8 January 2013

II-VI subsidiaries Photop and Aegis merge to form Photop Aegis

Aegis Lightwave Inc of Woburn, MA, USA and Photop Technologies Inc of Fuzhou, China (both subsidiaries of II-VI Inc of Saxonburg, PA, USA) have merged under the Photop brand identity.

Founded in 2003 through a merger of four firms (involved in optic, laser, fiber-optic, and photonic crystal material products), Photop Technologies is a photonics designer and vertically integrated manufacturer of crystals & advanced optics, optical components and photonic products for communications, industrial and life science applications. In January 2010, the firm was acquired by II-VI Inc.  As a vertically integrated manufacturer of engineered materials and optoelectronic components that makes products for diversified markets including industrial manufacturing, military and aerospace, high-power electronics, optical communications, and thermoelectronics applications, II-VI manufactures crystalline compounds including zinc selenide for infrared laser optics, silicon carbide for high-power electronic and microwave applications, and bismuth telluride for thermoelectric coolers.

Aegis Lightwave builds solutions for intelligent optical networks that are used for video, datacoms, telecoms and other fast-growing markets, delivering intelligent fiber-optic sub-systems to optical networking systems makers that enable service providers to deploy high-bandwidth video services such as high-definition TV, IPTV, and video-on-demand. In particular, the firm offers optical channel monitors designed for reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexing (ROADM) applications in high-speed optical networks. Aegis became a subsidiary of II-VI in 2011.

Aegis Lightwave will now operate as Photop Aegis Inc of Woburn, MA (with additional R&D in Flemington, NJ). Aegis Lightwave subsidiary AOFR Pty Ltd in Canberra, Australia – which makes fused fiber components (including those required for fiber lasers used in materials processing applications) and optical couplers (used primarily in telecom markets) - has been renamed Photop AOFR Pty Ltd.

The merger of Aegis Lightwave and Photop Technologies is targeted at allowing the affiliates to better serve an expanding and global customer base with coordinated sales, marketing, applications engineering and product development activities using the companies’ combined resources and complementary expertise. The joint product portfolio of the combined firms will be presented as one Photop product portfolio, with each product carrying the same brand identity.

“We are excited about the ability to leverage Photop's strong brand identity to accelerate the sales of our market-leading optical channel monitors and fused fiber devices in the global market,” comments Photop Aegis’ general manager Chris Koeppen.

“We look forward to partnering with Aegis and AOFR to further develop our product portfolios and market penetration worldwide where Photop is rapidly becoming a leading player of optical components and photonic products dedicated to the markets of communications, industrial applications and life sciences,” says Photop’s CEO John Ling.

Photop Aegis and Photop AOFR have transferred their main manufacturing operations to Photop Technologies at the facilities in Fuzhou, China. Based on the joint manufacturing and integrated operations, the firms have now completed a full merger with what is claimed to be little impact to its customer base. Photop reckons that, as a consolidated brand, it will be able to provide customers increasing levels of service and responsiveness.

Tags: II-VI Inc Photop AOFR

Visit: www.photoptech.com

Visit: www.ii-vi.com/aegis-lightwave