Fourth industry recognition for Physik Instrumente
PI (Physik Instrumente) announces that its PINovAlign active parallel photonics alignment platform was recognised with a 2026 Lightwave Innovation Award. The award was presented at the OFC Conference in Los Angeles, CA, where PI’s Matt Price and Nikta Jalayer accepted the honour from Lightwave’s Sean Buckley.
This recognition marks the fourth major industry award for the PINovAlign system, underscoring its impact on high-speed, high-precision photonics alignment. The platform combines advanced motion control, integrated alignment algorithms, and high-performance hardware to significantly improve throughput and repeatability in photonic device manufacturing and testing.
Designed for silicon photonics wafer testing, high-throughput fibre alignment, FAU (fibre array unit) alignment, and PIC (photonic integrated circuit) alignment in both test and assembly environments, PINovAlign’s parallel, multi-channel optimisation approach addresses one of the key bottlenecks in scaling silicon photonics manufacturing. By combining high-dynamics precision motion with embedded alignment intelligence, the system enables rapid, repeatable coupling of optical components with nanometre-level accuracy.
At the core of the platform, the PILightning algorithm dramatically accelerates first-light acquisition and alignment convergence compared to legacy, sequential methods. This results in significantly shorter cycle times, higher yield, and improved process stability – critical factors for volume production.
As silicon photonics continues to emerge as a foundational technology for AI infrastructure and next-generation data centres, the need for fast, automated, and scalable alignment solutions becomes essential. By reducing alignment time from minutes to seconds and enabling parallel, multi-channel optimisation, PINovAlign helps remove a major barrier to mass adoption, supporting the growth of an industry that will underpin future high-speed data communication.
By replacing electrons with photons, photonic computer chips have the potential to save huge amounts of energy in next generation data centres.
