Nicslab Ops, Inc.

Mr. Andri Mahendra, Chief Executive Officer, Nicslab Ops, Inc.

Andri Mahendra, Ph.D is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nicslab, a fabless electronic and photonic integrated chip company headquartered in New York, United States, with a manufacturing facility in West Java, Indonesia. He founded the company in 2017 during his Ph.D. research at the University of Sydney, where he built compact test equipment for photonic chips after finding existing tools too bulky and expensive, an insight that later became Nicslab's core product line. Under his leadership, Nicslab now serves over 150 global customers across 20+ countries, with its precision control systems adopted by world-class institutions including MIT Lincoln Laboratory, NASA/JPL, NVIDIA, Harvard University, NTT, and Fujitsu.

In 2024, Nicslab earned Luminate Company of the Year award, the top honor among finalists in the prestigious optics, photonics, and imaging startup accelerator competition. The award came with USD 1 million in follow-on investment from New York State, which Nicslab is using to scale manufacturing of its next-generation electronics-photonics integrated circuits at NY state ecosystem. This achievement, alongside recognitions from Techstars Space, Batchery, and Garage+ Taipei, cemented Nicslab's position as a rising force in deep-tech innovation and helped Dr. Mahendra earn a spot on Optics & Photonics News' "Entrepreneurs to Watch 2025" list at Optica.

 

Topic:

Powering the Next Generation of Photonic Integrated Circuits

 

Abstract:

Photonic integrated circuit (PIC) market is scaling rapidly, from 36 million units in 2024 toward more than 411 million units by 2034, but the test and control infrastructure required to support that growth remains bulky, expensive, and energy-intensive. Testing and alignment can represent up to 80% of PIC production cost, making density, automation, and efficiency critical bottlenecks in commercialization. Nicslab addresses this challenge through a density-first electronic-photonic architecture that integrates power delivery, sensing, signal generation, measurement, and control into a single compact platform. Its XDAC family enables 16-bit precision control at high channel density, scalable to more than 1,000 channels, while miniATE combines precise analog testing with integrated digital processing. Relative to conventional rack-based systems, Nicslab enables up to 3x lower CAPEX, 20x smaller footprint, up to 85% CAPEX savings, 2x higher die-test throughput, and save energy more than 30,000 kWh/year per 240-channel rack each year. Backed by five granted patents, five additional filings, recognition as 2024 Luminate NY Company of the Year, and deployment across 150+ customers in 20+ countries, Nicslab is building the electrical-control layer for scalable photonic manufacturing across quantum photonics, co-packaged optics, and automotive LiDAR.

 

Key Technologies Covered:

  • High-channel-density electronic-photonic bias and control (XDAC platform, 16-bit precision, scalable to 1,000+ channels)
  • Compact mixed-signal test automation (miniATE) combining precise analog testing with integrated digital processing
  • Deep electronic-photonic integration for photonic design into unified system-on-modules (XSOM)
  • Unified test infrastructure replacing fragmented instrument racks (20x compact, 3x lower CAPEX)
  • Multi-platform software support (Python, C#, MATLAB, LabVIEW) via open-source-based GUI
  • Roadmap toward embedded chip-level control (XEIC) for scaling AI and data center infrastructure