TMX group

VANCOUVER, April 10 /CNW/ - Zecotek (TSXV:ZMS) today announced the
introduction of the Rare earth Fine Oxide (RFO) crystal, a significant
technological breakthrough in the development of crystals for solid-state
lasers. This innovation is patentable subject matter and will shortly be the
object of an international patent application.
The basis of all solid-state laser systems, whether for medical,
industrial or scientific uses, is the activation of a crystal material with a
light source, such as a flash lamp or a laser diode. Presently, the leading
crystal used by laser manufacturers is the YAG crystal, which is used in about
60% of laser applications, ranging from medical lasers to high power
industrial laser systems. The sales of the YAG crystal material can be
estimated at US $40 million per year. The YAG crystal is used in a vast range
of laser applications such as materials processing, marking, micro-machining,
via drilling of printed circuit boards, medical surgery, aesthetic-hair
removal, surgical urology/prostate treatment, skin resurfacing, range finding,
laser radar applications, scientific research as well as entertainment
products. Lasers are becoming more and more central tools in various
industries where they are essential to future technological advancement in
industrial manufacture, medicine, scientific research and others. The high
cost of lasers has been a limiting factor for their wider adoption.
Zecotek's Chairman, President and CEO, Dr. A.F. Zerrouk, said that
"Zecotek recognized the need for a better alternative to the YAG crystal some
time ago - one that provides higher performance and adaptability to a wider
range of manufacturing applications. Our proprietary RFO crystal growth
technology that has been under development for the past three years is a
viable substitute to YAG and is targeted to provide the higher performance
that manufacturers desire with significant cost savings. This means lower cost
laser devices, and consequently an increased size of the laser markets with an
implicit growing demand for our RFO crystal material"
The active elements based on RFO crystals emit shorter laser pulses in
comparison with the widely used lasers based on the YAG material. This allows
for efficient regimes in the micro-machining of various types of materials. By
operating in both continuous and pulse regimes of the ultra violet, visible
and infrared spectral range of emission, the RFO crystal is very adaptable. It
allows the generation of short picosecond pulses in UV lasers which are key to
advanced processing of a variety of commercial high-tech products. A few
examples of this include silicon, sapphire, diamonds, metals, cell phone
displays, laptops and LCD televisions, where lasers based on RFO crystals will
be crucial to cost effective mass production processes.
Zecotek achieved these results in a pre-production environment. The next
step to the RFO development is the fine-tuning of the mass-market
manufacturing process, which is estimated to take 10-12 months. Afterwards,
the Company will consider a number of alliances that would assist in the
advancement to large scale manufacturing.

About Zecotek Medical Systems

Zecotek is a market driven, research and development bio-photonics
company based at the University of British Columbia. The Company is focused on
the creation of advanced materials and integrated optoelectronic devices for
high resolution medical imaging, optical precision surgery and
biopharmaceutical research. ZMS grows by developing and acquiring Intellectual
Property and technology. Only after employing know-how through a very thorough
selection process mechanism which involves industry leaders and constant
interaction with major end-users does Zecotek initiate research and
development in any particular field to develop intellectual property and grow
its assets. The Company commercializes its technologies through strategic
alliances with leading OEM manufacturers and distributors. Shares of Zecotek
are listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "ZMS".

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news
releases.

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