What Yelo does

Yelo is a Northern Ireland-based designer and manufacturer of automated test and measurement equipment, founded in 1983 by Richard Furey and Alan Watts as Systems Solutions Limited and now operating from a 25,000 sq ft purpose-built facility in Carrickfergus. The company specialises in laser diode burn-in and life test systems (Y1000S/P/D/L, Y2000H, Y4000) that stress photonic devices under elevated temperature and current to detect infant mortality and verify reliability for compliance with standards such as Telcordia GR-468. Around this core capability, Yelo offers complementary general-purpose test and measurement equipment including an LIV (Light-Current-Voltage) test instrument, PXI-based modular test racks, the Testpoint PCB functional tester, custom test fixtures and jigs, travelling wave tube test systems, high voltage test solutions, and bespoke engineered test projects.

The company serves a multinational customer base across photonics, defense, automotive (LIDAR), aerospace, and electronics/industrial manufacturing verticals, with named customers including Schneider Electric, BT, Thales, Heartsine, and Nitronica. Its go-to-market is primarily direct enterprise sales backed by a strong trade show presence at OFC, ECOC, Photonics West, CIOE and Laser World of Photonics, supported by EPIC Photonics consortium membership and an Asian distributor (Hy-Cad Systems & Engineering). Revenue is generated from hardware sales of multi-channel systems and bespoke test solutions, plus a smaller life testing services stream, with quote-based pricing and individual production-level orders in the low single-digit millions of dollars.

Yelo has secured the Queen's Award for Enterprise (2019) for 138% growth in overseas sales, holds ISO 9001:2015 certification, and operates as a privately-held company under Managing Director Richard Furey following a circa 2010 management buyout. The company is a partner in the Smart Nano NI consortium alongside Seagate Technology, Queen's University Belfast, Ulster University and Analytics Engines, which secured £42.4m of UKRI Strength in Places funding in 2021 to develop smart nano manufacturing capabilities for medical devices, communications and data storage applications.

Name

Yelo

Legal name

Yelo Limited

Website

https://yelo.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1983

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Yelo is a Northern Ireland-based manufacturer of automated test and measurement equipment, specialising in laser diode burn-in and life test systems for photonic devices, alongside PCB functional testers, PXI test instrumentation, and bespoke test solutions for photonics, defense, automotive, and aerospace manufacturers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Test and Measurement Equipment

NAICS

Instrument Manufacturing for Measuring and Testing Electricity and Electrical Signals (334515), Semiconductor Machinery Manufacturing (333242), Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing (334519), Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516)

SIC

Instruments For Meas & Testing Of Electricity & Elec Signals (3825), Industrial Instruments For Measurement, Display, And Control (3823), Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826)

akta.pro primary industry

Test, Probe & Burn-In Equipment (Wafer Sort/Final Test) (HDAHAEAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Test & Measurement Equipment (Oscilloscopes, DAQ, signal analyzers, calibration benches) (IMAGAFAC), Avionics Test, Simulation & Calibration Equipment (IMABAFAN), Military Aerospace Ground Support Equipment (GSE) & Test Systems (IMABAMAL)

Keywords

• Test measurement equipment
• Laser diode burn-in
• Photonics test systems
• PCB functional testing
• High voltage testing

Headquarters

HQ city

Carrickfergus

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Laser Diode Burn-in and Life Test Equipment: Sale of automated burn-in and life test systems for laser diodes. Yelo's systems test photonic devices used in data centers, telecommunications, and material processing. Revenue is generated from system sales with typical orders in the millions of dollars for production-level equipment.
2. Test and Measurement Equipment: Sale of PXI test instrumentation, test fixtures and jigs, functional PCB testers, and traveling wave tube test systems. These are sold as standalone equipment or integrated solutions.
3. Bespoke Test Solutions: Custom-designed test equipment for specific customer requirements including automated heating unit testers, functional testers for aircraft components, vibrating fork level switch testers, and other specialized test jigs and fixtures.
4. Life Testing Services: In-house life testing service for companies that need life test data but don't want to invest in a full system. Provides periodic reliability data reports.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Yelo designs and manufactures automated test and measurement equipment, with a core specialization in laser diode burn-in and life-test systems for the photonics industry. The company also produces PCB functional testers (Testpoint), PXI-based test instrumentation, LIV test instruments, temperature-control chillers, custom test fixtures, high-voltage test solutions, and bespoke turnkey test systems for defense, automotive, and aerospace customers.

