As a spin-off of the California Institute of Technology,[REF] the company was founded in 2003 by Sébastien Blais-Ouellette [REF][REF] who was working on narrow band imaging tunable filters for the detection of hydroxyl groups in the Earth atmosphere.
The company was first established in the J.-Armand Bombardier Incubator at Université de Montréal where it benefited from complete infrastructures and proximity to researchers.