Optoelectronics is the name given to a research field which combines light and optics with semiconductor-based electronics. It is a highly specialised area but also one of growing importance and commercial value.

CorkOpt Ltd, based in Penrose Wharf in the heart of Cork city, was established to exploit opportunities in optoelectronics. Set up in 1994, the company grew out of optoelectronics research at the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC) in Cork, says managing director, Professor Liam Kelly.

He is the assistant director of the NMRC and is Associate Professor of Microelectronics at UCC and was involved in research at the Centre. He saw the potential in becoming a supplier of customised optoelectronic semiconductor components and so CorkOpt was born.

The technology is based on electronic devices that either give off or detect light such as light emitting diode chips and photo-detector chips. These are in turn used in a variety of applications, for example in an automated system for measuring board feet processed in a saw mill.

Another use would be detecting the number of people going through a building entrance. These devices would be used to "illuminate" the entire entrance area so that people could be counted by light sensitive detectors. The light source would not, however, be apparent and would not contribute to ordinary space lighting, Prof Kelly explains.

"The optics need to be designed to be compatible with the properties of the light produced by the chip so the illumination is appropriate." His company specialises in designing and producing the emitters and receivers that would make a people counter work.

The company supplies the "industrial instrumentation sector", which includes a broad range of devices such as auto-service equipment, production monitoring and control equipment, process control equipment, machine vision applications, sensors and smoke detectors.

"We design, produce, test and market. From a technical point of view, we specialise in medium volume, value added applications with proprietary patented technology," Prof Kelly says.

"Our customer base would mainly be original equipment manufacturers. They are developing a system to do something, an electronic box designed for an application." His company uses its combined expertise in electronics, semiconductors and optronics to help make these electronic boxes work.

He describes CorkOpt as a campus company because UCC took a minority shareholding in the firm, although it is not campus-based and is independent of UCC. It does, however, retain close ties with the NMRC and other third level researchers in the optoelectronics area.

"For a company like ours we have to invest heavily in research and development," Prof Kelly says. It ploughs 15 per cent of its annual turnover back into research and will continue at this level of investment for a number of years.

It currently employs 10 fulltime staff, seven of them graduates, including four electronics and physical optics engineers. Turnover stands at about £750,000 per annum and the target is £3 million within three or four years. It also "would be our intention" to seek future investment through a stock market offering.

Client companies were not named for commercial reasons but CorkOpt sells products in Ireland, Britain and the Continent. The company has agency arrangements in Britain, Germany, France and Italy.

It manufactures 12 products for off-the-shelf sale, "laser diode modules" of varying characteristics and outputs. It also carries out customised work. CorkOpt is usually brought into the early design stages by a client company, he says, either to fix problems found by the developer or to design specific components. It frequently retains rights over its intellectual property which, in turn, gives it a royalty stream after future sales of the client device.

"We feel we have a niche in that we have the semiconductor side on board as well as the electronics and the optronics," Prof Kelly says.

Prof Kelly is on two years' leave of absence from the NMRC, enabling him to put time into the company. The chief executive, Mr Gerry Conlon, has both engineering and business expertise and other board members include Mr Tom Meade, formerly of the Bank of Ireland and Mr Gary Duffy, former managing director of Artesyn Technologies of Youghal.