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High-power lasers developed at the University of Glasgow now lie at the heart of state-of-the-art technologies in the commercial printing, medical and defence markets. University of Glasgow spin-out company Intense has introduced more than 10 new diode laser products with superior brightness, longer lifetimes and increased reliability to these markets since 2008. [text removed for publication.] In 2011 Intense was bought by ORIX USA Corporate Finance Group for an undisclosed sum.
The commercialisation of Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCL) and the associated novel fabrication processes developed at the University of Glasgow has provided Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd (CSTG) with a new foundry product supplying quantum cascade lasers for gas sensing, safety and security, and military applications. This resulted in 40% turnover growth from 2010-2012 and the company is now recognised as a global leader in QCLs and their fabrication. Based on University of Glasgow research, the company has created a manufacturing toolbox for the production of a wide variety of QCL chip designs. CSTG has also achieved a world first, manufacturing QCLs for systems that detect explosives at a safe distance and can counter heat-seeking missile attacks on aircraft.
Research into distributed optical fibre sensing undertaken at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton has had profound economic and environmental impact within the oil and gas industries in both extraction efficiency from existing reservoirs and improved safety performance and operation of three companies: Optasense, Stingray Geophysical and Schlumberger. Each of these companies have established highly competitive positions in the worldwide optical sensor market and collectively employ more than 160 people in the south of England, in their distributed sensing programmes having benefitted from the adoption of this new technology that contributes to the management of environmental risks and hazards.
Aston's fibre Bragg grating research on optical sensing has had a global commercial impact, in particular the development of low-cost fibre FBG sensor interrogation methods. The work has been carried out with a diverse range of companies (including BAE Systems, Airbus, Insensys, Schlumberger) working across different sectors including oil and gas aerospace and marine. Specific impacts include the acquisition of 70% of the stock of Insensys Wind for US$15.7 million by Moog in 2009 and continuing employment by Smart Fibres, Moog Insensys and Astasense.
New commercial gas sensing technology developed from research at the University of Strathclyde brings extensive technical, operational, safety and cost benefits to applications such as mine safety and leak detection in methane production, storage, piping and transport systems. World-wide commercial sales (in Japan, China and the USA) began in late 2010 through a spin out company, OptoSci Ltd. Sales are growing and have amounted to a total of £250k since launch plus a customisation contract for £193k, leading to jobs sustainability and growth. In addition to economic impacts, the technology also brings health and safety benefits in the gas distribution and mining industries through human safety assurance in the event of gas leaks / build up.
Impact: Economic gains
PHYESTA research has led to the setting up of a company now known as ForthDD. Since 2008 it has increased its annual revenue by more than 25% to around US $5M, and its global workforce from 25 to 35. It has released new products directly underpinned by PHYESTA research as recently as October 2012.
Significance:
A consortium involving PHYESTA staff in collaboration with Edinburgh's School of Engineering and five industrial partners realised the world's first high-resolution ferroelectric liquid crystal over silicon (FLCOS) microdisplay. This digital display attracted investment from the UK, Taiwan, and USA of over $40m, and was taken forward to production by MicroPix, MicroVue, and Forth Dimension Displays.
Reach:
ForthDD now has offices in Valencia, USA, and Berlin, Germany. The company designs, develops and manufactures single chip microdisplays used in the demanding near to eye (NTE) training and simulation systems, HD video camera viewfinders, medical imaging systems and virtual reality and head-mounted displays.
Beneficiaries:
ForthDD, its customers and business partners (e.g. in the medical imaging sector).
Attribution: This work was led within PHYESTA by Professor David Vass involving PHYESTA and done in collaboration with Edinburgh's School of Engineering.
This research has led to the creation of new business sectors in laser development for medical and healthcare applications, which has enabled the creation of a world-wide market worth US$96 million in 2011, and a local spin-out, Fianium Ltd, which now has more than 50 employees and an annual turnover of around £10 million. Exploiting a radically new optical component invented at the University of Southampton, the microstructured optical fibre (MOF), this research has led to economic benefit through the creation of hundreds of jobs worldwide, and enabled the development of new diagnostic and medical technologies.
The Optical and Semiconductor Devices group led by Richard Syms has been a major innovator in fabrication methods for 3D silicon microstructures, and has developed a wide range of novel devices and techniques based on these innovations. T he impact of their research has been to:
I1) bring the power of mass spectrometry to individual chemists' lab benches and fume hoods, raising their effectiveness and productivity through the launch in 2011 of the world's first commercial desk-top mass spectrometer by Microsaic Systems plc, a start-up company founded by members of the group;
I2) create a second start-up company, Nexeon Ltd, to manufacture nanostructured silicon anode materials, resulting in reduced battery size and weight for electric vehicles and portable electronics;
I3) add to mankind's journey of discovery in space with NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission in 2008, as part of the Atomic Force Microscope team, helping to investigate the presence of liquid water on the surface of Mars.
The development of microelectronic sensor arrays for biological applications, pioneered at the University of Glasgow, is central to a unique gene sequencing system developed by Ion Torrent. The Ion Torrent personal genome machine is a bench-top system that, compared to optically mediated technologies, is cheaper and easier to use. Ion Torrent was founded in 2007 and bought by Life Technologies in 2010 for $725M; they, in turn, were bought by Thermo Fisher for $13Bn, citing Ion Torrent as a motivation. Ion Torrent now has 62% of the bench-top sequencing market, estimated to be worth $1.3Bn in 2012.
Ultra-precise Bragg grating writing-technology, invented in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), has led to impacts in the areas of security, safety, detection of bio-hazards and the underpinning laser technology currently being pursued for clean energy generation for future energy security. This case study highlights two aspects of the technology namely: planar-based for optical microchip sensors in areas such as portable detection of biohazards, which has resulted in the spin-out Stratophase, and fibre-based, inside the US National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest laser system, based in California, built for fusion-energy research, which has ORC fabricated fibre Bragg gratings within its laser amplifier chains. These ultra-high precision laser-written engineered gratings have enabled important advances in biosecurity, management of environmental hazards and clean energy research.