Bookham Announces 4 Million Polarisation Stabilised VCSELs Shipped, Transitions Manufacturing to Zurich Facility to Meet Growing Demand
Share:
State-of-the-art Facility to enable scalable manufacturing to meet rapid growth
Zurich, Switzerland - January 21, 2008 - Bookham, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKHM) has announced that it has shipped over 4 million polarization stabilised VCSELs for optical computer mouse applications, and that it has transitioned manufacturing to its High Power Laser facility in Zurich, Switzerland to meet increasing volume demand from consumer applications.
The move will allow Bookham to increase capacity of VCSEL production and offer customers scalable manufacturing to meet growing demand. This facility has had massive investments in semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment to provide a high capacity and well controlled high precision manufacturing environment. As well as established business in the datacoms sector, VCSELs have seen significant take up as an alternative to LEDs in optical computer mice.
"We expect that the optical navigation market will ultimately demand high volume production capability approaching 100 Million chips annually," said Karlheinz Gulden, Director VCSEL products at Bookham.
"Low cost and high reliability, combined with stable single mode emission and, crucially, low power consumption, have made VCSELs an attractive option for optical computer mice manufacturers. During last year, Bookham shipped more than 4 Million 850nm single mode VCSELs with active polarization stabilization. With the completed transition to the new facility, we now have the infrastructure in place for further scaling of our manufacturing capacity to meet the explosive demand of VCSEL for low power optical engines.
Bookham Executive Vice President Steve Turley, added, "The transition into our main Zurich wafer fabrication facility not only allows us to capitalize on the ever-increasing demand for VCSELs, it also enables us to maximize use of the facility and increase our day-to-day efficiency."
This facility houses some of the photonics industry's most advanced technology and utilizes cutting-edge techniques in the manufacture of high power lasers and VCSELs. Manufacturing of VCSELs was previously carried out at the facilities of Avalon in Zurich, Switzerland, which Bookham acquired in 2006.
1. Photonics West is taking place at the San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California, 19-24 January, 2008.
For further information, visit spie.org/photonics-west.xml
2. Bookham will be exhibiting at the Photonics West exhibition,22-24 January, at stand #1207
3. Bookham will be exhibiting at the BiOS exhibition, 19-20 January, at stand #8636
4. To arrange an interview with representatives of Bookham before
or during the show, please contact Howard Jones on howard@bcspr.co.uk or
+44 7980 772 285
About Bookham
Bookham is a leading manufacturer and independent, vertically integrated supplier of high performance, high reliability industrial laser diodes across many markets, including industrial, medical, display, analytical, printing, aerospace and defense.
The company boasts two decades of experience as a leader in laser diode development, continued investment in technology and customer support, and offers scalability for cost efficient, high volume
production through the use of advanced automated manufacturing processes in its state of the art facility in Zurich.
Bookham was the first company to offer 120W 9xxnm diode bars and is a leader in the market for single emitter pigtailed laser modules for fiber laser pumping. The company's diversified high power laser diode offering ranges from 10W pigtailed multimode modules to 120W bars and 2.4kW fast axis collimated stacks.
More information on Bookham, Inc. is available at bookham.com
Contact Info:
Julie Molloy
Bookham, Inc.
+44 (0) 7967 223 448
julie.molloy@bookham.com
Howard Jones
BCS Public Relations
+44 (0) 115 948 6901
howard@bcspr.co.uk
