New Ventures

IPIC has an ambitious goal to catalyze and support the formation and scaling of photonics based start-up companies, in particular companies that license and utilize our disruptive technologies to deploy novel high value products across global markets.

These companies include spin-outs from IPIC, such as BioPixS Ltd, and Irish entities of fast growing international companies formed to licence and commercialize our technology, such as ficonTEC Ireland Ltd.

Details on our recent New Ventures are presented below and if you are interested to learn more please contact
Dr. David McGovern, Senior Business Development Manager at david(dot)mcgovern(at)tyndall(dot)ie.

BioPixS Ltd ficonTEC iSLight

BioPixS

BioPixS‘s vision is to translate the cutting edge research into hi-tech innovative solutions to impact the BioPhotonics market.

Its mission is to create standards in the field of Biophotonics through innovative phantoms that mimic tissue optical properties. BioPixS’s innovative, commercially unique phantoms simulate the optical properties of tissues to create a standardized approach to device assessment, which accelerates instrument development at reduced costs. These phantoms aid in a pressing need for validation of clinical methodologies, characterizations, instrument calibrations, and standardization of protocols and devices. BioPixS’s mission to be a one stop solution for all biophotonics standardization needs will spur innovation and fast track the next generation of biomedical tools to benefit wider society.

BioPixS is led by Sanathana Konugolu Venkata Sekar, CEO, and the initial IPs were created by the Biophotonics Tyndall group headed by Stefan Andersson-Engels.

For more details please refer to https://biopixstandards.com/

‘’Our innovative, commercially unique phantoms mimic the optical properties of tissue to create a standardised approach. This accelerates instrument development at reduced costs in the field of biophotonics. These phantoms serve a pressing need for validation of clinical methodologies, characterisations, calibration of instruments, and standardisation of protocols and devices. Our mission to be a one-stop solution for all biophotonics standardisation needs will spur innovation and fast track the next generation of biomedical tools to benefit society’’.

Dr Sanathana Konugolu Venkata Sekar,
CEO, BioPixS

‘’BioPixS has the potential to revolutionise the entire biophotonics value chain, from laboratory to clinical applications, and we’re very excited to see the advances that BioPixS will drive forward in the future. We are delighted that they’re launching from the SFI-funded IPIC Photonics Research Centre to produce cutting edge industrial applications that support and advance standards in the field of Biophotonics.’’

Professor Paul Townsend,
Head of the Photonics Centre, Tyndall and Director of IPIC

ficonTEC

Provider of a Cutting-Edge Photonics Automated Assembly & Testing From Lab to Lab

ficonTEC provides device micro-assembly and testing solutions for the Photonics industry. The solutions are realized as cutting-edge, high-precision production systems utilizing advanced automation approaches, regardless of the device material and target application. ficonTEC’s modular system architecture is additionally scalable, enabling proof-of-process development as well as high-volume manufacturing requirements.

“I am really pleased that we can place a team together with systems from our new in-line-optimized production platform at Tyndall to both serve Ireland’s integrated photonics industry, and to further deepen our already extensive ties with this outstanding organization. Through this additional collaboration we hope to gain significant insights into the integrated photonic assembly and testing needs of this flourishing industry, both within Ireland and for Europe as a whole.”

Torsten Vahrenkamp,
CEO at ficonTEC

“ficonTEC has installed state-of-the-art photonics manufacturing equipment at Tyndall to support the development of these advanced manufacturing technologies. It is a truly unique research and industrialization ecosystem. The presence of ficonTEC on-site at Tyndall will enable us to develop new wafer-scale automated manufacturing processes, which are essential for emerging high-volume markets. Our focus on emerging applications, such as healthcare, complement developments in PIXAPP (the European pilot line) and will help ensure that we establish a sustainable manufacturing ecosystem in Europe. This will also benefit the Irish economy, as we specifically plan to increase the use of photonics in medical devices through engagements with the leading medical device companies based in Ireland.”

