Bay Photonics to develop integrated optical package for SPLICE Innovate UK project

Bay Photonics to develop integrated optical package for SPLICE Innovate UK project

Bay Photonics are providing photonic packaging and fibre optic expertise in the Innovate UK SPLICE project led by Bristol-based start-up QLM in collaboration with oil and gas firm BP and the National Grid. During the course of the project, the team will develop quantum enabled gas sensors for detecting and visualising industrial leaks to prevent natural gas from being lost to the atmosphere and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The project is one of 38 quantum technology projects funded to the tune of £70M by the UK government as part of the Quantum Technology Challenge, aiming to secure the UK as a world-leader in quantum technology. The new projects aim to solve global problems and address key industrial challenges. Crucially, the project aim to deliver real world products with a high TRL level.

As natural gas becomes the leading fossil fuel, industrial gas leaks are becoming a major source of climate changing carbon emissions. The SPLICE project assembles a world-leading scientific and industrial consortium to develop and industrialise LIDAR gas imagers based on time-correlated single photon counting, one of the early applications of quantum technology, using shortwave infrared (SWIR) wavelength single photon avalanche detectors (SPADs). This revolutionary UK technology will make accurate leak measurements at a fraction of existing costs, enabling the gas emission monitoring networks to be deployed over vast geographical areas, helping to save many billions in lost revenue as well as reducing a major contributor to climate change. The SPLICE team will further innovate this technology into a flexible sensor platform that addresses key customer demands for robust, low cost and industrially qualified products that can simultaneously image multiple greenhouse gases.

Research & Innovation Manager, Dr Andrew Robertson, explained, “Our role in SPLICE is to produce an integrated optical module that will be robust enough to survive on multiple delivery platform types in a wide variety of environmental conditions and the project aims to build the first scalable industrial product to come from the UK’s significant investment in quantum technology over the last few years.”

The SPLICE project started on the 1st June and will run for 24 months. The full consortium consists of Bay Photonics, QLM Technology Ltd, BP plc, STL Tech, National Grid Gas plc, Aston University, University of Bristol, University of Sheffield, NPL, Land Instruments International Ltd, and the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult.   

About Bay Photonics

Bay Photonics offer a range of semiconductor, microelectronic, optic and photonic alignment & assembly processes to various different substrates / packages / modules including application specific packaging and fibre optics. Bay Photonics’ markets range from Marine, Medical, Space, Quantum and Data Communications. Bay Photonics are a member of the Torbay Hi-Tech Cluster.