The embryonic process of creating the Photonics Innovation Institute - iTech began in 1995 with the support of FAPESP (Proc. 95/09510-1), through the establishment of an emerging center of R & D in optical fibers. In the period 2002 to 2003, very accurate initiatives in the metropolitan region of Campinas, such as the foundation of the Association of Technology AET and the Brazil Photonics Group, equally preconized the needing of the expansion of that knowledge objectively directed to the design of cooperative's organizational structures dedicated to basic and applied research, focused on the Brazilian photonics industrial self-sustaining chain. Thus was formed in 2006 the Photonics Innovation Institute - iTech not only with the task of conducting researchs of industrial relevance but rather to establish itself as an inexhaustible source of qualified human enabling with national know-how.

The photonic universe, that deals with photons, includes subareas as fiber optics, lasers, displays, optoelectronics, optical processing, and also all the practical applications of these elements: optical communications (telecommunications), photonic computing (information technology), medical equipments dental by laser (medicine and dentistry), optical instruments and sensors for aeronautics (avionics), space, oil and automotive (instrumentation), industrial lasers, etc.

Briefly, photonics emerges inexorably as the dominant technology of the future, either by the magnitude and diversity around their applicability as for its economic potential that shall greatly boost the whole business inherent to the domain and unfolding of optical communications.
In this context, the Photonics Innovation Institute has been dedicated to the development of science & technology photonics notedly through the acomplishment of technology cooperation agreements with private companies and public institutions such as the Brazilian Center for Physics Research CBPF / MCT, Optics and Photonics Research Center (CePOF - Unicamp), Institute of Physics of Unicamp and Kyatera Project / FAPESP.

Finally, it should be emphasized that iTech is primarily engaged in the development of technological innovations using photonics to create solutions for the productive sector. Therefore, it has distinct features of the newly created INCT Photonics for Optical Communications, academic institution which focuses on the study and advancement of basic photonics science, generating results as scientific articles, post-graduate theses and training of scientific personal.