II-VI to boost its pump laser output

10 Jul 2018

Manufacturing facilities worldwide set for investment and expansion to meet demand for data centers, comms applications.

II‐VI Inc., a developer of diverse solutions for optical networks, has announced that in order to address increased demand for its differentiated product portfolio, it plans to expand the capacity of its 980 nm pump laser production lines.

Company sites set to be expanded worldwide include wafer fabs and chip on carrier assemblies in Zurich, Switzerland and in Calamba, Philippines, and a pump laser module assembly plant in Shenzhen, China.

The company reports that it has also completed the extension of its current facility lease in Shenzhen, China.

Specifically, II-VI says it will be increasing its production capacity to meet what it calls “strong demand for datacenter interconnects and the growing demand for ROADMs”. This new production capacity is expected to be operational by the end of calendar year 2018.

'Increased demand'

Simon Loten, General Manager, II-VI Pump Laser Division, commented, “As our company has previously discussed, we are seeing increased demand for our products for optical communications. Our micro-pump lasers, one of our latest innovations, have set new standards in miniaturization, enabling transceiver embedded amplifiers for next generation datacenter interconnects.”

II-VI’s semiconductor laser chips are designed and manufactured in Zurich, Switzerland, leveraging a high reliability legacy that spans more than 20 years. The company’s manufacturing facility in Calamba, Philippines, houses state-of-the-art automated assembly lines for laser sub-assemblies which are shipped to II-VI operations in Shenzhen, China to complete the pump laser module assembly. II-VI’s Shenzhen operations has shipped more than 3 million pump lasers, the majority of them under the II-VI brand.