Professor Peter O’Brien,
Head of Photonics Packaging research at Tyndall

iSLight offers photonic solutions powered by SLEDs for machine vision instruments, VR/AR headsets, projection displays, medical devices, lighting systems and ranging systems(LIDAR and 3D sensing). Unlike LEDs, Lasers or SLEDs in the market iSLight provide speckle free, high and customized power, low production cost, efficient, and compact light emitters.

iSLight SLED

Key features:

A speckle-free source increasing the definition and quality of projected light images
Currently blue (400-450nm) but also can scale to other wavelengths (green, red, infrared)
High efficiency (laser quality without the speckle)
High light directionality (Low entendu) which enables efficient light coupling to target
Wafer-scale packaging and testing devices which reduce production cost·
Scaling in power by going to arrays
Scaling in volume by using 100mm diameter GaN wafers
Ultrashort pulse
Currently in development phase so opportunity to influence the design of iSLight SLED modules
Flexible light modules for multiple applications

SLED
In a laser diode, the optical waveguide and reflective facets create an optical cavity (resonator) and facilitate the emission of amplified stimulated by overcoming optical losses. The emission spectrum is formed by narrow or multiple narrow bands depending on the laser characteristics.

On the other hand, LEDs devices emit a broadband spontaneous light in all directions and have no amplified gain since the light is not confined in an optical cavity.

SLEDs exploit the process of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) where the light of spontaneous emission is amplified only in a single pass through an optical waveguide as compared to amplification over multiple roundtrips in an LD. Furthermore, any kind of feedback in the optical cavity is avoided in a SLED, resulting in a broadband spectrum with no amplitude modulation (spectral ripple). Contrary to laser diodes, SLEDs gain increases with the current even much above the transparency conditions.

Projection display (AR, VR, Projector)

Industrial machine inspection

SLED Direct imaging

High brightness lighting

Microscopy Imaging

3D Printing

Metal welding

Who we are

Mr Brian Corbett: Brian Corbett received B.A.Mod degrees in Experimental Physics and Mathematics from Trinity College Dublin, Master of Science from Trinity College Dublin, and M. Eng. Sc. from University College Cork. He is leading the III-V materials and devices group at Tyndall and is the coordinator of ALIGHT which is a collaboration between European partners on semi-polar GaN and of COMPASS, a Marie Curie industry-academia partnership project with Seagate. His research area is the physics and technology of III-V based light emitting semiconductors with special emphasis on the use of advanced structuring technologies to permit integration and add additional functionality to devices enabling new applications. His research achievements include the invention of a low-cost method to obtain single frequency semiconductor lasers which is applicable across wavelengths and materials. The patent has been licensed by Eblana Photonics and is a core offering. He co-invented a method to significantly enhance the directionality of light from LEDs which has been licensed to Infiniled, a start-up company from Tyndall. He received a Researcher of the year award for his work with Intel.‍

Dr Juan Morales: Juan Morales obtained his doctorate studies from the Cork Institute of Technology in 2019. His research doctorate regarded the study of III-V novel semiconductor nanostructure, organic materials and minerals using advanced optical characterization. During his post-graduate, he was awarded a chair position and invited talks on the competitive international conference – SPIE photonic west conference. In 2019, he joined the high regarded III-V materials and devices group at Tyndall to work towards the commercialization and development of high power super-luminescent emitting diodes.

Mr. Gerry O’Carroll: Gerry is a graduate of the University of Limerick in Electronic Engineering and has held a number of senior technical and commercial positions in the semiconductor, industrial and communications industries over the past 35 years. He brings a wealth of experience having worked as a senior electronic design engineer, product marketing manager and sales and business development manager within Tier-1 companies including Analog Devices, Intel, Nortel Networks and Tellabs.

Contact

juan.morales@islight.ie

gerry.ocarroll@islight.ie

Tyndall National Institute, Lee Maltings Complex Dyke Parade, Cork, Ireland, T12 R5CP

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