Business briefs
17 Jun 2002
Including news from Essient Photonics, IQE, CST, New Focus, Newport and Avalon Photonics.
Essient Photonics, UK, has won USD 7 million in first round funding from venture capitalists led by
Pond Ventures. The Glasgow-based company is a supplier of integrated III-V optoelectronic components for modulation and detection in 10 Gbit/s and 40 Gbit/s systems.
IQE, a UK-based supplier of epitaxial wafers, has reported fourth-quarter sales of GBP 7.7 million (USD 11 million), a 27% decrease from the same period last year. The company also announced annual sales of GBP 42 million (USD 59.9 million), an increase of 40% year-on-year.
IQE has also teamed up with fellow UK company
CST to integrate epitaxial growth and wafer fabrication technologies to provide a combined foundry service.
US-based
New Focus, a supplier of devices for the telecoms and photonics tools markets, is to stop production of its passive optical components and close its manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China. As a result, the company will reduce its worldwide workforce by 350 people and record a restructuring charge of USD 25 million to USD 40 million.
Newport of the US has bought the processes behind
Flextronics' direct fiber-coupling and solder attachment technology. Newport says that they will now be able to develop a standardized platform for automating key fiber-optics packaging processes.
Switzerland-based
Avalon Photonics, a developer of 850 nm VCSELs, is to supply
Alvesta of the US with VCSEL arrays for 10 Gbit/s very-short-reach applications. Robert Nalesnik, vice president of marketing at Alvesta said: "The performance and reliability of Avalon VSCELs has enabled Alvestsa to volume deliver the lowest cost 10 Gbit/s optics solution in the market today."
