Jenoptik Group of Jena, Germany will more than double production capacity at its gallium arsenide (GaAs)-based high power semiconductor laser production site in the Berlin-Adlershof technology park.
“Germany is and remains a location for high-tech manufacturing even though we in the Jenoptik Group are currently pushing forward the process of internationalisation in Asia and North America,” said Jenoptik chairman Dr Michael Mertin at the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone, which was attended by more than 80 guests.
The existing production facility in Berlin has reached its capacity limit and is being expanded as a result of rapidly increasing demand, particularly from Asia, as well as for future projects, including progressing internationalisation of the firm’s Lasers & Material Processing division.
The expansion will increase the gross floor area by around 1,400m2 to around 3,400m2. The production area, including a cleanroom area, will increase from 540m2 to 930m2 and should be available for production from 2013.
The manufacturing facility will be equipped and automated with state-of-the-art production technology. Gallium-arsenide wafers (GaAs) will be structured and processed to create high-power laser bars in a typical semiconductor manufacturing process. The various work areas will be fitted out with Class 100–1,000 cleanroom facilities, depending on the requirements of the specific process step. The complete process line from epitaxy, wafer processing and facet coating through to the manufacture of GaAs components will be installed in the cleanrooms.
Financing for building will be provided by the Hoesch Dortmund pension fund. The internal fittings (including the cleanrooms) and production equipment will come from Jenoptik. Including the existing production facility, the total investment at the Jenoptik Berlin-Adlershof site will be about €24m.
Laser bars from the Berlin-Adlershof plant will be shipped to customers worldwide and will also be processed to create high-power diode lasers at Jenoptik in Jena, where it has the entire technology chain at its disposal – from the manufacture of high-power diode lasers, through to laser processing systems for material processing.
Jenoptik has had its own production facility in Berlin-Adlershof since 2006. The optoelectronic base material and its production have been developed by Jenoptik in cooperation with the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut for Ultra High Frequency Technology (FBH).
The general contractor was YIT Germany, based in Stuttgart.
