Lucent to spend $40M to boost production of optoelectronics components
May 18, 2000 --- Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group said today it will spend $40 million to expand its manufacturing capacity in Southern California in an effort to meet the demand for components used in high-speed optical communications networks.
The expansion is expected to increase the company?s product output by 16 times and will create about 450 manufacturing jobs in the San Gabriel Valley over the next 18 months. The expansion will be overseen by Alhambra, Calif.-based Ortel Corp., which was recently acquired by Lucent.
The expansion project includes new construction in Irwindale, Calif. and renovations to existing manufacturing sites in Alhambra and Irwindale, Lucent said. The Murray Hill, N.J., company?s announcement comes weeks after Lucent completed its acquisition of Ortel for $2.95 billion. Ortel develops optoelectronics components for cable television networks.
The news also follows Lucent?s $30 million expansion of its automated optoelectronics components operations in Pennsylvania. From that expansion alone, the company expects to this year quadruple its product output. That project will likely create more than 500 jobs, Lucent said, primarily in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Optoelectronics components produce and receive light signals that carry voice and data traffic across fiber optic networks. Citing industry analysts, Lucent said the market for fiber optic communications components was $5.5 billion in 1999 and grew more than 40 percent over the previous year. Lucent's optoelectronics business grew more than 80 percent last year including sales to other business units within Lucent.
The Southern California expansion includes a new 20,000-square-foot wafer fabrication and testing facility, now under construction in Irwindale. It is expected to begin producing optoelectronics components in the summer of 2001.
Lucent also is renovating an existing 166,000-square-foot building at the Irwindale campus. That building will house administrative and some manufacturing operations and is expected to be operational by the end of summer. Enhancements are underway to another 104,000-square-foot facility in Alhambra, Lucent said.
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