News: Suppliers
3 September 2026
IQE announces purchase agreement with Quintessent as QD laser technology moves to customer sampling
Epiwafer and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK has announced a purchase agreement with Quintessent Inc of Santa Barbara, CA, USA — which specializes in heterogeneous integration of quantum dot lasers and silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) — for the supply of quantum dot laser (QDL) epitaxy.
Following an initial strategic announcement and purchase order in January 2025, the extension of the companies’ long-standing relationship will see IQE supply 6-inch gallium arsenide (GaAs) epiwafers through its foundry-ready service. This will support Quintessent’s customer sampling activity as its technology progresses towards commercial deployment and new production introductions.
Quintessent’s QDL product architecture enables the next generation of AI data-center infrastructure by meeting the need for optical interconnects with lower power consumption, simpler manufacturing and improved reliability compared to traditional laser technologies.
IQE and Quintessent have been working together for over a decade to transition QDL technology from research to large-scale production and previously announced a partnership to establish the world’s first large-scale QDL epitaxial wafer supply chain.
“After a period of successful development, we are pleased to be enabling customer sampling with our partner Quintessent as its quantum dot laser technology moves towards broader market adoption and commercialization,” says IQE’s CEO Jutta Meier. “IQE’s proven expertise in advanced epitaxy and high-volume manufacturing means we are ideally positioned to support the scaling of multiple complementary optical interconnect technologies that are enabling the AI revolution,” she adds.
“Quintessent is an innovator in resilient AI data-center optical interconnect products that drive TCO [total cost of ownership] benefits for customers,” says Quintessent’s CEO & co-founder Alan Liu. “The next phase of the AI infrastructure buildout will require deep technology and supply chain partnerships to address the scale required in the AI ecosystem,” he adds. “IQE has been a wonderful production partner, helping Quintessent enable our laser and SOA [semiconductor optical amplifier] technology. We look forward to continued collaboration with IQE.”
Quintessent raises $40m in oversubscribed Series A funding round
IQE’s greater-than-expected £64m first-half 2026 revenue driven by InP demand
