After Corning QCL acquisition, Thorlabs partners with Daylight on QCL defense

Thorlabs (Newton, NJ), after just announcing that it had acquired the quantum cascade laser business of Corning Incorporated (Corning, NY), announced the formation of a strategic partnership with QCL manufacturer Daylight Solutions (San Diego, CA) to advance the development of QCLs for the increasing demands of defense and security markets. As part of their relationship, Daylight and Thorlabs will work closely together to enhance QCL performance, expand product and manufacturing capabilities, and capture new business opportunities in defense and security markets.

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The Thorlabs Corning acquisition allows for Daylight to seamlessly transfer their six year collaboration and partnership with Corning to Thorlabs where the joint effort to define and execute on technology roadmaps, develop best-in-class QCL components, and test and qualify QCL sub-systems for commercial and military acquisition programs will continue. The companies say that this long-standing collaboration has resulted in a global leadership position in QCL technology with products that set the standard for high power, high efficiency and broad tuning range, as well as reliability and manufacturing maturity.

Thorlabs Quantum Electronics (TQE) will integrate Corning Incorporated's QCL business and associated optical semiconductor technologies research group into its 60,000 square foot vertically integrated manufacturing facility in Jessup Maryland. As part of the integration strategy, the current QCL manufacturing equipment, facilities and staff at Corning will remain fully operational as full rate production capacity is brought up at TQE. This strategy ensures a significant period of overlapping production of QCL devices throughout the transition period.

"Consolidating Corning's QCL technology into Thorlabs' existing facility will significantly contribute to Thorlabs' vision of providing a stable portfolio of readily available and low cost QCL devices to the Mid-IR market," said Alex Cable, president and founder of Thorlabs. "We are excited about the opportunity to expand our ongoing relationship with Daylight Solutions by providing the QCL technology, products, and US based manufacturing capacity required to serve the US Defense and Security market."

"Thorlabs is a world-class, leading manufacturer of photonics components," said Timothy Day, CEO of Daylight Solutions. "Daylight has a long standing relationship with Thorlabs as a trusted supplier. We look forward to our exclusive partnership with Thorlabs to deliver best-in-class semiconductor laser components for defense and security markets."

SOURCE: Daylight Solutions; http://www.daylightsolutions.com/about/news-releases/daylight-solutions-and17422.htm