Technical Insight
Quantum dot laser company wins $6 million in seed funding (Fiber News)
Quantum dot laser company wins $6 million in seed funding Zia Laser Inc, a company formed to develop quantum dot semiconductor lasers for the datacom and telecoms markets, has received $6 million in seed round funding from two venture capital companies, Prism Venture Partners and RWI Group. Zia Laser is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was founded by faculty members and research scientists at the Center for High Technology Materials at the University of New Mexico. The founders include Luke Lester, Petros Varangis, Timothy Newell, Kevin Malloy, Andreas Stintz, and Allen Gray. The company s interim CEO is Tom Brennan, co-founder and former president of Micro-Optical Devices (MODE), which was acquired by Emcore in 1997. The company says that it will use the money from this initial funding round to hire key staff, build corporate infrastructure and expand product development. Compared to the current industry standard, quantum dot lasers exhibit increased wavelength tunability and improved electronic properties, thereby offering the potential to provide optical networking subsystems with superior performance at a fraction of the present cost.
