Dr. Alain Villeneuve Genia Electronics

Genia Photonics Inc has developed over the last three years a novel fiber-based laser platform. These mode-locked lasers offer fast wavelength tuning, wavelength sweep and pulse width tuning in the visible to mid-IR and in the very important picosecond range. Genia's lasers do not require any alignment and are completely computer controlled. According to our current and potential customer, our laser because of their low initial and ownership cost, reliability and flexibility will enable large-scale deployment of clinical laser-based imaging, diagnostic and treatment. Genia's lasers are particularly adapted for nonlinear spectroscopy for functional imaging (tissue-identification) and for spectroscopy-based diagnostic. After a short introduction on our laser technology, and especially are All-in-one synchronized laser, we will briefly present potential applications.

The co-founder of Genia Photonics has over 20 years of experience in photonics. He received his B. Eng. in Engineering Physics from École Polytechnique in 1987, and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Optical Sciences from the Optical Sciences Center of the University of Arizona in 1990 and 1992 respectively. The title of his dissertation was "Optical Nonlinearities and Applications of Semiconductors at Half the Band Gap". From 1990 to 1994, he pursued research at the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) of the University of Central Florida, Orlando, as a Ph. D. candidate and later as a post-doctoral fellow. In 1994, he joined the Center for Optics and Lasers (COPL) and the Physics Department of Université Laval, in Québec City, as an assistant professor, and since 1999 as an associate professor. His research interests included fabrication, linear and nonlinear characterization, and nonlinear propagation in semiconductor, polymer, glass and inorganic crystal waveguides. In 2000, he joined ITF Optical Technologies Inc. as the Director for Advanced Research and Forward Looking, in the office of the CTO. In 2001 became Vice-President for Advanced Research, where he was responsible for product development and client relations. He developed and transferred to production several products in both telecommunications and high power fiber laser and amplifiers. He then took over the directorship of the Center Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunication of the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Montréal, Québec, a research university before founding Genia Photonics. In 2006 he founded Optav Solutions to develop optical fiber laser for the medical, aerospace and industrial markets. In 2009, Optav Solutions and FG2 Tech joined their efforts into a new venture called Genia Photonics Inc. The current interest of Genia are in the medical laser for imaging, diagnostic and treatment. He has published more than 70 papers in scientific journals, and delivered more than 150 oral presentations at national and international scientific meetings. He also has 12 patents to his name, including 6 at Genia Photonics.