Product overview

Yelo is a designer and manufacturer of automated test equipment for the photonics and electronics industries. The product portfolio centers on laser diode burn-in and life test systems (Y1000S, Y1000P, Y1000D, Y1000L, Y2000H, Y4000 series) that stress laser diode crystal structures under elevated temperature and current conditions to detect infant mortality and reliability issues. Supporting these core burn-in systems are the LIV (Light-Current-Voltage) Test Instrument for characterization, and the Temperature Control Chiller for thermal management. Beyond photonics testing, Yelo offers a complementary line of general test and measurement equipment including the Testpoint PCB Functional Tester, Yelo PXI Test Instrumentation racks, Test Fixtures and Jigs (including Bed of Nails fixtures), Test Software, and Travelling Wave Tube Test Systems. The company also provides bespoke/custom test equipment solutions tailored to specific industry requirements. The architecture follows a systems approach where burn-in and life test functionality can be combined on a single platform, with different device types (bare chip, laser bar, chip on carrier, chip on substrate, TO-can packages) accommodated simultaneously with different test regimes.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Laser Diode Burn-in and Life-Test Systems (Y1000 / Y2000 / Y4000 series) Automated burn-in and life-test systems for laser diodes and photonic devices, offered in low-power and high-power variants with configurable channel counts and temperature ranges. Targeted at photonics, optoelectronics, automotive LIDAR and defense manufacturers that need to qualify device reliability under controlled stress.
• LIV Test Instrument Dedicated instrument for measuring the light-current-voltage characteristics of laser diodes, used by photonics manufacturers and R&D labs to characterize device performance.
• Testpoint PCB Functional Tester Functional test system for assembled PCBs and electronic sub-assemblies, used by EMS providers and OEMs at end-of-line to verify board functionality with custom fixtures.
• Yelo PXI Test Instrumentation Modular PXI-based test instrumentation used as building blocks for customized functional and production test systems across electronics manufacturing customers.
• Travelling Wave Tube Test System Custom test system designed for traveling wave tube devices, serving defense and aerospace customers that require qualified test for high-frequency electronic components.
• High Voltage Test Solutions High-voltage test systems designed to qualify electronic assemblies and subsystems under high-voltage stress conditions, primarily for defense and aerospace customers.
• Bespoke Test Equipment and Engineering Services Custom-engineered test systems, fixtures and jigs designed to customer specification, including automated handling solutions. Sold to photonics, defense, automotive and aerospace customers whose requirements cannot be met by standard catalog products.

Quantifiable outcome

• Yelo achieved 138% growth in overseas sales over three years, qualifying for Britain's most coveted commercial prize - the Queen's Award for Enterprise.
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, key and supporting.

