Infrared Vision Specialist ULIS Appoints Chief Technical Officer

Chris Tisse, scientist and entrepreneur in computational cameras and imaging systems, joins ULIS to build-up its core innovations, thus offering clients more competitive performance in infrared imaging sensors.

Veurey-Voroize, near Grenoble, France, November 6, 2013 – ULIS, a manufacturer of high quality infrared (IR) imaging sensors for thermography, security and surveillance, automotive and military applications, announces today the appointment of Dr. Christel-Loic (Chris) Tisse as chief technical officer.

French-Australian Dr. Tisse, 37, brings 13 years of specialist knowledge in optical (visible-light & thermal) imaging science to ULIS. He has extensive expertise in computational imaging, a multi-disciplinary field involving the co-design and joint-optimization of optoelectronic methods, image sensors and image/video processing techniques. These are used to enhance or extend the capabilities of digital imaging systems. Through his industrial experiences in Europe and Asia-Pacific, he has built a track record in technology innovation and transfer, product development leadership and international R&D engineering team management.

At ULIS, he will be responsible for setting the technology roadmap, expanding the company’s intellectual property portfolio and leading product design and development.

“Chris’ creativity, visionary leadership and broad expertise in imaging will go far in helping ULIS continue addressing the market challenges for competitive performance: size, weight, low power consumption and cost,” said Jean-Francois Delepau, managing director at ULIS. “In addition, his international background and entrepreneurial spirit gives us full confidence in his ability to set the course for ULIS in new and emerging global markets.”

ULIS supplies high volume, infrared image sensors, known as microbolometers. The market for these IR products is expected to grow from USD 230 million in 2012 to USD 380 million by 2018, according to Yole Developpement (July 2013). The next growth opportunities are expected in automotive and smart building automation.

“It is really exciting to be joining ULIS, the second largest producer of infrared image sensors in the world, which focuses solely on microbolometers and related production.” said Dr. Tisse, CTO at ULIS. “ULIS has the widest selection of microbolometric products. It has built a strong brand image among makers of night vision systems and thermal imaging cameras and equipment. So, I am highly motivated to lead this fantastic multidisciplinary team and take our infrared imaging business to the next level.”

ULIS has spearheaded several infrared technology innovations. It was the first to introduce XGA format 17 micron pixel pitch IR products to the market. It recently introduced the first line of 80x80 thermal sensor arrays that address new needs in applications aimed at maximum energy efficiency. It has invested EUR 20 million in a new manufacturing plant to move production from 150mm to 200mm silicon CMOS wafers.

Dr. Tisse joins ULIS from MTech-Imaging Pte Ltd., a Singapore-based company he co-founded that specializes in offering innovative low-light, night-vision and thermal infrared imaging technologies. He served as CTO for three years, where he raised more than EUR 2.5M in research funding. He also grew the company from a 2-man start-up to a highly skilled team of 15. From 2008 – 2010, he was a senior research fellow at the Institute for Infocomm Research (A STAR) and at the Interactive and Digital Media Institute. His research investigated solid-state refocusing and visual analytics techniques for exploring semiotic models of visual inference processes. Dr. Tisse also provided consulting activities in the area of co-design of hybrid optical-digital imaging systems and was given an honorary position as consultant advisor at National University of Singapore.

Prior to that, Dr. Tisse spent a year with DxO Labs, a fast-growing start-up developing Extended Depth-of-Field (EDoF) technologies for camera phone applications. There, he served as deputy chief scientist and research director of the B2B division. Between 2003– 2007, Dr. Tisse led the 'Small Flyer' project at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney. His work focused on visually guided Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs), in particular on designing and developing innovative computational camera systems and algorithms for wide-angle imaging and depth perception. While working as a research scientist in embedded imaging and multimodal biometric systems at STMicroelectronics, Dr. Tisse earned his PhD in microelectronics from the Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics (LIRMM) at the University of Montpellier in 2003.