Innovation and Business

The ORC Making Waves

The spirit of innovation at the ORC is alive and well today, with close industry links, and spin-out companies. This reflects the entrepreneurial ethos and atmosphere at one of the world's leading research centres.

The benefits to our society, and in particular to British industry, are clear in what’s been achieved at the University of Southampton and the ORC in particular. - John O'Reilly, Chief Executive of EPSRC

Working with the ORC

We work hard on our links with business locally, across the UK and the rest of the world. This takes many forms, from large-scale projects to more informal advice and consultancy. If you'd like to talk to us about what we can do for you, or if you'd like to hear of events you can attend, please contact us.

The ORC: Creators of an Industry

There are around nine companies in the Southampton area with their roots in the ORC, creating a 'Light Valley' of successful photonics companies. While much of the research at the ORC is conducted without a particular commercial activity in mind, the nature of the work naturally leads to a lot of innovation that is commercially exploitable. Combining this with the entrepreneurial atmosphere at the ORC means that the ORC has been extraordinarily successful in it's commercial endeavour.

Here are some of the recent ORC spin-outs:

SPI Lasers


SPI Lasers was spun out of the ORC in 2000, and has used the fibre laser technology invented at the ORC to take the industrial laser market by storm. SPI are listed on the AIM market at the London Stock Exchange under the code SPIL.

Mesophotonics


Mesophotonics was established in 2001 to develop and commercialise photonic crystal technology in the fields of microphotonics, telcommunications and computing. The company was formed by a multi-disciplinary team that have been working together on photonic crystals and photonics band gaps since 1994. Their new sensor products that have increased chemical detection levels by an order of magnitude are having a global impact.

Stratophase


Stratophase spun out from the ORC in 2003 to commercialise optical planar technology developed by the ORC. Stratophase's first products were wavelength conversion crystals using Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate (PPLN). These products are available as either standard or customised parts through the leading optical company Thorlabs. PPLN is a very efficient non-linear crystal that can be used to wavelength convert lasers to wavelengths between 400nm and 5μm. Stratophase are also developing new sensor technology for their next wave of growth.

ChG Southampton


ChG is the most recent spin-out from the ORC, launched to take forward the exciting new technology around new types of glass, Chalcogenides. The unusual properties of this glass include transparency much further into the Infra Red than silica-based glass. This makes new applications possible, for example in IR imaging for medical, security and defence applications.

Copyright University of Southampton 2006