What is quantum photonics?

The best way to understand our loonshot is to look back at the intermediate technologies that led to this innovation.

1957

Santa Clara Valley, California USA

Eight entrepreneurs decide to do something that seemed crazy. They call it Fairchild Semiconductor.

These are the trailblazers of manufacturing silicon transistors and the group who would go on to create the first silicon integrated circuit.

Fairchild’s success fuels the growth of companies in the Valley.

1971

Intel introduces the world's first single-chip microprocessor.

1974

Linkabit, the "pioneers of digital telecommunications," develops the first digital signal processor on a chip, the Linkabit Microprocessor (LMP).

These core scientific and engineering breakthroughs would revolutionize our daily lives for the next 20 years.

1976

Steve Jobs arranges to retail the Apple Computer 1, designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak, to the Byte Shop (a personal computer shop in Mountain View, California).

1977

Atari releases the Video Computer System game console.

1983

Motorola DynaTAC 8000x launches as the first commercially available handheld mobile phone.

What could go wrong?

The “Dot Com Bubble” bursts.

One trillion dollars is lost in a single day. The stock market is in shambles.

A new age was upon us...

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Google holds its IPO. The company goes public with a market cap of nearly $52 billion.

Traditional hardware companies no longer led core technology development.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Let’s get back to “Quantum Photonics”

To start, it’s important to know the inventor of the world’s first quantum photonic chip.

1947

Ostendo founder, Hussein S. El-Ghoroury, is born in Egypt and will later immigrate to the US in 1970.

1975

Earns his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University.

1988

Following a stint at Rockwell International Corporation, he joins Linkabit (yes, that Linkabit) where he rose through the ranks to become Senior Vice President working on projects like the Milstar satellite system.

1990

Dr. El-Ghoroury leaves Linkabit to found CommQuest Technologies, Inc. where he develops the first GSM Quad-Band chipset in North America.

1998

After selling CommQuest to IBM, Dr. El-Ghoroury joins IBM’s Microelectronics Business (now GlobalFoundries) as their Chief Technology Officer.

Recognizing the advancement in computer processing and network speed, Dr. El-Ghoroury leaves IBM and sketches out his vision of the Photonic Era ushering in the Photonic Era — the third great wave of American innovation.

2005


Ostendo raises its Series A round of funding at a $5M valuation.

2007

Ostendo files its patent application for the Quantum Photonic Imager (QPI®).

2008

Upon demoing the first monochrome group of nanostructures at California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, Ostendo wins a $20M contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a holographic battlespace to replace the twentieth century military planner’s sandbox.

2010

With the help of DARPA, Ostendo Nanotechnology Lab (NTL-1) opens in Carlsbad, California.

2011

And is awarded $58M by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to build a Synthetic Holographic Observation.

Aka every trekker’s dream, “The Holodeck”

2013

Ostendo QPI team produces first full-color RGB QPI® display.

2016

Ostendo Light Field team demos full-color holographic display.

2017

Ostendo Near Eye Augmented Reality (NEAR) team demos AR glasses using the RGB QPI® display.

2019

Ostendo delivers production-ready RGB QPI® for fabrication.

2020

Ostendo Nanotechnology Center & Quantum Photonic Fab-01 scheduled to open.

17,000 sq ft of semiconductor processing facility incorporating all of the QPI® fabrication steps used to certify fabrication flow for transition to high-volume production.

“The most important breakthroughs come from loonshots, widely dismissed ideas whose champions are often written off as crazy.”


- Safi Bahcall

The world's first quantum photonic chip company.

add your light.™

Contact Us Terms of Use ©2019 Ostendo Technologies Inc.