ANDY STEVENS EPIC CEO INTERVIEW
ANDY STEVENS In this article, Ivan Nikitski , EPIC’s Technology Manager for Quantum and PICs, talks to Andy Stevens , CEO at Quantifi Photonics, a New Zealand manufacturer of innovative photonics test and measurement systems. EPIC CEO INTERVIEW
What’s the background to you co-founding Quantifi Photonics as CEO? In 1992, I began a PhD in Physics and Applied Optics at The University of Edinburgh, which
period of rapid growth, we renamed the company Quantifi Photonics.
capability that goes down very well with our customers. Additionally, as photonic devices nowadays have many channels and require a lot of parallel testing, our products are unique in terms of their extremely high-channel density, small footprint, and reduced power consumption.
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How has the company developed?
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Our first product was a unique coherent receiver which was part of an optical modulation analyser
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focused on liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) devices & diffractive optical elements. During this period, I developed novel technologies for use in optical switching which I tried to get the university to patent. Although the patent was eventually submitted it never fully progressed and both the university and I missed out on a big opportunity as this technology is now used extensively for optical switching. I didn’t want to see that happen again and decided that if I was ever in a similar position, I’d submit the patent myself and set up my own company. On completing my PhD in 1995, I moved into display technologies - working for Pilkington Optronics, and then in 1998, I moved to the US where I worked for the next 12 years for various start-ups primarily in micro display projection technologies. Then in 2009, I moved to New Zealand to work for a start-up developing optical touchscreens for all-in-one PC’s & monitors. This was followed in 2010, by a move to Southern Photonics, a start-up based in Auckland, where I was responsible for growing their test & measurement business. While working at Southern Photonics, Iannick Monfils and I became aware of the enormous market potential for photonics test and measurement technology. But as Southern Photonics was involved in academic R&D across a range of photonic technologies, in 2012, we decided to set up our own company, Coherent Solutions with me as CEO and Iannick as CTO. In 2015, after a
What have been the most challenging products to develop?
system. We managed to persuade a company to buy some prototypes from us, and they funded the company for the first couple of years. During his time, we were living hand to mouth and competing with the big players as an undercapitalized, small company. This was tough but exciting. But by late 2016, our business with Intel had really taken off and we raised our first capital. This really transformed the company because for the first time ever we weren’t too worried about an overdraft. Then in 2021, we acquired a company based in Thailand called SmarTest, a designer and manufacturer of high-speed test and measurement equipment, and later in the same year, Intel Capital approached us to make an investment. This was quite a game changer because it considerably enhanced our prestige within the industry. We now have three subsidiaries in the US, Germany and Thailand and we have around 70 employees worldwide.
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For our first product the coherent receiver, the DSP algorithms were very complex and took several
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years of development. The other challenging product has been our variable optical attenuator. To be
competitive, our approach has been to take low cost, off the shelf MEMS devices made for the telecom market and use our IP to covert these cheap components into high- performance, high-quality but lower cost test instruments. To do this, we’ve had to develop a lot of IP, which has been difficult as it’s like converting a Mini into a Lamborghini.
Where are your main customers?
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The US still forms part of our core business but we’re starting to see a move towards Asia into contract
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What are your bestselling products?
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manufacturers. We’re also beginning to slowly see Europe pick up and we also see a lot of opportunities in Israel.
Our bestselling products are our PXI optical and electrical test modules like lasers & amplifiers,
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How do you see the future?
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optical power meters, optical attenuators, and optical spectrum analysers. The advantage of our systems is that we have several different test capabilities inside one chassis - a pretty unique
When we started, we were making some of the best test instruments in the world - very
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high-quality and very high-value
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| ISSUE 37 | Q2 2024
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