Alcatel Optronics (Paris: CGO.PA; NASDAQ: ALAO), a supplier of optical components for telecommunication networks, inaugurated an extension of its production facility based in Lannion, Brittany. This new production platform of more than 20,500 square feet, including 12,100 square feet of clean rooms, will allow the expansion of manufacturing capacity dedicated to laser sources and pump laser modules. This expansion accounts for the creation of more than 150 new technical jobs over the course of 2000 and represents an investment of more than 15 million Euros.
Alcatel Optronics has multiplied its production capacity to keep pace with the increase in telecommunications traffic due to Internet expansion. Two key product lines for terrestrial and submarine applications are concerned: laser sources, which emit the light used in terrestrial transmission systems; and submarine and terrestrial pump lasers, key elements in building optical amplifiers.
The recruitment program, launched in 2000, has required associated technical training sessions. This program will continue over the course of 2001.
About opto-electronic components:
Laser sources transform electrical signals into optical signals. At the other end of the line, optical receivers transform optical signals back to electrical, the format recognized by telephones and computers. Located along the optical transmission path, optical amplifiers extend the distance covered by the signal. Within optical amplifiers, pump modules provide the optical energy that boosts the transmission signal via a special doped fiber also within the amplifier. Laser sources, receivers, amplifiers, and pumps require electrical power, hence their classification as active components. Passive components are used to filter, select, and direct optical signals.
About clean rooms:
In the manufacture of these components, clean rooms offer an environment that is temperature- and humidity-controlled, and protected from dust. It is imperative to avoid the contamination of these sensitive components, for which some critical parameters are measured in microns.
About Alcatel Optronics:
Alcatel Optronics designs, manufactures and sells high-performance optical components, modules and integrated subsystems for terrestrial and submarine optical telecommunications networks. Alcatel Optronics supplies DWDM lasers, photodetectors, optical amplifiers, high-speed interface modules and key passive devices such as arrayed waveguide multiplexers and Fiber Bragg Grating filters.