Sydney startup Optera links with Thales for space camera project

Fabless semiconductor company Optera Solutions, which is commercialising “event-based sensing” (EBS) technology developed at Western Sydney University, was selected to join Thales’s Space Business Catalyst Program in Toulouse.

The French-headquartered defence contractor announced this week that Optera began its six-month residency in the September 2024 intake of the SBC, which selects the “most promising global start-ups, forging mutually beneficial relationships that drive technological advancements”.

The collaboration is through Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture of Thales (67 per cent) and Leonardo (33 per cent.) It comes with a stated aim of assessing “the long-term sustainability and efficiency of EBS and smart processing” for space applications “in addition to conventional frame sensors already developed by Thales Alenia Space.”

Jonathon Wolfe (pictured), founder and CEO of Optera, said in a statement from Thales that, “Getting close to the customer and having the support of the Thales ecosystem to go to market on a global scale is what Optera is all about. 

“It’s up to us to make… the most of this opportunity”.

Optera is developing pixel array sensors, inspired by biological systems, which work in a way compared to photoreceptors in a human eye. Each pixel is activated by changes in light, only capturing information when something happens rather than capturing a lot of irrelevant data for each pixel by being on all the time.

Its approach is based on pioneering work at the International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems at WSU. The applicability is believed to be wide, but Optera’s initial focus is on the space sector.

Thales said the partnership included support through Thales Australia’s Global Supply Chain (GSC) Program. 

The GSC Program is an export initiative of the Australian Department of Defence, “working with international primes to develop export opportunities for Australian Industry.” 

Optera was a recent guest on the @AuManufacturing Conversations podcast as part of our Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign. The episode is available here.

Picture: credit Thales

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