Optoelectronics Report articles from October 2001

Optoelectronics Report archives from October 2001

'War on terrorism' may boost OE business.(optoelectronics)
October 15, 2001... OAKLAND, CA--Speculation about the size and scope of the buildup of US military resources abounds in the wake of the September 11 attacks. But one thing appears certain: sensors, lasers, optical scanners, infrared cameras, thermal imagers,...

Rensselaer wins $1OM for nanotechnology center.(Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... TROY, NY--Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF; Arlington, VA) to receive $10 million to develop one of six nanoscale science and engineering centers (NSECs). The choice of Rensselaer followed...

Modulight completes new Finnish facility.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... TAMPERE, FINLAND--Start-up Modulight Inc. has announced the completion of its new facility in Tampere. The new production line uses the latest equipment for optoelectronic chip manufacturing. The 32,000-sq. ft building is located in the...

Seminar to highlight medical and telecom.(2002 Laser and Optoelectronics Marketplace Seminar)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... SAN JOSE, CA--With the aesthetic-laser market having reached a plateau and the medical-laser market experiencing only single-digit revenue growth, medical-laser suppliers are searching for the next niche of profitability. Robert Grant,...

Going, going.(Nortel Networks' staff reduction)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Nortel Networks (Brampton, Ont., Canada) has announced that it expects to reduce its overall workforce to 45,000 by October 31 following additional layoffs--a 52% reduction from 94,500 employees in December 2000. Also, chief financial officer...

MEMS surprise.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... New analysis by Technical Insights, a business unit of Frost & Sullivan, reports that micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology has finally entered a rapid growth phase and is expected to quadruple by 2004. The telecommunications...

Packets of pink slips.(World Wide Packets)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Sales and marketing staff are among the unemployed at World Wide Packets (Veradale, WA), manufacturer of Gigabit Ethernet hardware for use in neighborhoods, businesses, and multiple-unit dwellings. The private startup previously eliminated...

A bright spot on the horizon.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Uniroyal Technology Corp. (Sarasota, FL) has announced that September was the highest sales month for its Compound Semiconductor and Optoelectronics segment since its inception. The high-brightness light-emitting diodes driving up sales are...

IRS turnabout.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... PerkinElmer Inc. (Boston, MA) has announced the resolution of its US Tax Court case with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The case, brought by the IRS in 1995, involved accounting for gains and intercompany pricing from 1985 through 1994...

Cree's Audi duty.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Cree Inc. (Durham, NC) has announced the largest sales contract signed in Cree's history. The new agreement renews Cree's fifth consecutive one year purchase agreement with Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH (Munich, Germany) for silicon carbide...

Thermo Electron reconsiders.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Instruments maker Thermo Electron Corp. (Waltham, MA) is reconsidering a plan to take its Spectra-Physics Inc. (Mountain View, CA) unit private for $20 a share, due to worsening economic conditions. The news caused a sharp sell-off in shares...

Iris group blighted.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Two companies in the optical incubator Iris Group have closed their doors. Long-haul-DWDM equipment maker Latus Lightworks (Richardson, TX) suspended operations September 21, due to lack of interest in a second funding round and failure to...

At your fingertips.(Delsy Electronic Components licenses Shellcase's technology)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Shellcase (Jerusalem, Israel), a developer of wafer-level chip-size packaging (WLCSP), has announced that Delsy Electronic Components AG (Birkenfeld, Germany), a developer of highly-integrated fingerprint sensors, has licensed its technology...

Acelo pursues fiberoptic and wireless markets.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... OXNARD, CA--Almost a year after closing a $29-million Series A funding round, Acelo Semiconductor is emerging onto the market with a product line that includes modulator laser drivers and transimpedance amplifiers for telecommunication...

Patent infringement battle heats up.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... SAN JOSE, CA--In response to Photonetics Inc.'s (Peabody, MA) and Photonetics SAS's (Marly-Le-Roi, France) lawsuit alleging infringement of their patented tunable laser technology in late July, New Focus Inc. has now filed counterclaims. In...

Component makers form 40-Gbit/s agreement.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS--Optoelectronics component makers Agere Systems (Allentown, PA), Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA), Alcatel Optronics (Paris, France), Ericsson Microelectronics (Stockholm, Sweden), ExceLight Communications...

Lock, stock, and buyback.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... New Focus Inc. (San Jose, CA), a leading supplier of innovative fiberoptic products for next-generation optical networks, has announced a stock repurchase program whereby up to 5 million shares of its common stock may be repurchased in the...

Fair shares.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... The board of directors of APA Optics Inc. (Minneapolis, MN) has announced the authorization of the repurchase of up to 500,000 shares or $2 million, whichever is greater, of the company's common stock The company has a total of 11,919,081...

