VCSEL maker BeamExpress secures financing, names new chairman

Lausanne, Switzerland--Long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) manufacturer BeamExpress SA, a privately held company developing the 1200-1650 nm VCSELs in cooperation with EPFL for high-speed communications, completed a $3 million dollar financing round led by Polytech Ventures along with existing investor iSource. The Company also announced that Peter Bordui, fiber-optic communications veteran and former chairman of Bookham (now Oclaro), joined the BeamExpress board of directors in the role of chairman.

"We have been well-supported by iSource and we’re delighted to have their continued backing," said BeamExpress CEO Jean-Claude Charlier. "We’re additionally pleased to now have Polytech as a partner and we’re already seeing them add significant value. In Peter Bordui, we have a well-respected industry veteran leading our board, and I look forward to the two of us working closely together."

Bordui said, "I’ve been following the BeamExpress team for the past several years, and I’ve been impressed with both their operational efficiency as well as their technical innovation. I’m eager to contribute to their efforts to get their products into the hands of fiber-optic component customers who are today facing a need for step-change improvement in energy efficiency."

According to Nicolas Landrin, Partner of iSource, "There is an important and growing need for telco laser sources that offer lower power consumption and lower heat generation, particularly in market segments like 40Gb/s optical links and point-to-point FTTH. We believe that the VCSEL technology of BeamExpress will provide a commercially viable solution to avoid the problems inherent in conventional edge-emitting lasers."

Stephane Zrehen of Polytech added, "The 'Localized Wafer Fusion' technology invented by EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) and since developed by BeamExpress appears to make long-wavelength VCSELs a reliable, cost-competitive product. The company has already made significant progress in installing its wafer-fab, packaging, and test processes with top-tier outsource partners and, in addition, just published reliability data meeting Telcordia specifications."

SOURCE: BeamExpress; www.beamexpress.com