• Smart Nano NI Consortium (Seagate Technology, Analytics Engines, Causeway Sensors, Cirdan Imaging, Digital Catapult NI, North West Regional College, Queen's University Belfast, Ulster University)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2021Smart Nano NI is a Northern Ireland consortium developing transformative advanced prototyping and smart manufacturing methods for medical devices, communication, and data storage. Yelo is part of this consortium which secured £42.4m funding from UKRI Strength in Places Fund. The total project value including leveraged funding is £63.9m. The consortium forms a corridor of expertise from Derry~Londonderry to Belfast, establishing a Centre of Excellence in smart nano manufacturing.
• EPIC (European Photonics Industry Consortium)keyGTM or Marketing PartnerYelo has been a member of EPIC since 2013. EPIC is the largest association in the photonics sector and promotes sustainable development of organizations working in photonics in Europe. Yelo hosted an EPIC Meeting on Testing of Optoelectronics at its Belfast facility in February 2018 with attendees from major photonics companies globally.
• Hy-Cad Systems & Engineering Pte LtdsupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorAsian distributor for Yelo products, representing Yelo at CIOE events in Shenzhen and supporting customers throughout Asia.
• Percipio RoboticscoreTechnology or IntegrationPercipio Robotics provided custom-programmed robotic systems for Yelo's R&D projects under Smart Nano NI. Yelo's R&D team trained at Percipio's facility in France and received robotic arm equipment for handling microscopic and nano-scale components at Queen's University Belfast's Smart Nano Lab.
• PIC MagazinesupportingGTM or Marketing PartnerYelo became corporate partner of PIC Magazine, one of the leading publications for the Photonic Integrated Circuit industry.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Coherent Corp: Coherent (formerly II-VI Incorporated) is a broad incumbent across laser diodes, photonic components, and laser subsystems used in datacom, industrial, and defense. As a leading merchant laser diode supplier they have internal reliability/burn-in needs and can also characterize devices using their own lab capability, making them adjacent competitive context to Yelo's merchant burn-in business.
• National Instruments (NI): National Instruments (now part of the Emerson NI Group) is the dominant incumbent in PXI-based automated test and measurement platforms used across semiconductor, aerospace, and electronics validation. Yelo's PXI subsystems ride on a platform ecosystem where NI is the broad incumbent, also addressing photonics test as one of many verticals.
• Advantest: Advantest is the global leader in semiconductor automated test equipment (ATE), including SoC and memory test. They are a broad incumbent in burn-in and reliability test for semiconductor devices and could expand into laser diode burn-in as photonics converges with semiconductor process technology, increasing competitive pressure on Yelo's niche.

Direct peers

• Adaptronic Test & Entwicklung: Adaptronic specializes in bespoke functional test equipment and in-circuit/functional test fixtures for electronics manufacturers in automotive, industrial, and medical devices. Directly comparable to Yelo's Testpoint PCB Functional Tester, Test Fixtures & Jigs, and bespoke Test Equipment line, serving overlapping customers in electronics and industrial manufacturing.
• MKS Instruments (ILX Lightwave / Ophir): MKS Instruments owns ILX Lightwave and Ophir, both of which manufacture laser diode test/characterization instruments and laser power/energy measurement. They are the closest direct competitor to Yelo in laser diode burn-in and LIV measurement, serving the same photonics, datacom, and industrial laser customers globally.
• Chroma ATE: Chroma ATE is a specialist manufacturer of automated test equipment for power electronics, semiconductors, and photonic/LED devices. Direct competition with Yelo in semiconductor and photonic device burn-in and reliability test systems sold to similar Asian and global electronics manufacturers.
• Gentec-EO: Gentec-EO designs and manufactures laser beam and laser power/energy measurement instruments as well as THz instrumentation for industrial, medical, and research customers. Overlap with Yelo spans laser characterization and reliability tooling used by photonic device manufacturers.
• Pickering Interfaces: Pickering Interfaces designs and manufactures modular PXI/PXIe signal switching and instrumentation used in automated test systems. They directly compete with Yelo's Yelo PXI Test Instrumentation line on the modular test platform side of the business, sold into aerospace, defense, and electronics OEM test racks.
• Thorlabs: Thorlabs is a vertically integrated photonics supplier offering laser diodes, optical components, and a broad catalog of test & measurement instrumentation including optical power meters and laser controllers. Significant overlap with Yelo on photonic device characterization and reliability test equipment sold into the same research and OEM photonics channels.

Emerging players

• Quantifi Photonics: Quantifi Photonics manufactures photonic test and measurement instruments (laser characterization, optical spectrum analysis, coherent transmitters) for datacom and telecom markets. They are an emerging player overlapping with Yelo on photonic device testing, particularly serving optical transceiver manufacturers and academic research labs in photonic devices.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Yelotestsystems
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/yelo
• Facebookfacebook.com/yelotestsystems

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Yelo