Photonics gets another try

Duke and N.C. State researchers seize an opportunity to create startup companies that will work with photonics, which uses light to encode, transmit, display and store data

The telecom tailspin of 2001 was a disaster for countless investors, big and small.

But for university researchers, it was a blip in the forward march of photonics -- a technology that uses light to encode, transmit, display and store data.

Such is the difference between scientists and profit-seekers, which helps explain why it is the scientists who are eager to take another crack at commercial markets.

With ideas including medical probes and sophisticated auto sensors, the Carolinas Photonics Consortium plans at least five startup companies in the coming year.

The consortium, formally announced last week, includes researchers from Duke, N.C. State, UNC-Charlotte, Western Carolina and Clemson universities.

To a person, the researchers think that photonics was unfairly pigeonholed when it led to the high-speed, fiber-optic cables that fueled the phenomenal rise -- and fall -- of telecom.

"Photonics is so much more than that," said Tuan Vo-Dinh, director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics at Duke.

Vo-Dinh reels off a list of applications, including noninvasive tissue biopsies and high-powered, low-cost medical devices. These aren't theories, he stresses: These are ideas ready for production.

The partnership of the five universities is hardly happenstance, said Russ Lea, a former UNC system vice president who helped bring the group together. "From roughly Columbia to the Triangle, you have one of the highest concentrations of photonics equipment, labs and researchers in the country," Lea said.

But the shelf life for some of the equipment is five years at best, Lea said. The time to match investment with research is now.

So in August the group will solicit ideas and offer seed money to the five best proposals, said Jeff Conley, interim director of the consortium.

Although the first round of money is public, the goal is to get private investors for the startups. Conley expects at least 25 good proposals in the first round.

"We're talking about ideas that work now," Conley said. "This isn't something that will take years and years to get to market. Their problems are getting up to scale."

The potential to move rapidly from lab bench to marketplace can be traced in part to the history of photonics in the Carolinas.

Unlike fledgling endeavors such as biofuels, the science of photonics is already well-established. DVD and CD players are obvious examples of using light to read data encoded on discs.

Cree of Durham, which uses light-emitting diodes to illuminate areas such as parking garages and products such as mobile phones, is another example.

Research in the field didn't stop simply because fiber-optic cable failed to produce the endless profit that investors hoped for.

That means plenty of good ideas remain bottled up in labs, Conley said.

But researchers are not business executives.

"Between a good idea and a successful business is that valley of death," said Leda Lunardi, an NCSU professor of electrical engineering. "It keeps many researchers from even trying to start a business."

But working as a group, the universities think they can tackle just about any project. By placing their combined strengths behind the startups, the consortium hopes to soothe investors who still remember the sting of the telecom bust.

NCSU engineers contribute a special expertise in semiconductors. Its College of Management has a program, Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, that specifically guides startups.

At UNC-Charlotte, researchers excel at modeling optical systems in microminiature. Clemson focuses on developing novel optical materials; Western Carolina specializes in rapid prototype production.

With Duke's expertise in medical areas, not to mention more than 60 researchers at the Fitzpatrick Institute, Vo-Dihn sees the chance to produce a range of tools, including some that can detect molecular changes at the cellular level.

Such tools would change the way doctors make diagnoses.

"The range of this group is impressive, and I really think the field is ready to break into all sorts of areas," Conley said.

But after working 20 years in private industry, Conley understands what happens when investors or company officials commit money to an idea.

"They want results in a week," he said.

But no matter how eager investors are to bridge the gap between lab and marketplace, researchers can't work that fast, Conley said. But they can guarantee a steady march forward if investors are willing to commit the money.

Such is the difference between scientists and profit-seekers.