VC for LC.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... SpectraSwitch Inc. (Santa Rosa, CA), manufacturer of liquid-crystal-based optical switching and signal conditioning components, has announced $6 million of venture funding in an extension to their Bround led by Advanced Technology Ventures...

Lucent inks Korean deal.(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) has announced a contract with Korea Telecom (Seoul, Korea), South Korea's largest communications service provider, for the construction of its new high-speed backbone network. The contract is Korea...

While Shanghai sells shares.(Shanghai Post and Telecommunications Equipment)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Shanghai Posts, a small Chinese telecom-equipment maker, has plans to sell its 50% stake in the shares of Shanghai Lucent S&T Transmission Equipment Co. back to Lucent. The venture had a registered capital of US$10 million and unaudited net...

Sobering perspective on loss.(Applied Materials Inc layoffs)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) has announced that it will reduce its global workforce by approximately 2000 positions, or 10%, to address the continuing downturn in the semiconductor industry. In separate news, the company confirmed...

Financial Scoreboard.(EXFO Electro-Optical and Advanced Photonix company financial information)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 15, 2001... Fiscal End Company Year Period date Revenues Income Advanced Photonix 02 Q1 6/24/01 $1.831 million $335,000 Camarillo, CA 01 Q1 6/25/01 $1.662 million...

Call for submissions: Young Investigator Award.(International Society for Optical Engineering award information)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... SAN JOSE, CA-The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE; Bellingham, WA) is now accepting submissions for the Young Investigator Award, presented annually at the Photonics West conference in San Jose, CA. The award, given in...

Optoelectronics Report 40.
October 15, 2001... Optoelectronics Report 40 Company Location Ticker Sept. 25 ADC Telecommunications Minnetonka, MN ADCT 3.30 Agere Systems Inc. Allentown, PA AGRa 3.85 Agilent...

Euro 7 million for ThreeFive Photonics.(company first round financing)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... DELFT, THE NETHERLANDS--Opto-chipmaker ThreeFive Photonics has completed its first round of financing by securing [euro]7 million (US$6.37 million) from venture-capital companies Atlas Venture and Gilde IT Fund. The company will use the...

French funding.(for Tronic's Microsystems SA)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Tronic's Microsystems SA (Grenoble, France, an optical MEMS foundry, has announced it has raised [euro]10.5 million (US$9.64 million) in its second round of funding. The round was closed with CDC Innovation 2000 FCPR, Tronic's historical...

Excellent extinction.(40-Gbit/s lithium niobate modulator technology)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... Corning Incorporated (Corning, NY) has achieved a milestone in 40-Gbit/s lithium niobate ([LiNbO.sub.3]) modulator technology. The company reports successful transmission experiments at multiple customer sites demonstrating chirp-free dense...

In a fiber glut.(Corning Inc facility information)(Brief Article)
October 15, 2001... In other Corning news, continued weakening in demand for optical fiber in North America and in Europe has caused the company to propose the closing of its optical-fiber manufacturing operation in Deeside, North Wales at the end of 2001....

Extraordinary efforts yield successful meeting.(meeting of the Center for Nonlinear Optical Materials )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... PALO ALTO, CA--Despite the fact that the annual affiliates meeting of the Center for Nonlinear Optical Materials (CNOM) at Stanford University took place September 14 and 15 in the midst of an economic downturn and a period of widespread air...

JDS Uniphase invests in assembly automation.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... PLEASANTON, CA--What do you do when the bottom falls out of the telecom market, you report a $1 .9-billion loss in the fourth quarter, and you have to lay off some 16,000 employees in the space of three months? If you're JDS Uniphase (JDSU;...

Diodes for Densitron.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Densitron Technologies (Kent, England), the specialist electronics and display information-systems group, has entered into an agreement with organic light-emitting-diode (OLED) display technology developer, Opsys (Oxford, England). The...

Leading edge.(Edgeflow Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Edgeflow Inc. (Ottawa, Ont., Canada), a developer of an advanced metro optical add/drop switch (OADX), has completed a US$24-million Series A round of funding, including investors Sierra Ventures and Newbury Ventures. The funding will be used...

New VCSEL facility.(E20 Communications )(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Fiberoptic-transceiver manufacturer E20 Communications (Calabasas, CA) has unveiled what is claimed to be the first fabrication facility dedicated to long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (LW-VCSELs). The new facility will...

Agility secures $83 million in third round.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... SANTA BARBARA, CA--Agility Communications Inc., a leading provider of widely tunable lasers for the metro, switching, and long-haul markets, has announced that General Motors (GM) Investment Management Corp. (New York, NY) is leading its...

eMagin 'in the money'.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... eMagin Corp. (Hopewell Junction, NY), the leading developer of organic-light-emitting-diode-on-silicon microdisplay technology, and SK Corp. (Seoul, Korea), a flagship company of SK Group, Korea's third-largest conglomerate, have announced a...

