Business briefs

23 Apr 2004

Including news from ST-LCD, Corning, BTG, Linos, Jenoptik LOS and more.

•  ST-LCD, a Japanese maker of TFT-LCD panels used in PDAs, mobile phones and digital cameras, is to invest YEN 10 billion to expand its production capacity by 25%. By April 2005 the joint venture between Sony and Toyota will be manufacturing 40 000 LCD panels per month.

•  Linos of Germany has sold one of its four factories for making optical components to Jenoptik LOS. The Giessen facility in Germany employs 44 staff and generates an annual revenue of EURO 3 million. Linos says that the deal is part of a consolidation programme to improve the group's financial performance.

•  Corning, US, has enlisted the help of BTG, UK, to find licensees for a selection of its patents relating to glass moulding. The process that Corning is seeking to license is commonly used to make aspheric glass lenses for digital cameras, optical disc storage devices, laser printers and optical communication systems. “This agreement demonstrates our commitment to actively license our intellectual property portfolio,” said Mark Newhouse, of Corning.

•  Coreco Imaging of Canada, a maker of machine vision components, has opened an office in Tokyo’s Shinagawa district. “Asia and Europe are the focus of our expansion efforts this year,” said Coreco’s president Keith Reuben. “Asia is particularly important to our long term business strategy, as this region is primed for growth in the semiconductor and electronics industries.”

•  Following little activity in 2003 the deployment of fiber-optic networks is set to rise in 2004 and 2005, according to a market report from KMI Research. Three major systems are likely to be installed over the next three years: the 15 000 km FALCON system (Egypt-India-Hong Kong); the 22 000 km Polarnet system (UK-Russia-China-US); and the 20 000 km SEA-ME-WE 4 (France-Singapore).

•  Pro-Lite Technology, UK, has signed an exclusive agreement with Quintessence Photonics Corporation, US. The deal will see Pro-Lite distribute Quintessence’s range of high efficiency laser diode arrays and bars throughout the UK and Ireland. The US firm says its products are used in materials processing, military and DPSS applications.

•  StrataLight Communications has selected fellow US firm iolon to supply the widely tunable lasers for its OTS-4000 optical terminal subsystem. StrataLight’s OTS-4000 is a 40 Gbps DWDM system that enables carriers to retrofit 40 Gbps into existing 10 Gbps DWDM networks. With a tuning range in excess of 40 nm, iolon’s laser enables 40 Gbps signals to be carried on any of 80 optical wavelengths.