More than 50 jobs will be created as a hi-tech factory gears up for production at the Oxford Business Park in Yarnton.

Optical components company Kamelian says its plant will be one of the most advanced in Europe.

It is specifically desgined for making semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) fibre-optic components based on indium phosphide, using a technology that the company hopes will be used for Internet and telephone networks.

Tim Harman, of Kamelian, said most of the company's 45-strong workforce had already moved to Oxfordshire from Strathclyde, Scotland.

Kamelian was set up last summer by Prof Ivan Andronovich, of Strathclyde University, Paul May and Tim Bestwick. It is funded by a £20m investment from venture capitalists 3i, Lightspeed, and Goldman Sachs.

Mr Harman said: "We are gearing up to start production towards the end of the year and we hope to have 100 people by this time next year."

Another fibre-optics company, US-based JDS Uniphase, pulled out of Oxford Business Park in April with the loss of 150 jobs.

Mr Harman said Kamelian's product had not yet been launched on the market, so it was less affected by the global telecommunications downturn than companies such as JDS Uniphase, and Bookham, of Milton Park, near Abingdon, which has also seen several hundred job losses.

He added: "We are in a different marketplace where there is still demand for the components we produce."