Year Founded
2020
Website
https://www.photonectcorp.com/home
Value Proposition
Photonect Interconnect Solutions provides an oxide mode converter design service, utilizing a laser to decrease insertion loss at the fiber-chip interface.

Awards & Mentions
  • First Place in 2023 Baylor Elevator Pitch Competition
  • Recipients of 2023 Activate Fellowship 
  • Phase 1 Awardee of 2023 NASA Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) 
  • Phase 1 Awardee of 2023 National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) 
  • Participants in 2023 Luminate Accelerator Cohort 6
  • First Place in the 2022 New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC)
  • Second Place in 2022 Mark Ain Business Plan Competition
  • Grand Award Winners in 2022 Fuzehub Commercialization Competition
  • Finalists in the 2020 Swarm Starter Competition

Revolutionizing Sending Light into Chips

Photonect Interconnect Solutions is an oxide mode converter design service, focused on decreasing insertion loss at the fiber-chip interface. Photonect came up with the idea of using a laser-soldering technique instead of manually gluing a single mode fiber and a photonic chip together, improving internet signal performance at a rate of four times, production speed by ten times, and decreasing costs by 50%. CEO Juniyali Nauriyal ‘23 (PhD) and CTO Sushant Kumar ‘24 (PhD) got the idea for Photonect during their graduate studies in Electrical and Optical Engineering respectively. They were excited by the work they were doing, but yearned to do something more, something through which they could apply their research and make a tangible impact. They saw this opportunity through oxide mode converters, soon developing Photonect’s revolutionary system. 

Internet signals have to go to data centers for processing, and they do so by traveling through optical fibers, or fiber optics. Fiber optic internet uses physical, thin fibers connected to chips to transport internet signals to these data centers, where thousands of computers process the information and then send it back. With the standardized system in place– using glue to attach fibers and chips– every time one makes a connection, they lose about half of their signal. Now, with Photonect’s laser soldering technique, the fusing process takes about one minute instead of ten, and you only lose 15% of your signal as opposed to 50%. 

Among many other accolades, Photonect took home $25,000 as the Grand Prize winners of the 2022 New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC), participated in regional and national I-Corps programs through the National Science Foundation, and won the 2023 Baylor Elevator Pitch Competition. Juniyali received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from UR, and Sushant will graduate with a PhD in Optical Engineering from UR next year. They hope to commercialize the product soon, and eventually partner with data centers around the country.