“While a postdoc, launching a startup based on my research was of strong interest, but it wasn’t clear how I’d get there. Harvard connected me with my first investor and with industry experts, and provided the funding needed to advance the research to the stage required for seed funding. The Grid will provide these opportunities to a wider range of Harvard researchers, at a far more ambitious scale.”
Mian Zhang, CEO, Hyperlight
Hyperlight
Hyperlight provides integrated, chip-scale LN modulators for telecommunication, high performance computing, quantum computing, navigation, and more
Lithium niobate modulators are the backbone of modern telecommunications, converting electronic data to optical information at the end of fiber optic cables. But it is notoriously difficult to fabricate high-quality devices on a small-scale using lithium niobate, an obstacle that has ruled out practical integrated, on-chip applications—until now. Hyperlight provides integrated, chip-scale LN modulators for telecommunication, high performance computing, quantum computing, navigation, and more.
The technology utilized by Hyperlight is based on pioneering research in nanofabrication from the Harvard Laboratory for Nanoscale Optics and work of Marko Loncar, Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering. Loncar received a grant in 2017 from the PSE Accelerator to utilize optical links for energy efficient data centers. He founded Hyperlight in 2018 with then postdoctoral fellow Mian Zhang, now CEO, and graduate student Cheng Wang PhD’17. (Wang is now an Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong.) Hyperlight raised initial funding from The Engine, where it has now established operations.
Project Overview
