Zero Point Motion Completes Innovate UK Horizon Europe Guarantee Project to Advance MEMS-Photonics Sensors Toward Commercial Foundry Manufacturing

We’re proud to share that we have successfully completed our project, “Redefining the Limits of Inertial Sensors.” 

The central achievement of the project has been the creation of a first-of-its-kind monolithic manufacturing flow that combines silicon photonics and MEMS on the same platform. Rather than simply improving an existing sensor design, we have been building a new sensing architecture: one that uses light to measure motion with far higher sensitivity, while preserving the scale and manufacturability of semiconductor production. 

Over the course of the project, we made significant progress across the full system architecture. This included advancing the MEMS and photonic integrated circuit design, developing the manufacturing route with world-leading semiconductor foundries and commercial partners, improving optical and electrical integration, and progressing from fibre-pigtailed laboratory systems toward chip-level integration of lasers and detectors. 

We also developed the packaging, software, user interface and test infrastructure needed to move the technology closer to real-world deployment. These steps are essential in turning a physics breakthrough into an engineering product that can be used by customers. 

This support has helped us move closer to delivering compact, high-performance inertial sensors for demanding applications where motion has to be trusted: robotics, autonomy, industrial systems, aerospace and next-generation physical AI. 

The project began as an EIC Accelerator award, selected at a time when the UK’s relationship with Horizon Europe was changing. We remain very grateful to the European Innovation Council, the evaluators and the wider programme for recognising the ambition of what we were trying to build. As the UK’s position evolved, Innovate UK stepped in to provide the support that allowed the project to begin and move forward, and we are equally grateful for that continuity. 

A sincere thank you to the European Innovation Council, Innovate UK, our project partners, contractors and team for helping make this possible. This project has been a crucial step in our journey to redefine how motion is measured