Jenoptik AG
Photonics for semiconductors, medicine, metrology and traffic safety
Jenoptik is what became of the optics industry in Jena after reunification. The company was carved out of the East German Carl Zeiss combine in 1991, floated in Frankfurt in 1998, and now trades under JEN in both the MDAX and the TecDAX. Revenue was 1.05 billion euros in 2025 across roughly 4,300 people. The defence hardware business it was once known for left in 2022, when Vincorion, the mechatronics unit making generators, actuators and power supply units for aircraft and armoured vehicles, went to Star Capital at an enterprise value of about 130 million euros. Management then described what was left as a pure photonics group. Since January 2025 the company has run as four strategic business units, replacing the older Light and Optics, Light and Production and Light and Safety divisions and the short-lived pairing that followed them.
Semiconductor & Advanced Manufacturing is the largest unit, supplying optics, micro-optics and precision components to chip equipment makers for lithography and inspection, out of a fab in Dresden among other sites, and selling the UFO Probe Card used to test photonic integrated circuits at wafer level. Order intake there jumped 85 percent in the first quarter of 2026 on one large order. Biophotonics is the defence-relevant one. It builds photonic assemblies for medical technology, life science and security, and the defence catalogue sits at component level: laser rangefinders for reconnaissance, thermal imaging cameras, infrared optics with specialised coatings, laser distance sensors, LEDs across several spectral ranges and polymer optics that end up inside other manufacturers' sights and seeker heads. Order intake in that unit rose 44.9 percent in the first half of 2026, which the company put down to defence and medical demand. SYIONS, a miniaturised digital microscope subsystem, sits on the life science side of the same unit.
Metrology & Production Solutions covers optical, tactile and pneumatic measurement for factory floors, sold under the Hommel Etamic name and through Trioptics, which supplies alignment, testing and assembly systems for optical components. Smart Mobility Solutions is the traffic enforcement business, running from roadside hardware such as the Vector SR red light and speed camera with number plate recognition, through the TraffiData back office that matches plate reads against watch lists in real time, out to managed services where Jenoptik runs enforcement schemes on behalf of authorities. A fifth grouping, the Non-Photonic Portfolio Companies, holds the manufacturing automation firms Prodomax in Ontario and Grupo Interob in Spain, both of which the board has been trying to sell. Group order intake rose 53 percent in the first half of 2026 and the backlog reached 824.8 million euros, a sharp turn after a soft 2025. Customers span automotive, semiconductor equipment, electronics, life science, medical technology, public safety and defence, served from sites across Europe, North America and Asia.
- Precision optics and micro-optics manufacture
- Semiconductor lithography and inspection optics
- Infrared optics and optical coatings
- Laser rangefinding and laser distance sensing
- Thermal imaging camera assemblies
- Optical, tactile and pneumatic industrial metrology
- Optical component testing, alignment and assembly systems
- Traffic enforcement hardware and back office software
- Number plate recognition and real-time plate data analysis
- Digital imaging modules for life science instruments
Compact laser rangefinding assemblies supplied to defence sight and reconnaissance system builders.
High resolution thermographic camera assemblies for defence and security applications.
Infrared lenses and assemblies with specialised coatings for thermal imaging systems.
Thin film coatings applied to lenses, filters and mirrors for demanding optical systems.
Non-contact distance and position measurement sensors.
Moulded polymer lenses and optical elements produced at volume.
Optics and micro-optics supplied to lithography and wafer inspection equipment makers.
Wafer-level test head for photonic integrated circuits.
Optical, tactile and pneumatic measurement and inspection systems for production and quality assurance.
Measurement, alignment and assembly systems for optical components and optoelectronic assemblies.
Miniaturised digital microscope subsystem for bioimaging instruments.
Video based red light and speed enforcement camera with automatic number plate recognition across up to three lanes.
Back office software that stores and analyses number plate reads in real time and matches them against watch lists.
Manufacturing automation and integration lines built in Barrie, Ontario.
Manufacturing automation and integration solutions built in Valladolid, Spain.
Operation of enforcement schemes and traffic service provision on behalf of public authorities.
Contract development and volume production of optical assemblies for equipment makers.
Programs & Platforms
Jena, Germany
Ownership
Publicly traded · Frankfurt Stock Exchange: JEN