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07 Nov 2006
Decision to invest €9 million follows five years' consecutive growth, increased customer demand and industrialization of a new technological process.
Sofradir, a developer and manufacturer of infrared detectors, is to build a new €9 million factory near Grenoble, France, allowing the company to double its production space for mass production of third generation infrared detectors.
The new factory will give the company the opportunity to introduce manufacturing with molecular beam epitaxy, which would upgrade Sofradir from 2 to 4 inch mercury cadmium telluride wafers. The company believes it is the first European manufacturer to produce IR detectors using MBE technology and the only company, worldwide, to exploit this cost-efficient process on an industrial scale.
"The new factory will bolster our product lines, satisfy customer demand through increased capacity, and better position us for longer term growth," said Philippe Bensussan, CEO.
The company's investment in the new factory comes at time when it believes that the market is looking for larger format IR detectors, more complex features, such as bi-color, dual-band or laser imaging, and products that are more competitively priced.
The surface area of the plant will extend from 5500 to 9000 m2, of which one third will comprise clean rooms. A section of the new facility will be devoted to enhancing customer support by providing demonstration rooms and additional testing facilities. Sofradir aims to maintain its current annual hiring rate of 20 - 30 staff for the next three years. The factory will be operational by the end of 2007.
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