Thailand-based Fabrinet signs strategic agreement to manufacture external cavity lasers for K2 Optronics

28 October 2003 Sunnyvale and San Francisco, CA Lightwave -- K2 Optronics, Inc., a provider of lasers, and Fabrinet, an electronics manufacturing services company, today announced the signing of a strategic agreement under which Fabrinet will manufacture K2 Optronics' EC-48 external cavity lasers. The devices are 2.5 Gbits/sec, directly modulated DWDM lasers with up to 650-km reach. Fabrinet is based in a 225,000 square foot facility with 2,500 employees in Bangkok, Thailand.

"We are pleased to have forged a manufacturing partnership with a company like Fabrinet," said Raj Kapany, president and chief executive officer, K2 Optronics. "They are a strong manufacturing entity that works with many of the top component suppliers in this industry. Being associated with Fabrinet will help us bolster our business model and provides a great deal of confidence for our customers that the current high quality of K2 Optronics' laser modules will be maintained."

"K2 Optronics excels in developing and producing innovative laser modules for the fiber-optic communications industry," commented Tom Mitchell, chief executive officer and president, Fabrinet. "They have set high quality and reliability standards. We are pleased to be working with K2 Optronics to ensure that their customers receive the benefits of a low-cost manufacturing environment while continuing to receive the highest quality products."

"Both companies have worked closely together to ensure a timely and smooth transfer of the manufacturing process from K2 Optronics to Fabrinet," said Richard Bergstrom, director of operations, K2 Optronics. "Fabrinet's materials management expertise ensures cost benefits in materials purchasing. This is one aspect of our continuing close collaboration to drive manufacturing costs down. Our customers also benefit from reduced lead times resulting from our increased manufacturing capacity and Fabrinet's excellent quality assurance systems."