Comptek Solutions and the EIC Accelerator: Passivating Lasers

Compound semiconductors such as gallium nitride power lasers, LEDs and fast power electronics, but their surfaces carry defects that waste energy and, in lasers, can destroy the chip's output facet. Comptek Solutions, based in Turku, Finland, sells Kontrox, a process that turns those surfaces into an ordered crystalline oxide layer to remove the defects.

The European Innovation Council granted €2,430,225 towards a €3.47 million project that built a Kontrox pilot line, and the EIC Fund took part in an €8 million Series A in 2023. In 2025 Comptek launched an industrial tool for laser makers and opened a new cleanroom. It has not named a paying customer.

Where Comptek Stands Today

In December 2025 Comptek opened a new cleanroom in Turku with ISO 5 to 7 areas, Kontrox LASE 16 tools and its 200 mm pilot line, and said the EIC-funded pilot line project helped make it possible. Its newsroom shows trade fairs in 2025 and 2026, including SEMICON Japan, SPIE Photonics West and the ISLC laser conference, and posts pitching reliable lasers for AI data centres. It announces no orders or customers.

The Technology: A Better Surface

Kontrox LASE 16 targets catastrophic optical mirror damage, in which a laser diode's output facet is destroyed by the light passing through it. Existing treatments, such as ZnSe coatings or the E2 process, protect the facet but are complex. Comptek's Kontrox LASE 16, launched in March 2025, claims "passivation results comparable to leading industry standards" at lower cost and higher throughput, processing up to 1,800 laser bars a day, with facets that stay stable in air after treatment.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

According to the CORDIS results, ENLIGHT built a pilot line for substrates up to 200 mm that combines the Kontrox reactor with plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition and a glove box, and "is already being piloted by industrial partners" in microLEDs, power electronics and RF. Comptek reports "up to 250% higher efficiency and up to 90x less power consumption" for microLEDs and "up to 50% increase" in laser power output, and filed two patents. It adds that each device type needs its own optimised process rather than one universal recipe.

1. A 200 mm pilot lineDeliveredCompleted October 2024.
2. Industrial validationDeliveredPiloted by unnamed partners.
3. A production toolDeliveredKontrox LASE 16, March 2025.
4. Paying customersNot shownTrial requests only, per company.

What Has Happened Since the Award

The Money

The August 2023 Series A of €8 million came from the Horizon Europe EIC Fund, the Italian venture firm LIFTT and a strategic partner in consumer electronics that was not named, to grow the team and scale passivation for power electronics and lasers. Japan's Hamamatsu Photonics had invested in 2021 to work on laser applications. The EIC Fund's share of the round was not disclosed.

Why Europe Should Care

Lasers and compound semiconductors sit in optical data links, sensing and power electronics, and Comptek's own marketing now targets lasers for AI data centres. Comptek is a small Finnish equipment and process supplier with the EU, a Japanese optoelectronics group and an Italian fund as investors.

The Verdict

Comptek Solutions has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.