29 July 2003 Torrance, CA Lightwave--Global Communications Semiconductor, (GCS), a pure-play III-V compound semiconductor wafer foundry, announced that it is expanding foundry services for the optoelectronics industry due to market demand. The company offers foundry services for ICs used in the wireless and telecommunications electronics market segment.
"GCS provides foundry services in optoelectronics for products such as QWIP detectors, modulators, VCSELs [vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers], GaAs & InGaAs PIN diodes and arrays on 4-inch wafers," commented Dr. Owen Wu, founder and chief strategy officer of GCS. "Due to the current economic climate, we have seen a growing trend by our customers to either significantly reduce or 'mothball' their internal optoelectronics foundry capabilities. The major contributory factor being the high cost of maintaining a captive foundry to produce the relatively low number of wafers required to meet their product needs in a market that sees no end to competitive pricing pressures. However, until now, the application of the highly successful fabless IC business model to optoelectronics has not been an obvious solution to optoelectronics component manufacturers. We are working with many companies to reduce their operating expenses while gaining market share and profitability through the utilization of GCS as their 'Virtual Optoelectronics Foundry,'" continued Dr. Wu.
With experience in providing both GaAs and InP based PIN diodes, detector arrays, VCSELs and modulators, GCS offers customers a "one stop" source for their optoelectronics production requirements. High costs of maintaining foundry equipment, clean room facilities and technical personnel can be reduced or totally eliminated, which significantly increases the profitability of optoelectronic product lines.
GCS is an ISO 9001-2000 certified company that provides compound semiconductor foundry services to the wireless telecommunication, high-speed networking, aerospace and defense industries. GCS currently offers foundry services for InGaP HBT, InP HBT and PHEMT processes and provides optoelectronic foundry services for QWIP detectors, modulators, PIN diodes and VCSELs used in the surveillance, security and fiber-optic communication markets.