Business briefs

27 Sep 2002

Including news from Nortel Networks, JDS Uniphase, Intel, Lambda Physik, Terahertz Photonics and more.

•  Nortel Networks will close its CoreTek tunable laser unit by the end of 2002 with the loss of 160 positions. The company also expects its third-quarter revenues to fall 15% compared with its second quarter. Despite this revised revenue outlook, Nortel still aims to return to profitability by the end of June 2003.

•  JDS Uniphase has downgraded its earning expectations for its first quarter. Net sales are expected to fall to USD 190-200 million, about 5% down on earlier guidance of USD 200-210 million.

•  Sparkolor, a US developer of tunable optical networking components, has sold its planar hybrid integration (PHI) technology to Intel. PHI technology allows materials such as silica and indium phosphide to be combined onto a single silicon chip. The deal comes just four months after Intel purchased New Focus's tunable laser business.

•  Helia Photonics, a spin-out from Scotland's Heriot-Watt University, has purchased the optical coatings division of fellow Scottish firm Terahertz Photonics. Helia, which has secured an undisclosed seven figure financing deal, will offer high-volume coating and characterisation services for laser diode producers involved in WDM applications.

•  Lambda Physik will invest up to EURO 5 million by 2004 to develop the 157 nm lasers required for writing features on next-generation microchips. The German federal ministry of education and research will fund up to 38% of the project as part of its optical lithography initiative.

•  New Focus has teamed up with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a laser for the cesium atomic clock that will deployed on the International Space Station. The laser, which will be based on New Focus's current 852 nm tunable sources, will cool cesium atoms to test predictions of Einstein's theory of relativity.

•  Aixtron, a maker of semiconductor equipment, is to head a EURO 3.5 million German government research project to improve organic vapor phase deposition technology (OVPD) for producing full color OLED displays. The OVPD technology will target small and medium sized displays used in cell phones, hand-held computers and automotive applications.