SpectRx takes stock.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The board of directors of SpectRx Inc. (Norcross, GA), a developer and manufacturer of point-of-care medical technology, has approved a stock repurchase program for up to $1 million of the company's 10.4 million shares of outstanding common...

Motorola emergency response.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Motorola Inc. (Schaumburg, IL) has given top priority to the fall-out from the recent terrorist attack, with promises to donate $1 million in support of relief efforts. Motorola also has delivered trucks of communications equipment to teams...

Automator acquires VMIC.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... GE Fanuc Automation North America Inc. (Charlottesville, VA), a division of GE Industrial Systems, has finalized the acquisition of Huntsville, AL-based VMIC, a manufacturer of communication and network products. "The addition of VMIC...

Alcatel integrates Kymata.
October 1, 2001... Alcatel Optronics (Paris, France), world leader in optoelectronic components for telecommunications systems, has completed the acquisition of Kymata Ltd. (Livingston, Scotland). Kymata, a privately held company, produces...

Newport forecast is cloudy.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Newport Corp. (Irvine, CA) revised its outlook for the second half of fiscal 2001, and announced an expanded cost-reduction program that includes layoffs of 350 to 375 employees, as well as consolidation of its Garden Grove, CA, San Luis...

Veeco signs merger with Applied Epi.
October 1, 2001... WOODBURY, NY--Veeco Instruments Inc. has announced that it has signed a definitive merger agreement with Applied Epi Inc. (St. Paul, MN), the world's leading supplier of molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) equipment used in the manufacture of...

Another Southampton spin-off funded.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND--A photonic crystal start-up has emerged from Southampton University. Mesophotonics Ltd., which will continue to be based at the university, has been given initial funding of [pound]2.8 million (US$4.11 million) by BTG, a...

Circadiant seizes $10M.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Circadiant Systems Inc. (Allentown, PA) secured $10 million in its second round of private funding led by TL Ventures, and unveiled plans to deliver a new class of test equipment. The company will offer optical component and equipment vendors...

Stratos center in Seattle.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Stratos Lightwave Inc. (Chicago, IL) announced the opening of its new Northwest Technology center. Located just outside of Seattle, WA, the R&D center will be used to create advanced fiberoptic products, provide custom-tailoring of existing...

Coming disaster relief.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... The Coming Foundation of Coming Incorporated (Coming, NY) has announced plans to donate $100,000 to the September 11th Fund, created by the United Way and The New York Community Trust. The fund will provide immediate support to established...

Fiberoptics on demand.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (San Jose, CA), Premise Wiring Media Markets, reveals that although copper cables are popular in upgrades, fiberoptic cable is becoming the more attractive alternative. Fiberoptic cable offers practically...

Display decline.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... DisplaySearch (Austin, TX), a flat-panel display market research firm, has reported that because of lower notebook PC demand and continued capacity investments, thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD) prices are not expected to...

Coming out of its shell.(silicon wafer manufacturer Shellcase Ltd.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... Shelicase Ltd. (Jerusalem, Israel) announced an $8-million expansion to its facility. The expansion is expected to be completed by November, and will increase the company's production floor space by about three times. The cleanroom will have...

Financial Scoreboard.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 2001... Financial Scoreboard End Per Company Period date Revenues Income share ESI Q1 9/01/01 $50.0 million ($8.01 million)...

SEMI to present keynote address at seminar.(Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--With high-tech businesses still suffering from an overcorrection in the computer and communications markets, many are wondering what the future holds for the semiconductor equipment industry. Dan Tracy, senior market...

Optoelectronics Report 40.(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 2001... Optoelectronics Report 40 Company Location Ticker Sept.10 ADC Telecommunications Minnetonka, MN ADCT 3.47 Agere Systems Inc. Allentown, PA AGRa 4.75...

Lucrative contract for Lumera.(optical-networking components)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 2001... Optical-networking components developer Lumera Corp. (Bothell, WA), a subsidiary of Microvision Inc., has been awarded a $1.6-million contract from the US government to design new electro-optic polymer materials for the fabrication of a...

EFOS equals EXFO.(new name EXFO Photonic Solutions Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering (Quebec City, Que., Canada) has changed the name of EFOS Inc., a subsidiary, to EXFO Photonic Solutions Inc. EFOS, a Toronto-based company, provides light-based adhesive spot-curing technologies as well as...

OMM expands.(fiber optics company forms partnerships)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... OMM Inc. (San Diego, CA) has established strategic partnerships with selected sales representative firms across Asia, Europe, and North America. Customers around the world will now be able to receive technical product support and purchase...

MRV absorbs fiberoptic component subsidiary.(Luminent Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2001... CHATSWORTH, CA--MRV Communications Inc., a developer of network infrastructure and optical components, has announced plans to carry out a short-form merger with its 92.3%-owned subsidiary Luminent Inc. (Chatsworth, CA), a fiberoptic-component...