Tarranix at PIXEurope Connect: a step into the heart of European photonics

Invited by ICFO, Tarranix attended PIXEurope Connect Industry Ecosystem Building Day yesterday at Torre Glòries in Barcelona. The first pan-European gathering around integrated photonic chips, and a milestone we didn't take for granted.

An invitation that means something

Tarranix has been personally invited by ICFO (Institut de Ciències Fotòniques), the coordinating body of the PIXEurope Pilot Line, to attend this inaugural event as a guest. Not as an exhibitor, not as a speaker, but as a recognised actor in the European photonics space.

For a project at the stage Tarranix is at, this kind of recognition carries real weight. It signals that the work being done here, in deep-tech photonic computing, from Fira Barcelona Gran Via, is being seen and taken seriously by the institutions shaping Europe's photonics agenda.

What PIXEurope Connect is, and why it matters

PIXEurope is a €400 million, decade-long initiative co-funded by the Chips Joint Undertaking and EU Member States, with a single clear objective: build Europe's first fully integrated photonic integrated circuit (PIC) pilot line. Yesterday's event was its first industry gathering, bringing together end-users, technology providers, foundries, and policymakers to define how that infrastructure can be put to work across European industry.

PIXEurope unites 20 partners across 11 European countries under an Open Access model, enabling companies and researchers to access shared fabrication, testing, and packaging infrastructure, reducing time-to-market and technical risk for deep-tech photonics development.

This is precisely the kind of ecosystem-level conversation that defines which projects and organisations become part of the next chapter in photonic computing and which ones are left watching from the outside.

Members of the ICFO Board of Directors and Spanish ministers at PIXEurope

Oriol Romero-Isart – ICFO Director

Óscar López Águeda – Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service in the Spanish Govern

Panel 1 at PixEurope

Barcelona, home ground for photonics

It is no coincidence that this event is taking place in Barcelona. ICFO, headquartered in nearby Castelldefels, is one of Europe's most respected photonics research institutes. The 22@ innovation district hosting the event has steadily established itself as a hub for deep technology in southern Europe. And Tarranix, operating just minutes away at Fira Barcelona Gran Via, is very much part of that geography.

Attending PIXEurope Connect is not a one-off milestone. It is an entry point — into a network, a conversation, and an industrial ecosystem that will shape the trajectory of photonic computing in Europe over the coming decade. We are there to listen, to learn, and to ensure Tarranix remains part of that conversation as it evolves.

LEARN MORE ABOUT TARRANIX.