News in brief: Northlight, Toshiba, Modulight
Swedish fiber-optic components maker Northlight Optronics, which bought Ericsson s optoelectronics business at the start of this year, plans to move to a new, purpose-built facility.
The company has a carefully scheduled, phased relocation plan that will take place between June and December, ensuring no interruption of production.
The new site is at Järfälla near Stockholm, Sweden, and is located in the former ADC pump-laser manufacturing facility. It consists of a 1200 m2 of clean room space and 1600 m2 of office, labs and production space.
The size of the new facility allows for further expansion to cater for planned future growth of the business. The lower operational costs of the new building will enable Northlight to increase its competitiveness at the same time as maintaining the highest standards of quality.
Northlight says that the move indicates its commitment to being a long-term player in the telecommunications industry.
Toshiba s Kitakyushu development & evaluation center begins operation
Toshiba has commenced operations at its new Kitakyushu development and evaluation center in Kyushu, the westernmost of Japan s main islands. The new center brings together the company s analog IC and optical device development activities.
Construction of the new three-story center began in November 2002. With a total floor area of over 7,200m2, the center will support a staff of approximately 500 engineers.
The first floor of the center is given over to equipment for testing analog ICs, with development and design facilities on the second and third floor. The new Center also houses Kitakyushu Operation s optical devices development, including LED lamps.
Modulight appoints Chinese distributor
Modulight, a fiber-optic component maker based in Tampere, Finland, has signed a distribution agreement with Broadtechs of Shanghai, China. The purpose of the agreement is to sell and promote Modulight s telecom and datacom lasers products in the Chinese market.
"We are seeing increasing interest in our laser products from Chinese customers and we want to improve our local sales support in this rapidly increasing market area," said Petteri Uusimaa, Modulight s president and CEO. "We expect that forthcoming DFB laser product releases will also be well received in the Chinese market."
