Girls’ Day 2008 at ficonTEC Bremen – April 24, 2008 – ficonTEC GmbH invited two girls to this unique nationwide activity day. “Girls’ Day provides female pupils with an opportunity to gain practical insights into the world of work, particularly in technical and technology-related fields.” The girls had the chance to take a look around the office and also the production. Different departments such as Reception, Sales, Marketing, Project Management, Service, Purchase, Construction Engineering, and Production introduced their main duties and responsibilities. Besides theoretical information they learned in basic steps the process from receiving a purchase order up to delivery of a new machine. This also included practical experiments at the construction engineering department or the production department. |
Successful exhibitions promise an excellent start into 2008
USA & China – 1st Quarter of 2008 – ficonTEC GmbH has started this year 2008 with a range of successful exhibitions in both the USA and China. These were in particular in January “Photonics West” in San Jose, California, in February “OFC/NFOEC” in San Diego, California, and in March “German World of Laser and Photonics” in Shanghai, China. They were a great opportunity to present our company and products to overseas interested parties and potential customers.
Besides a kick-off at Photonics West we seized the chance to invite our friends and visitors to our booth party at our “ficonTEC Automation Lounge” at OFC. We completed this first quarter with a presentation about “Automated handling of high precision optical devices” at German World of Laser and Photonics.
ficonTEC Photonics Workshop Seminar on Sept. 04, 2007 in Shenzhen, China
Shenzhen, China – September 4, 2007 - ficonTEC GmbH held a Photonics Workshop Seminar in conjunction with the CIOE2007 on Laser Welding and Fiber Alignment Application on September 4, 2007 in Shenzhen, China. This seminar was designed for Key Customers (in mind) and took place at the Grand Holiday Hotel in Shenzhen, China.
Within this workshop four speakers, CEO Torsten Vahrenkamp, ficonTEC GmbH , CFO Matthias Trinker, ficonTEC GmbH, Soon Jang, President, ficonTEC Corporation and Alex Cao, Senior Sales Manager, Hy-Cad Systems & Engineering Pte. Ltd. (Shanghai) presented ficonTEC GmbH and its high quality products.
In different presentation parts several topics, such as Advanced Automation for Fiber-Optics Components Manufacturing, 3-Beam External Welding Configuration, 2-Beam Internal Welding Configuration, and Planar Waveguide Configuration, were introduced. The participants were also welcomed to be part of the Question and Answer Sessions, which gave both parties the chance of learning more about each other and to gain further knowledge of specialized products and their individual customers. As this ficonTEC Photonics Workshop Seminar was dated right before the CIOE2007 (China International Optoelectronic Exposition) started, it was a successful opening for both sides.
ficonTEC GmbH is the world leader in manufacturing of automated assembly, test and inspection equipment for micro systems and opto-electronics components, based on a flexible modular automated platform. ficonTEC specialises in the design, development and construction of fully customised or standard, modular, automated or semi-automated system solutions, particularly in the photonics industry for High Power Diode Laser (HPDL), Laser Welding and Automated Fiber Alignment.
Project "PrOpSys" has started
Germany – July 1, 2007 – The collaborative project "PrOpSys" (production technology of optical systems for high power diode lasers) has started. The project is funded by the federal ministry of education and research BMBF within the programme "Optical Technologies". It is one of several projects, which are patronized by the BMBF to facilitate the research of optical components and systems for volume markets.
High Power Diode Lasers (HPDL), in the sense of this project, comprise of laser diode bars, micro-optical components, conventional optics and a fiber connector. To date, a robust automated continuous production technology for the assembly and adjustment of micro-optics on the laser diode bar has not been realized yet. The intention of this project is to investigate the fundamentals of an overall design for mass production, including automated continuous production technology for micro-optical systems used in HPDL. The transition from manual production of HPDL to automated production is going to be prepared. Essential parts of this approach are innovative and automation-conforming optical system concepts, their combination with an appropriate mounting technology and finally the implementation of same in an automated production process.
The project is a collaboration of three middle-sized companies and two Fraunhofer institutes. LIMO as project coordinator is dealing with all aspects of diode laser design and investigates associated detailed production steps. FiconTEC is going to focus on the automation itself and machine concepts. Artifex Engineering provides opto-electronic components for the status recognition and control of the diode laser. ILT concentrates on alignment algorithms and mounting procedures. IZM is working in detail on mounting technologies and reliability and tolerance analysis.
The "PrOpSys" project is going to last for 3 years with a budget of €3.5Mio, of which €1.9Mio. are funded by the BMBF.
Soon Jang Joins ficonTEC as President of North America Operations
BREMEN, GERMANY – May 15, 2007 – ficonTEC GmbH, a provider of precision characterization, processing and assembly automation systems for the semiconductor and optical industries, is pleased to announce that industry veteran Soon Jang has joined ficonTEC as President of North America Operations. Jang was previously Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Auxora, Inc. (Baldwin Park, CA), a provider of optical wavelength management and control solutions.
“Soon’s demonstrated track record in precision automation business and his insight into the photonics industry will add depth and breadth to our growth strategy. This is crucial for ficonTEC as we are aggressively expanding our product technology and platform momentum into other applications and market places,” said Mr. Torsten Vahrenkamp, ficonTEC’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are particularly excited about leveraging Soon and his expertise into market places that he has developed while he was at Newport Corporation, as well as for him to cultivate ficonTEC’s key business opportunities in North America, where we believe it to be the source of our most optimistic revenue and growth opportunities,” Vahrenkamp added.
Prior to Auxora, Jang was the COO and Vice President of Business Development at TransOptiX, Inc. (Irvine, CA), a provider of optical switches and related engineering services. Jang’s winning track record in precision automation was fully demonstrated at Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA) as he was the Director of Product Line Management and Business Development, and as a co-founder and chief technologist of the Photonics Packaging and Automation business unit. Including his career in project management, automation systems and photonics engineering at Dukanes’s Micro-robotics Division and Hughes Aircraft Co., respectively, Soon has served over 20 years in the optical communications and photonics industry. His technical and business trainings include degrees in physics and electrical engineering (quantum electronics) from UCLA and an MBA from UCI, respectively.
ficonTEC to take over Newport Corporation Automated Fiber Alignment and Laser Welding Business
BREMEN, Germany — Sept. 19, 2006 — ficonTEC GmbH today announced the acquisition of the automated fiber alignment and laser welding product lines of Newport Corporation. The transfer of the products is currently underway. ficonTEC is taking over all after-sales and service activities for about 400 systems installed world wide and is already taking orders for AA-MODAL alignment systems and LW4000S laser welding systems.
“The criteria we used to identify candidate companies to take on the product lines in question looked more like criteria used in selecting a partner rather than a buyer.” said Larry Parson, VP Integrated Solutions Business Group of Newport Corporation. “Some of the more important criteria for judging candidates include technical competency, breath of technology, commitment to customer service, and a corporate culture that supports continuous product improvement. ficonTEC uniquely met our criteria and we are very pleased that we were able to reach a mutually acceptable agreement with them.”
The acquired products will complement ficonTEC’s products and complete their product line for the fiber optic packaging process chain from start to end. Over time, the systems will be adapted and made compatible with the look and feel of the ficonTEC systems and software.