Mezzovico, Switzerland. Responding to the ever-increasing demand of its optical chips, Opto Speed Holding S.A. expands into three new locations. The company, profitable since its inception in 1995, moves to high volume production.
Source: Opto Speed SA
Mezzovico, Switzerland
Today the company announced the official opening of its new corporate headquarters and packaging facility in Mezzovico, Switzerland. The facility comprises a state-of-the-art 15,000 square foot manufacturing plant that includes a Class 100,000 clean room. The facility also employs an automated manufacturing process for the packaging and testing of high-performance optical chips. In addition, all administrative, marketing and sales activities will be performed out of the new corporate headquarters. "The opening of our new corporate headquarters and packaging facility in Mezzovico, coupled with a dynamic hiring strategy, marks an important milestone in our development as a leading optical technology company," said Roberto Dall Ara, President & CEO.
Opto Speed also announced the forthcoming opening of Opto Speed Italia Srl which will be headquartered in Rome. The Italian affiliate will be devoted initially to Research & Development and Marketing. The opening in Italy coincides with the recent acquisition of a group of researchers from the Fondazione Ugo Bordoni. The group of highly experienced and qualified researchers has great expertise in photonics and optoelectronics. "This acquisition," explains Giovanni Meschini CEO for Opto Speed Italia "follows the company philosophy of keeping the newly acquired group without changing the way in which they operate. Having a close team of researchers who have already been working together for some time, rather than hiring individual researchers and forming a new team, has allowed Opto Speed to obtain significant and immediate results. Being in Rome, the Eternal City, will also help us in recruiting the finest people in the industry." The acquired knowledge and available equipment will permit Opto Speed Italia to contribute to the development of active and passive optical devices. The Italian division s primary role will be Research & Development focused on customer needs as well as strategic marketing. The Roman affiliate will also be on the look-out for other research groups worldwide who could be integrated into the Opto Speed group. According to Meschini, Rome should be up and running by March of this year.
Reflecting its explosive growth, Opto Speed has also announced the April 2001 opening of a new manufacturing facility and R&D center in Rüschlikon, which is situated near Zurich. This is the top center in Switzerland for high-technology expertise, with a high concentration of companies specialized in microelectronics and telecommunications equipment. This gives Opto Speed access to one of the world s most talented and dynamic work forces. The new facility comprises a state-of-the-art 50,000 square foot manufacturing plant plus corporate office space and R&D facilities. The new manufacturing plant includes Class 10,000 clean rooms, Class 100 clean rooms and dedicated test facility. The new plant will have an initial installed capacity of 10 million optical chips per year, which will be upgraded to 45 million within a year. The research and development laboratory has been configured to support Opto Speed s advanced optical chips technology and high-speed electronics integration capabilities. "Our new Rüschlikon facility includes state-of-the-art cleanrooms and equipment for optoelectronic semiconductor production, test, burn-in and qualification, as well as development labs and expanded office space," said Roberto Dall Ara. "The new facility enables us to continue our aggressive development, hiring and manufacturing ramp up. Additionally, the new optics laboratories will enhance and speed our new product development efforts."
Opto Speed has another production facility in Switzerland located at the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich and one in Germany located in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt. The latter is the result of the acquisition of the III-V semiconductor group from Deutsche Telekom in 1999. "The three new facilities will help us meet the increasing demand for our products through more production capacity, higher product yield, faster order fulfillment time and more effective R&D."
About Opto Speed
Opto Speed Holding S.A., based in Switzerland, is a leading producer of high-end optical components, adressing the most pressing needs of Core, Metro, Access and Enterprise network equipment manufacturers. Honored with the Swiss Economic Award 2000, the company originated from the Institute of Quantum Electronics, which is part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. The company, profitable since its inception in 1995, has designed and manufactured a vast line of components such as high speed photodetectors, semiconductor optical amplifiers, wavelength converters, broadband light sources, Fabry Perot and DFB lasers, integrated HBT receivers. Opto Speed s technology for Indium Phosphide-based compounds delivers better performance in terms of speed (up to 40 Gb/s), low power consumption (10 Gb/s receivers with only 50 mW power dissipation), high temperature performance (FP and DFB lasers working up to 85 C at more than 10 Gb/s) and high power (SLED for broadcast communication with 25 mW into a SM fiber).
