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II-VI Incorporated renews its commitment to photonics in Torbay

II-VI Photonics is relocating its Paignton operations to new offices in the Torbay, UK area.

This new location includes Class 4 laser safe lab facilities to enable the development of prototype designs and optics assembly processes, as well as to perform reliability testing.

These capabilities will support on-going research and development activities as well as product lifecycle management for II-VI Photonics’ global pump laser business.

Torbay’s Elected Mayor, Gordon Oliver, said: “This is another example of the world leading expertise across the workforce in the Torbay photonics sector. The strength of the sector is evident by this and other investments being made by foreign-owned, world-leading companies. They are recognising the investment being made in the Electronics and Photonics Innovation Centre and the South Devon College Hi-Tech Skills Centre.”

Simon Loten, General Manager & Director of Product Management, II-VI Pump Laser Division, said: “II-VI in Paignton hosts a team of world-class experts in semiconductor laser technology, optics, materials science and high-tech, high volume manufacturing.

“By leveraging II-VI’s global manufacturing operations in Switzerland, China and the Philippines, II-VI serves the fast growing demand for pump lasers for optical amplification in terrestrial and submarine fibre-optic telecommunications networks worldwide.”

In October 2017, II-VI Photonics relocated its Pump Laser Division (PLD) management and R&D teams to Westfield Business Park, Paignton. II-VI Photonics is a segment of II-VI Incorporated, a public company headquartered in the U.S. Paignton is the base for PLD’s product development team which oversees a broad portfolio of gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor lasers. These semiconductor lasers, also known as pump lasers, are deployed within optical amplifiers in the global optical communications infrastructure to boost the power of the optical signals at regular intervals along fibre-optic transmission lines.

Known for its world-class photonics talent, the Torbay region provides an ideal place for II-VI to continue to grow its team. II-VI looks forward to evaluate future collaboration opportunities with the Electronics and Photonics Innovation Centre (EPIC) and the South Devon College Hi-Tech Skills Centre.

Jason Buck, Investment Development Manager at TDA, said: “The investment by II-VI is just one of three foreign owned reinvestments within the past year made within the Torbay photonics cluster. This further highlights Torbay’s strength and expertise in a sector that has huge projected global growth as a key enabling technology, with some researchers quoting a market size of $979billion by 2024.”

II-VI is a member of the Torbay Hi Tech Forum, a group dedicated to industry-led development, collaboration and promotion of the sector. 

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