Startup JGKB Photonics Inc. to Push the Boundaries

Vancouver, Canada, March 6th, 2001– JGKB Photonics, a new company created to commercialize and supply photonic modulators for the high growth optical networking market, has recently opened for business. JGKB's objective is to provide an unmatched modulator performance that can dominate conventional technology at 40 Gb/Sec and higher.

JGKB is a spin-off from a University of British Columbia research group, and is well positioned to capitalize on a unique modulator technology that has been researched over the last 10 years. The company has quickly gained momentum, already achieving impressive technological and human capital. Core technologies are TE to TM mode converters, and proprietary microwave planar electrode designs and wave-guide designs.

Analysis from market research firms show the world optical component market as $5BUS with the modulator share at 15%, and high speed 40 Gb/Sec modulators are forecast to grow to over one third of the world market by 2010. JGKB will target the upcoming OC768 SONET systems and optical Internet systems including WDM and TDM applications.

Greenstone Venture Partners, Dow Chemical Corp. and other investors are supporting the growth of JGKB Photonics as a highly focused photonics component company. To start, JGKB is bringing together several PhD's with multidisciplinary expertise in microwave electronics, waveguide fabrication and device modeling, and the next steps will be assembling a team to expand beyond R&D to complete commercialization of the flagship 40Gb/s product.


About JGKB Photonics Inc.
JGKB Photonics is a privately held company whose proprietary optical modulator technology is positioned to revolutionize the high-speed modulator market by meeting market demand for reliable operation at higher data rates with lower system power consumption.