Background about the Optronics revolution in Israel
In the last years, a quiet industrial revolution has taken place in Israel. Optical technologies, and Photonics have emerged as a major new industry. With over one hundred companies active in this field, (almost all of them only a couple years old), employing some 4000 people, this industry has broken world records in the times of the 'bubble", when demands of the global telecommunciation backbone were insatiable, but is still going strong nowadays. Perhaps never before has Science and Technology made such an impact on the Israeli economy in such a short time.
This tremendous success was due mainly to the academic excellence of Israel in the field, entrepreneurship paired with scientific research and a solid need in Industry for optronic products. During the beginning of the nineties, young Israeli scientists returned to Israeli universities after having worked in the leading centers of excellence abroad. Generous focused government research funding, especially the Strategic Research Programs of the Ministry of Science and later the Magnet program of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, helped build up critical mass in academia, developing a broad base of research resources and equipment. Due to the characteristics of intra- and inter-university cooperation of these programs they were instrumental in fostering the people networking in this field, both through academia and industry.
Those favorable conditions not only gave Israeli leadership in several key areas in optical fields, but greatly increased the number of graduate students, which later the core of this new industry.
While the optical communications has captured for some years the attention of the business and scientific world, a much more powerful revolution is taking place. The market demands are causing the entire field of optics to be reinvented. This process is creating in the span of a decade improvements of cost effectiveness of the order of one hundred thousand of the optical components and sub-systems and merging them with microelectronics to create an entirely new field of optronics.
Applied Potential
Israel is ideally placed to reap the benefits of the Optronics Revolution. All the necessary ingredients are in place, a strong academia involved in world class research, a well developed optronics industry and a well established venture capital community. The extent to which Israel will partake in this revolution depends on several factors, the first and most basic is strengthening Israeli academia and developing global cooperation.
Academia has proven the breeding ground for generic technologies for entirely novel branchs of high tech industry. Young scientists are involved in certain fields of basic science that have powerful new spin- off applications. However, fulfilling these applications requires interdisciplinary research, with experts in the applications fields. In addition, a strong research infrastructure supportive of the research efforts is needed to ensure that the work proceeds at a rapid pace. The strategic research programs of the Ministry of Science have proven themselves as the most effective means to support these emerging generic technologies and their expansion is the best guarantuee for the next waves of optronics inudstry in Israel.
Research Approaches
The interdisciplinary research is complex research which combines various research approaches, while mutually nurturing and merging forces of researchers from different scientific disciplines and diverse research groups to pool budgets, human resources for building research teams, apparatus and research methods. The goal of these research projects is to encourage updated technological scientific research trends and directions in a number of preferred fields. Investment of funds in interdisciplinary research will enable the possibility of leading to a significant scientific breakthrough and to the advancement of research fields having a national economic and social contribution.
As a result, the field of optronics research has been integrated into the framework of interdisciplinary research, while placing an emphasis, among other things, on the interdisciplinary approach when cooperation is required between researchers from various fields, including in most cases at least one of the fields of life sciences cooperating strongly with at least one of the fields of exact sciences and/or engineering.
The transformation of costly optical enabling technology into inexpensive, manufacturable technology spells opportunities for almost every scientific and technological field, from biotechnology and medicine, ecology, to manufacturing and consumer electronics. In fact, most of these fields are already heavily dependent on very expensive optical technology. In Biotechnology, all the gene diagnosistics and manipulation use fluorescence and microscopy and many other electro-optical technologies. In Medicine, noninvasive diagnostics or minimally invasive surgery is primarily based on endoscopy, imaging, infrared or laser technologies. Optical Data Processing for numerous high-throughput signal & image processing applications is on the way for breakthrough into the commercial realm, triggered with the dramatic improvement of optical switching and the associated technology of spatial light modulators (the enabling technology for liquid crystal displays). Novel organic displays start appearing on the market, as well as Virtual Reality and Tele-presence, where three dimensional displays, smart sensors and imaging technology will provide a much improved man- computer interface. In optical research and technologies, a paradigm will be consistently repeated, where huge and costly equipment will be transformed into consumer goods, ubiquitously present in our daily lives.
Several major fields of research are included in the strategic framework:
· Nano-optics and micro-Lasers
· MOEMS
· Bio- and Chemo-Sensors based on optical Innovative methods
· Photonic devices (e.g. Photonic Crystals)
· Femtonics (Ultrafast Technologies)
A center of excellence for Free Electron Lasers (FEL) and novel Tera-Hertz radiation sources has been established in 1999.
International Activity
As an excellent example for successful bi-national research in the abovementioned fields may serve the Ultrafast Laser GILCULT cooperation with Germany.
The development of lasers capable of producing ever-shorter pulses has opened up a New World of scientific phenomena to be investigated and the opportunity for novel potential applications. For half a decade Nanosecond (10-9 second) and Picosecond (10-12 second) pulses haven given way to Femtosecond (10-15 second) pulses, which are so short that the pulse trains are about the same size as their own wavelength. These short wavetrains focus much current research interests world-wide. Following a joint German-Israeli workshop held 1999 in Israel, organized by MOS and the DFG, in conjunction with the BMBF and a fact finding mission on Laser Technologies, which visited all the major Israeli universities and research institutes, as well as companies from the high-tech industry, a dedicated German-Israeli Call for Proposals in four areas of UFT was issued. A joint committee supervised 14 outstanding programs that were funded over a period of 3 years, with yearly status seminaries. The results led to close knit cooperation, exchange of students, joint papers, patents industrial involvement and follow up of joint activities in other frameworks (e.g. FP6).
Germany: The GILCULT joint program for research projects in the subject of UFT (Femtonics) recently ended. Participation of Israeli researchers in open calls as subcontractors. No active dedicated academic program in optics – presently 2+2 program with MOITAL.
India: a program for joint research projects exists in the field of nanotechnologies.
Korea: a program exists for joint research projects in the field of nanotechlogies and nano-optics is due to commence in 2005. Proposals received are under evaluation.
China: A research program in Materials and Optical Devices, including space applications
France: At the end of 2004, a new program commenced in Mathematics. Proposals are evaluatated
In addition, bi-national conferences and workshops take place with various countries on subjects connected to photonics and optronics and scientific missions mutually visit centers of excellence.