Yokogawa set to open huge photonics fab

02 Jan 2007

The Japanese company says that its Sagamihara facility will be fully functional on January 15.

Yokogawa Electric, the Japanese measurement, control and IT company, has completed the construction of its new photonic components factory.

"The facility will be fully functional on January 15," a company source told compoundsemiconductor.net. "The new factory has a huge manufacturing capacity."

According to the firm, the large capacity of the fab will enable it to satisfy growing demand around the world for high-speed photonic components for optical communications.

Yokogawa is moving its photonics division from the current base in Tokyo to the fab, which is outside the Japanese capital, and is already adding extra production lines to meet the increasing demand for 10 Gbit/s and 40 Gbit/s components based on compound semiconductors.

Earlier this year, Yokogawa signed a deal to supply high-speed III-V components to networking giant Fujitsu. It also bought an MBE machine from the French equipment supplier Riber, with which it is planning to make HBTs.

Yokogawa first revealed plans to build the new $230 million fab in June 2005, along with brief details of a very fast optical packet switch that it had developed for 40 Gb/s optical networks.

The five-storey building will house around 200 staff.