Military demand boosts output at optoelectronics plant

Leaders of Intense Photonics Ltd., an optoelectronic chipmaker in Glasgow, Scotland, are expanding employment and facilities at their United Kingdom semiconductor fabrication plant to handle demand from new markets such as defense and printing. The company's traditional market has been telecommunications. To meet new demand, Intense officials are expanding their employment from 50 last year to 65 today, with most additions in engineering and production technicians. The company is also adding 1,650 square feet of office space with a new mezzanine floor and extended cleanroom facilities for wafer fabrication, test, and packaging. Intense provides application-specific variants of its semiconductor laser technology, as well as custom device design and processing. For more information contact Intense online at www.intenseco.com.

Olympus complements MEMS business with optical foundry services

The Olympus Partnership Development Group in San Jose, Calif., is establishing optical foundry services to complement the company's existing business in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) foundry services. The new optical business will include aspherical lens research, development, and products, as well as new products for optical-fiber communications. The services will offer optics, optical design, prototyping, manufacturing, integration, and testing for MEMS-based modules. Company officials say the result will be a MEMS, electronics, and optical foundry service that offers original-equipment manufacturers a MEMS-based solution from concept to finished and tested MEMS modules. For more information contact Olympus online at www.olympuspartnership.com.

AIT chooses laser trackers from Leica Geosystems

Officials of Advanced Integration Technology Inc. (AIT) in Plano, Texas, needed laser trackers for integrated plant floor systems that would help assemble the U.S. Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The LTD800 laser trackers from the Metrology Division of Leica Geosystems in Norcross, Ga., met their needs. The Leica laser trackers are for industrial measurement and inspection. AIT, which specializes building and installing integrated plant floor systems, won contracts from Lockheed Martin Corp. in Fort Worth, Texas, to build permanent assembly stations for laser-guided alignment and part mating of four F-35 wing assemblies to the aircraft fuselage. For each mate cell, AIT will use two Leica laser trackers to automate F-35 aircraft mating. For more information contact Leica online at www.leica-geosystems.com/metrology.

Linear offers integrated VCSEL for optical communications

Linear Technology Corp. in Milpitas, Calif., is offering an integrated 3.2-gigabit-per-second vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) diode driver for short-reach and medium-reach optical communications. The LTC5100 maintains a clean, low-noise transmission eye diagram, and incorporates a digital controller with on-chip A-D and D-A converters to provide continuous closed-loop monitoring and control of critical laser parameters. The LTC5100 is for Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel optical links, multi-rate medium- and short-range fiber-optic datalinks, short-reach SONET links, and short-haul backplane-interconnect systems. The LTC5100's digital controller is programmable and offers a wide variation of VCSEL laser operating characteristics. The LTC5100 output eye shows minimal variation with temperature, with laser bias, or modulation current level. The device can be operated in stand-alone mode or controlled by an external microprocessor via a built-in I2C serial interface port. For more information contact Linear Technology online at www.linear.com.