From first pile to highest point in 142 days

Just six months after the foundation stone was laid, the flag is flying at the highest point of the new photonic pilot plant at High Tech Campus Eindhoven. While global demand for optical chips explodes, fueled by the AI boom, Brabant’s construction supply chain is erecting the most complex high-tech infrastructure at record speed.

On Tuesday afternoon, TNO, HTCE, builder BAM, and industrial partners such as SMART Photonics celebrated reaching the highest point of the new home for the Photonic Chip Pilot Line. A formidable achievement: in barely 142 workable days, they put the structural shell of one of Europe’s most advanced semiconductor facilities in place. "In many places, we see how difficult it is to realise high-tech buildings, but here we show that it can be done," stated Jeroen Triepels, Director of Operations at High Tech Campus, during the celebration. "We are building an extremely complex facility here with heavy technology, intricate load-bearing structures, and a high-end cleanroom."

160 Boeing 737s worth of concrete

The figures BAM Realisation Manager Peter van der Horst presented illustrate the tour de force on the construction site. In less than half a year, 3.5 kilometres of foundation piles were driven into the Eindhoven soil, and 5,500 cubic metres of concrete were poured - about 13,000 tons, "or the weight of 160 Boeing 737s," he explained. In addition, workers tied more than 400 tons of reinforcing steel on site.

All of this took place under extreme weather conditions. "People stood here in the snow, in the pouring rain, but also in tropical temperatures of nearly forty degrees Celsius—during which we even had to temporarily halt work," Van der Horst recounted proudly. "It proves that despite all the machinery, modern high-tech construction remains purely human work and craftsmanship."

In about a month, the building will be wind- and watertight. From there, the focus shifts indoors, where installation partners such as Equans and Interflow will fit out the cleanroom and climate control systems.

Demand multiplied by AI madness

The urgency behind the project is no luxury. While the global chip industry was still cautiously exploring two years ago whether photonics would even be needed on an industrial scale, the breakthrough of generative AI and the explosive growth of data centres have radically transformed the playing field.

"Two years and three months ago, we first became involved in this," recalled Ton van Mol, Managing Director at TNO. "When we announced a capacity of ten thousand wafers per year back then alongside SMART Photonics, people wondered who would ever buy that. Today we know: this facility is almost too small by default. Market demand has multiplied. Photonic chips (chips that transmit data using particles of light instead of electrons) will form the backbone of all global networks in the coming decades."

No shortcuts down to the micrometre

Although the concrete skeleton now towers above ground level, the most delicate part of the trajectory begins next year. As program manager Boudewijn Docter emphasised earlier this week to IO+, a reliable chip fab demands patience: “Customers need production capacity immediately, but we neither want to nor can take shortcuts. This will be a true industrial production line. That requires hard statistics and proven process stability.”

According to the tight roadmap, the cleanroom is slated for structural delivery in May next year, after which advanced equipment from vendors such as ASML and AIXTRON will be installed. Process integration will follow around 2028, with the pilot plant expected to run at full scale on 6-inch wafers by 2029 for European consortium partners within the PIXEurope program.

By reaching this high point, Brainport Eindhoven has delivered the first tangible proof that European chip ambitions are not stuck in policy white papers but are becoming reality, brick by brick.