Sam,
> Newport has developed a range of products
> to meet the requirtements of the industry, from the
> semi-automated ORION fiber alignment
> system to the LaserWeld Packaging Workstation, a
> complete process development and production automation
> system for pigtailing or connectorizing optoelectronic
> components." They have an impressive list of
> "representative customers" including IBM and others.
> Have you worked with this type of equipment?
I have not worked with the systems you mentioned here. Back when we were doing research at IBM we were looking at something called the AutoAlign system, which sounds like the ORION system. However, that project was nixed for a variety of reasons.
The most common Newport stuff out in the field (besides the laboratory optics) are the motorized translation stages (originally made by MicroControlle in France, and bought by Newport in 1992 or so). You can bolt several of these things together to get various kinds of precise motion useful for high-precision assembly. People tend to "roll their own" by just buying translation stages and making mounts to bolt them together in their own configuration. I've seen many places with this "do it yourself" solution.
As far as the laser welding station, if I am not wrong, this is useful for individual devices. You've got to have on operator sitting at the machine putting the parts in, pressing the "weld" button, and then taking the parts out. I don't know how much alignment is done automatically. Anyway, it's a step towards mass, automated assembly, but not the end destination.
> Having now seen this annual report and looked at Newport's
> latest numbers, my comfort zone is increasing, even though
> I normally prefer 800 lb gorillas like Lucent. They seem
> to be experiencing solid double digit growth across the board.
I like Newport too, but I'm not expecting to get rich quick with it. For me, it's a peripheral holding. However, I think it's worthwhile to hold some shares since: 1. Nobody knows about them, and when they are "discovered" they might get a little boot. 2. As a company, they have quality people working for them, and they understand that the future of photonics lies in developing volume manufacturing technologies, so they are poised to reap whatever benefits there will be when photonics takes off.
> Are you familiar with Emcore, Plasma Therm, or Thermo Optek?
Doesn't PlasmaTherm make PECVD machines? I don't really know enough about these guys to say anything useful. What do they do?
Stuart |
