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Research at the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) created a novel wideband active Distributed Antenna System (DAS). The research was commercialised by Zinwave, a DoEng spin-off company [text removed for publication]. Zinwave has developed a network of over 40 System Integrator partners to deliver DAS solutions to enterprises and building owners. It has also been selected by Verizon Wireless, one of the largest mobile operators in the world, to support its 4G network rollout in the USA. The first sales were recorded in 2009. Zinwave systems have been successfully deployed across the world. Zinwave's annual revenue has grown three-fold since first sales and was nearly GBP3M in the year ending December 2012.
We have developed enabling technologies for the defence, automotive and identification industries, the health service and the wider community where our contributions enable end users to maximise performance for a given cost. Work on Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS) produced sub-reflectors for aerospace (BAE Systems — mm/sub-mm satellite radiometers for earth observations). Small antenna and RFID work led to new products in the automotive industry (Harada Industries), on-line fuel management systems (Timeplan Ltd), wireless smoke detectors (EMS Group), connectors (Martec), antennas (Panorama Antennas Ltd) and for Digital TV (Mitsubishi). Millimetre-wave over fibre systems linked antennas have supported the acquisition of new astronomical data, through the international ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre Array) project, facilitating deeper public understanding of the universe.
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.
The world's longest high capacity terrestrial commercial communications system, now deployed worldwide, was developed from Aston University's pioneering research on the concept of dispersion managed solitons. The concepts and expertise from this research were used to develop and implement the associated system design for high capacity (1Tb/s) WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) transmission over 1000s of kilometres. Commercial development was led by Prof Doran and the core team from Aston who left the University to found Marconi-Solstis, a part of Marconi plc. Prof Doran and other key members of this team have since returned to Aston The system, now owned by Ericsson, (but still called Marconi MHL3000) has current annual sales of order $100M, and employs hundreds of people worldwide.
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.
Researchers at the University of Southampton were the first in the world to introduce ytterbium-doped silica fibre as an optical gain medium. The work led to the creation of a new business sector around efficient industrial fibre lasers, which enable new manufacturing processes in the automotive, aviation, defence and medical device industries, with a reduction in carbon footprint relative to earlier technologies. The economic impact of this work includes the UK foothold in the $2 billion global industrial laser market through the success of two spin out companies — Fianium and SPI Lasers — with a combined turnover of £50 million, employing close to 300 people
High power fibre laser research undertaken at the University of Southampton has led to the creation of a new business sector in the generation of highly efficient and highly practical fibre laser technology. This has revolutionised areas of industrial material processing and enabled the development of specialist components for high-end industries (such as aviation and defence) as well as an array of new medical devices, procedures and manufacturing technologies. The research is also directly responsible for the commercial success and sustained growth of a spin-out company, SPI Lasers Ltd, which has an annual turnover of over £40 million and employs more than 250 people in the Southampton area.
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.
Optical fibre sensor technology developed at Cranfield has supported development and subsequent sales of state-of-the-art superconducting magnet systems made by Oxford Instruments. The sensors provide detailed information on the magnets' performance that is critical to successful and safe operation. The fibre sensors have been deployed in:
Cranfield's research contributed to a doubling of the engineering and design staff at Oxford Instruments and 20% increases in turnover and technical staff at an instrumentation company, AOS Technology.
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.