The History of Zecotek

We excel in the innovation and commercialization of key enabling technology, subsystems, and components for medical and industrial imaging, computer generated and real time 3D visualization as well as lasers for bio-pharmaceutical and a wide range of scientific research and industrial applications.

Zecotek Photonics Inc. is a public company founded by Dr. A. F. Zerrouk in December 2004, in an effort to fund the final phase of research and development of an array of photonics technologies and their transfer to manufacturing and commercialization. Dr. Zerrouk brings to the company a wealth of knowledge and experience in the photonics industries. In 1989, he established the first foreign partnered, private, business oriented photonics research Lab in the Ex-Soviet Union ( Novosibirsk, Siberia). He duplicated the same model in three prestigious research institutes in Moscow. Dr. Zerrouk has acted as a technology transfer advisor, working closely with the Ministry of Science and Technology during the transition period to the Russian federation. He worked on Research and Development strategies for the new economy with prominent members of the Russian Academy of Science and coordinated many government projects in joint relations between Russia and countries like China, Germany, USA, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Zerrouk was Chairman and CEO of various companies in Europe and Asia. He has held research and faculty positions at various centers: the Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, England, (Atomic & Laser physics); Siberian Academy of Sciences (TOKAMAK and Laser fusion research); the Institute of Thermal Processes, Moscow (high-power gas dynamic lasers) and the Institute of General Physics, Moscow.

In December 2004, Zecotek's new, wholly owned subsidiary, Zecotek Crystals Inc. (“ Crystals”), acquired from Zecotek Holdings Inc. (“Holdings”) the intellectual property and know-how, associated with a new and proprietary scintillation crystal ("LFS") that emits blue light and that is a key component in the design of whole body positron emission tomograph ("PET") scanners.

In early 2006, the senior management team determined it could derive superior returns and increased shareholder value through the integration of its various technologies into higher value-added components and the selective production of finished product. Following this decision, several sites for the establishment of manufacturing and commercialization facilities were evaluated, with Singapore and Malaysia eventually chosen.

In April 2006, Zecotek incorporated a new, wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore. For strategic, operational and financial efficiencies the Singapore operations have been organized into three separate and distinct divisions; Zecotek Imaging Systems, Zecotek Display Sytems and Zecotek Laser Systems. The Singapore operations will continue to be supported by Zecotek related laboratories in Russia and Canada, as well as collaboration partners in the U.S and Canada, and by project management and market development from North America and Europe - much of which will also qualify for grant support from Singapore.

These new technologies include:

  • a real time auto-stereoscopic 3D display;

  • various solid state and fiber laser technologies, including a solid state laser for bio-instrumentation, and a thin film waveguide micro laser technology, the latter being currently in development jointly with UBC;

  • enabling technologies for combined PET-MRI machines;

  • a new scintillation material for medical imaging to eventually serve as a successor material to the LFS;

  • a solid state analog to the existing photomultiplier tube;

  • the RFO crystal, aimed at substituting the present YAG crystal for various laser applications;
  • a light source for optical coherence tomography, in development in conjunction with UBC.

Zecotek Photonics Inc. is a Canadian public company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “ZMS.V”. On April 20, 2006, the Company’s shares began trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the trading symbol - W1I.F.

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