UGent, imec Launch Si Photonics Spinoff

Ghent University (UGent) and imec announced the creation of Caliopa, a spinoff from their Photonics Research Group. An initial €2 million ($2.8 million) in funding was raised from Baekeland, Fidimec, PMV-Vinnof, a private investor and the founders. Caliopa will develop and market advanced silicon photonics based optical transceivers for the data and telecommunications markets.

The latest Market Forecast from LightCounting LLC, said the global sales of optical transceivers will reach $2.4 billion in 2010, with the market posting a 13 percent compound annual growth rate between 2011 and 2014, as the industry catches up with the steadily growing demand for bandwidth.

“Multiple optical components can be replaced with a single optical chip by using silicon photonics allowing us to develop small, highly integrated and low power optical transceivers. The ability to make these silicon photonics components at standard CMOS manufacturing facilities also makes it commercially very attractive,” said Martin De Prycker, CEO of Caliopa. “Key potential customers have expressed great interest in Caliopa’s solutions stating that port density and power consumption are the major concerns in driving the growth of optical networks.”

Caliopa will be able to build on the know-how, intellectual property and experience of years of research by the renowned Photonics Research Group at Ghent University and imec led by Professor Roel Baets. In addition, it will use the expertise in silicon processing of the nanoelectronics research center imec.

Caliopa currently counts 7 team members, composed of technical experts from imec, UGent and industry veterans with over 75 years cumulative management experience in the high tech industry. The company is planning to double this team in the next 12 months.

For more information, visit: www.caliopa.com