Crystal IPO: Rubicon Technology (Franklin Park, IL), an electronic materials provider that develops, manufactures, and sells monocrystalline sapphire and other crystalline products, announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 6,700,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $14 per share. Of those shares, Rubicon Technology will sell 5,500,000 shares and selling stockholders will sell 1,200,000 shares. Rubicon Technology’s common stock will be listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the trading symbol “RBCN.” Rubicon’s products are used in light emitting diodes (LEDs) and blue laser diodes for solid-state lighting and electronics applications, in radio-frequency integrated circuits, and in products for military, aerospace, sensor, and other applications.
CO company of the year: The Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA; Denver, CO) named the company formerly known as Picolight as the 2007 Colorado Photonics Company of the Year. Picolight was acquired by California-based JDSU in May, 2007 because of its success at designing innovative products that are used in rapidly growing data center, enterprise, storage area and networking markets. Prior to the acquisition, Picolight was headquartered in Louisville, CO. The company was a pioneer at developing a technology called vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) used for optical links. “We are proud of the positive impact that Picolight contributed to the Colorado region and JDSU is honored to accept this award,” said Dhrupad Trivedi, general manager at JDSU.
Going green: As part of its existing Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) policy, imaging company Andor (Belfast, Northern Ireland) has put in place projects and initiatives to recycle waste and reduce energy use. This has contributed to Andor achieving the ISO 14001:2004 accreditation for its Environment Management System. Andor is also developing a range of EHS statements to ensure compliance on EU and global legislation in areas such as WEEE (the removal of all waste electronic and electrical equipment placed by Andor onto the marketplace) and RoHs, the reduction of levels of hazardous substances within electronic equipment.
Andor is also moving towards accreditation with The Carbon Trust by measuring its current carbon footprint with a view to reducing it in areas such as travel and energy consumption.
OLED and PV tool: The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS; Dresden, Germany), a leading research center for organic-materials-based research, announced the order of a novel pilot manufacturing system specialized for organic LED (OLED) lighting and organic photovoltaic (PV) products. The system will be supplied by Sunic System of South Korea, in combination with AIXTRON AG, Germany. It is the core fabrication tool for the new Center for Organic Materials and Electronic Devices Dresden (COMEDD), which started its work on September 10, 2007. The pilot fabrication system consists of clusters combining thermal evaporation and organic vapor phase deposition modules. It is one of the world’s first pilot production systems for OLED lighting and organic-based solar cells.
Acquisition concluded: nLIGHT Corporation (Vancouver, WA), a manufacturer of high-power semiconductor lasers, announced the closure of the definitive agreement to acquire leading specialty fiber manufacturer LIEKKI Corporation (Lohja, Finland). “While the acquisition officially closed on November 9th, we have already been actively working with the LIEKKI team to integrate them into the nLIGHT strategy, organization, and future plans. LIEKKI’s direct nanoparticle deposition (DND) fiber technology process gives us a unique capability which allows us to better serve our customers,” said Scott Keeney, nLIGHT’s president and CEO. “We are delighted to have the LIEKKI team joining nLIGHT and are excited about our combined capabilities and opportunities.”
Semi sales tied to LED sales: AIXTRON AG (Aachen, Germany), provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, delivered total revenues of $238.9 million in the first nine months of 2007, a 48% increase year over year. Paul Hyland, CEO at AIXTRON said, “The record level of deposition equipment demand we experienced in Q3 reflects the increasing appearance of the first generation consumer LED backlighting products appearing in the market. Another interesting market development is the degree to which the ‘premium-player’ LED-producers have recently increased the frequency of announcements on new efficiency records for their LEDs, suggesting that they believe they are ahead of the generally accepted roadmaps and that Solid State Lighting may become commercially viable earlier than previously envisaged.”
Photon-counting partnership: Princeton Lightwave (Cranbury, NJ) and id Quantique (Geneva, Switzerland) initiated the development of the world’s first single-photon counting module optimized for 1064 nm by combining an optimized avalanche photodiode with integrated biasing and quenching electronics. It is currently difficult to detect single-photons at a wavelength close to 1064 nm with high efficiency, low noise, and low jitter. This region of the spectrum lies at the edge of the sensitivity of both Silicon and InGaAs avalanche photodiodes. The collaboration will close this detection hole by providing optimized detectors that target applications in the growing fields of free-space quantum-key distribution, remote sensing, and spectroscopy. It will be launched at the end of 2007 and demonstrated at the Photonics West show in San Jose in January.
Lithography/bonding partnership: S.E.T., (former SUSS MicroTec Device Bonder Division; Saint-Jeoire, France), a supplier of die-to-die, die-to-wafer bonding and nanoimprint lithography solutions, announced that the partnership between S.E.T. and CEA Leti has resulted in a new-generation, high-accuracy (0.5 µm), high-force (4,000 N) device bonder for wafer diameters up to 300 mm. CEA Leti is a laboratory of the Minatec Innovation Center in Grenoble, France operated by the Technology Research Directorate of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). The new Device Bonder, called FC300 High Force Device Bonder, features nanoimprinting capabilities, and performs vacuum hybridization and sealing, metal and polymer thermo-imprinting for bump molding, microlens processing, and polymer ultraviolet imprinting for multiple applications.
New hires: ADVA Optical Networking (Mahwah, NJ and Munich, Germany) appointed Ron Martin chief marketing and strategy officer (CMSO) and president of all ADVA Optical Networking North American subsidiaries. Martin will take over the role from Brian McCann, who will serve in the newly created position of senior VP of corporate marketing and strategy. Martin comes to ADVA from Cisco Systems, where he spent five years in various roles, including VP and general manager of the worldwide optical business and service provider development. While at Cisco, he held responsibility for a team of more than 1,000 people and a revenue base of approximately $1 billion. Prior to Cisco, Martin spent 15 years at Fujitsu Network Communications.
Lumics GmbH (Berlin, Germany) has strengthened its management team to accelerate growth in the industrial laser market. Bruno Acklin joined as new managing director (CEO). In his last role at JDSU, he directed the development of active components. At Osram Opto Semiconductors from 1995 to 2000 he developed the high-power laser diode business segment. Frank Laas takes responsibility for sales and marketing. From 2004 to 2006 he managed worldwide sales for Limo. Prior to that at ELS and Newport he developed and served customers for optical components and systems.
Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA) CTO Drew Perkins was elected to the Internet2 Research Advisory Council. As a member of the Council, Perkins will play a key role in helping the Internet2 community plan its strategic direction to meet the needs of the research and academic community.