The amount of traffic on the internet is increasing all the time, and this is putting strain on existing cable infrastructure. The only way around this appears to be through the introduction of fibre optic cabling into every home. An all-optical network will massively increase the capacity of the internet, thereby increasing the potential for e-business.

2002 was a historic year for photonics in Ireland. Enterprise Ireland brought together all of the concerned parties, institutions, agencies, research centres, potential investors, indigenous companies, and four or five multinationals for the first time. From there Enterprise Ireland decided to take a stand at a major photonics show in Anaheim California, the biggest of its kind in the USA.

There are currently 11 Irish client companies working in photonics along with 15 start-ups and 120 researchers. Enterprise Ireland’s goal is to increase the number of researchers up to 300 and to double the funding available.

Some of the key players in photonics research in Ireland are four or five multinational companies that are keenly aware of the possibilities the technology offers. Intel for example is looking to get into mass production in photonics, and is currently seeking to grow material that can be used for lasers.

The universities also play a crucial role and there is some excellent work going on at Dublin City University (DCU) and the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC) in Cork. The focus at the NMRC is on ‘nanophotonics’, the study of photonics on a very small scale, and on the semi-conductor side. At DCU the emphasis is on sensing devices that can check the quality of beer, or oil, or even whether meat products have gone off by reading from a tiny bar code inserted into the meat. At the Waterford Institute of Technology, researchers are looking at next generation networks and software. At the National University of Ireland in Galway, they are using lasers to make etchings into materials such as glass.

The NMRC recently signed a collaborative agreement with North-western University in Illinois, an important feature of which will be the development of a ‘virtual’ nanophotonics research laboratory. There will also be an exchange programme for scientists and postgraduate students. This is not the first international agreement signed with the NMRC. In 2001 they signed agreements with JiaoTony University and Fudan University for a five-year programme of collaborative research in ICT, also including staff and student exchanges. This will all help to increase the base of photonics knowledge and expertise in Ireland.

One example of an Irish company that has already been spectacularly successful in photonics is XXIL. This was a campus company that emerged out of Trinity College Dublin, using machine vision technology and photonics that can, for example, identify mistakes on a circuit board in the production process. Other companies that have already made their mark in photonics in Ireland include Eblana Photonics and Intune Technology as well as Plasma Ireland.