C-RED One (OCAMIR) is the first and unique commercial IR camera offering sub-electron noise, infrared sensitivity up to 2.5 microns and fast readout, up to 3500 fps. This product is clearly beyond all what is existing on the market and even in academic laboratories.
The global market of OCAMIR is very large and is necessarily World Wide Sized. This Infrared cameras market is segmented in several ways:
Segmentation by Spectrum Range: SWIR, MWIR, LWIR & FWIR cameras,
Segmentation by applications: Commercial, Military & Defense , Industrial, Medical Imaging, Automotive, Space and Astronomy.
Segmentation by detectors suppliers and technology: only a few manufacturers in the world are able to produce cooled infrared detectors: Teledyne, USA, Sofradir, France, Selex, UK, using InGaAs or MCT technology.
Ocamir brings new possibilities in Astronomy : faster adaptive optic systems for more efficient observations.
Bioimagery : detecting with non invasive technologies cancer cells at early diagnosis.
Industry: Control on semiconductors manufacturing process.
Defense: See before being seen...
Employment:
In 2017, First Light employs 12 peoples:
3 senior engineers, in charge of supervising the R&D operations, those world-class engineers are under the scope of French research law which allows them to be part of the company for 20% of their time for scientific management only. They are still involved in their public research labs: Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) and Institut de Planétologie de Grenoble (IPAG/CNRS):
4 R&D engineers, electronics, software, mechanics and cryogenics are supervised by them,
1 technician in charge of technical assistance and current range of product (OCAM2) production,
1 administrative person for back office,
1 Marketing and communication manager
1 CEO, in charge of general management and sales).
All those people are affected, partly or in totality, to this program
In 2016, First Light has increased its team:
We have hired 4 more employees: One IT technician, 1 young doctor in bio imagery, 1 electronics engineer and is looking for a software engineer. These people will be affected to the current operations and new R&D programs, this will allow First Light to respect the initial planning for Ocamir.
2017 and following: The expected volumes will require to hire more people affected to production and tests, technical management and sales: (10 peoples will be recruited along and after the development program).
Supply chain:
The supply chain is still 100% European which remains a real advantage to be out of the scope of ITAR rules and to be able to export to China and other non EU markets.
