In brief: Opto Speed, Mantis, FLX Micro, Citizen
Opto Speed, a Swiss manufacturer of lasers, pin detectors and optical front-ends, has been forced to file for bankruptcy after two of its biggest investors decided against continuing to fund its activities.
The company’s 40 staff have been laid off and creditors are due to meet this week to decide whether and how to liquidate the Opto Speed’s assets. The creditors may also be asked to consider proposals for continuation of the business under different management.
Mantis opens for business
A new company has begun trading in Oxford, UK, dedicated to the provision of accessories for MBE. Mantis Deposition was set up by Lars Allers, the former director of Oxford Applied Research (OAR) and is supplying nanocluster deposition sources and systems, RF atom and RF ion sources, e-beam evaporators, k-cells and thermal gas crackers.
Allers has been joined at Mantis by former OAR sales staff in the US, Steve Rothstein and Jim Vance.
Bob Lynch joins FLX Micro
Bob Lynch has joined FLX Micro as the company’s CEO. Lynch has previously held positions with a number of compound semiconductor companies including Cree, M/A-COM and Nitronex. FLX Micro is currently providing a multi-user SiC (MUSiC) micromachining service for organizations investigating the use of SiC for MEMS devices in harsh enviromnments.
Citizen ready to open new plant
Citizen Electronics will begin the production of LCD backlight units at its new plant in Suzhou, China, in the next few weeks. The factory will be able to produce 4 million of the units each month. The backlights incorporate Citizen’s LEDs and are destined for mobile phone displays.
The new plant is part of Citizen’s plan to have a capacity of 9 million backlight units per month, giving it a possible 50% chare of the global backlight market.
