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Technology Stocks : UNPH _ Uniphase -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ed Frye who wrote (805)	3/27/1998 7:28:00 AM
From: w2j2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1261

ZURICH, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 1998--Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ:UNPH) today announced the opening of its European semiconductor laser fabrication plant. The new fab enables Uniphase Laser Enterprise, a Uniphase subsidiary based in Zurich, to increase laser production to respond to the demand in their core DWDM telecommunications market, while expanding its product offerings to other high power laser markets. Uniphase has invested more than $20 million to construct an all-new, high-capacity diode laser fabrication facility in the Binz industrial district of Zurich. The new location provides a total workspace of 6000 m2 (60,000 sq. ft.), of which 300 m2 (3,000 sq. ft.) and 800 m2 (8,000 sq. ft.) is Class 100 and Class 1000 cleanroom area, respectively. Uniphase believes new production tools should provide the capacity to deliver in excess of 100,000 laser diode chips to its customers annually. The 980-nm diode lasers to be produced at this facility are a key component in Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs), which play an important role in increasing the speed and message carrying capacity of today's fiber optic networks. EDFAs allow the optical amplification of a signal (or multiple signals in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems) transmitted across fiber optic cables). The company believes this fully optical amplification process is superior to the costly and slower regeneration process in which optical signals must be converted to an electronic form and then back to an optical form. The market for EDFAs pumped by 980-nm lasers began to develop with the commercial introduction of the E2 980-nm pump diode laser chip in 1990, produced by Laser Enterprise, when they were a part of IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory. With the 1993 announcement by MCI of a successful fiber optic link between Sacramento, Calif. and Chicago, Ill. employing E2 pump lasers, a new era of long-haul fiber optic systems capable of meeting burgeoning Internet bandwidth demands was begun. Since this time, the market for EDFA pumps has continued to grow and it is estimated by KMI and ElectroniCast to be worth approximately $300 million by the year 2001. At this time Uniphase believes Uniphase Laser Enterprise is the largest supplier of pump lasers into this market. The amplification of the light travelling down the fiber optic cable is achieved by introducing small quantities of erbium into a special glass fiber. The erbium is energized efficiently by pump lasers operating in the 980-nm or 1480-nm wavelength range. EDFAs built around 980-nm pump lasers have less amplification noise, which is increasingly important in WDM networks, which are moving towards denser wavelength spacing to squeeze more data through individual fibers. To produce these lasers a number of key steps must take place within the new facility. The first step is epitaxy, which is the process of carefully depositing a laser structure comprised of over a hundred, precise and highly crystalline layers onto the gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafer. Next, the wafers must be processed into working lasers in a cleanroom environment. Finally, the completed devices are rigorously tested to insure that only lasers meeting a series of stringent technical specifications are shipped to the customer. Through a combination of new equipment and additional space, it is believed that this new facility will enhance the efficiency of each of these steps in the laser development process. "This is a significant day for Uniphase. This facility will allow us to expand our production of a key component to the WDM marketplace. We view this investment as another statement of our commitment to the semiconductor diode laser market and of our goal of becoming the leading independent supplier of fiber optic components and modules to the communications industry," said Kevin Kalkhoven, Uniphase Chairman and CEO.