enable efficient light emission and absorption, and their tunable properties across a broad spectral range make them indispensable to many systems. As devices shrink and grow more complex, controlling parameters such as layer thickness, material composition, strain, doping concentration, surface roughness, and defect density becomes increasingly critical in manufacturing. Semilab has a strong track record in developing in-line, off-line, and R&D metrology systems, and is well positioned to contribute to the comprehensive characterization of compound semiconductor materials for next-generation photonic devices.
