News Article
Jenoptik to expand GaAs laser production in Berlin
From 2013, production capacities will be more than doubled as a result of high customer demand for gallium arsenide lasers.
The Jenoptik Group is to invest around € 10 million to expand the manufacture of optoelectronic semiconductor components (so-called laser bars) at its site in the Berlin-Adlershof technology park.
The existing production facility has reached the limits of its capacity and is being expanded due to the high level of customer satisfaction and the rapidly increasing demand, particularly from Asia, for future projects, as well as for the progressing process of the internationalisation of the Lasers & Material Processing division.
The production will be equipped with state-of-the-art manufacturing technology for automated production and is designed to process 4-inch wafers. In a typical semiconductor manufacturing process GaAs wafers are structured and further processed to create high-power laser bars. The new production facility is expected to go into operation at the beginning of 2013.
“With this investment we are expanding our position as a global leader in this market segment. We will also be reaching unit volumes that will enable us to not only achieve economies of scale but also a highly automated and state-of-the-art production process” said Jenoptik Chairman Michael Mertin.
There has been a significant rise in demand for high-power diode lasers over recent years, primarily as a result of new laser applications. High-power diode lasers are increasingly conquering mass volume markets, for example direct laser material processing in the industrial environment and in the field of medicine/aesthetics.
As an excitation source they are also needed for modern laser technologies such as thin-disk and fibre lasers as well as diode direct. These types of lasers are already achieving high growth rates and will continue to do so in the future. “We believe that our diodes do not only follow major trends on the laser market but are setting these” adds Mertin. The main advantages of the high-power diode lasers are their high efficiency, compact design and low operating voltage. The capacity range of the lasers can be variably adapted to the requirements of the respective field of application.
Jenoptik is one of the leading suppliers of high-power diode lasers and acknowledged worldwide as a leader in quality. For the development and production of the lasers Jenoptik’s primary focus is on a long lifetime, excellent beam quality, high output power and simultaneously efficient mass production. The laser bars from Berlin form the basis for the high-power diode lasers which are developed and manufactured by Jenoptik in Jena.
The laser bars are also sold to customers worldwide. The Group has control of the entire technology chain to manufacture these lasers, the most energy efficient of any kind. The service range also includes the so-called epitaxial process, i.e. applying the optically active layers to the GaAs substrate.
Jenoptik has had its own production facilities in Berlin-Adlershof since 2006. The optoelectronic base material and the efficient production of this material are being developed by Jenoptik in close collaboration with the Ferdinand-Braun-Institute, Leibniz Institute for High Frequency Technology (FBH) in Berlin-Adlershof. JENOPTIK Diode Lab, created in February 2002 as a spin-off from the FBH, is an example for successful know-how and technology transfer. Therewith, Jenoptik is incorporated within a comprehensive network of research institutions at the Science and Technology Park Adlershof and benefits from being located in direct proximity to the technology partner.
Currently Jenoptik employs 70 people at Berlin, mainly in the Lasers & Material Processing and Optical Systems divisions. As a result of the investment, the number of employees will increase by 2013 according to the expected further growth.
