La Luce Cristallina - Light Years Ahead

It’s hard to catch up with La Luce Cristallina, which is on the cutting edge of silicon photonics technology. Alex Demkov and Agham Posadas developed innovative materials to offer high-performance solutions for the growing demands of optical networks, including sensor technology and optical computing.

The Austin firm, which stems from their collaborative work at the University of Texas at Austin, has continuously outpaced itself in ingenuity. Demkov and Posadas needed to procure specialized equipment for eight-inch wafer fabrication, which would enable La Luce to develop smaller, lower-power electro-optic modulators that are more compact, significantly faster, and more efficient. This technology is ideal for creating high-density optical networks and advancing optical communications. The firm needed financial support to keep up with the potential of its brilliance.

In 2022, the Texas State Small Business Development Center (SBDC) led the company, with profitable projections in hand, to the right lenders backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). 

An SBA 7(a) loan for $3.3 million became a game changer and set La Luce on a trajectory that finally kept up with its fast-paced imaginations and research. La Luce is now leading the transition from silicon and LiNbO3 to high-performance BaTiO3 and shaping the future of photonic materials toward optical interconnects, sensing, and optical computing.

A three-time recipient of federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding, La Luce Cristallina continues to make profound advances in material science and exemplifies how small manufacturers drive economic growth and innovation. The SBDC’s keen insight and SBA’s reliant support were instrumental in capturing such entrepreneurial ingenuity and securing a brighter, more advanced future for Texas.