IR imaging company Sofradir relocates headquarters to expand production
Chatenay-Malabry, France--Manufacturer of infrared (IR) detectors for military, space, commercial, and scientifica applications, Sofradir will transfer its headquarters from Chatenay-Malbry to Palaiseau on the Plateau de Saclay, a long-established and growing hi-technology center for materials and optics research in the Paris region. The relocation is a result of Sofradir’s need to expand and increase production. It will install the manufacturing and research facilities of three of its infrared technologies under a single roof by spring 2014.
Palaiseau is in close proximity to many technological research institutions and scientific universities that are among the best in Europe and hi-tech companies. At the new 4000 square meter site, Sofradir will create its second technological center, focused on advanced infrared imaging technologies. It aims to duplicate the same high-level research and innovation it achieves at its main production plant near Grenoble, France.
"At the new Palaiseau headquarters, Sofradir will be looking to achieve technological leadership across our whole arsenal of IR technologies," said Philippe Bensussan, chairman and CEO of Sofradir. "We aim to replicate the environment in Grenoble, with close relationships between industry, universities and research centers that have been key to the successful innovations we’ve accomplished using the single high performance IR detector technology we have owned for the last 25 years. I am proud that we will take an active part in the expansion of the science and technology cluster in Palaiseau."
In December 2012, Sofradir announced consolidated ownership of all major infrared technologies used in the manufacture of IR detectors by acquiring three key technologies from its parent companies Sagem and Thales, and a lab called GIE III-V: indium antimonide (InSb), indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), and quantum-well infrared photodetector (QWIP). "With the addition of these new technologies and our second facilities in Palaiseau, Sofradir is aiming to be the global leader in infrared detectors," said Bensussan.
Sofradir exports 80% of its IR products for use in military equipment such as thermal imagers, missile seekers, surveillance systems, machine vision, targeting systems or observation satellites. It produced 6,000 IR detectors based on its flagship IR technology (mercury cadmium telluride), the highest unit volume produced in this category.
"The performance and price of IR detectors are key to the competitiveness of optronics systems," said Bensussan. "Giving our customers this competitive edge has always been the main driver of our technological developments. The powerful combination of IR technologies puts us in a far stronger position than ever. We’ll be able to offer customers the widest choice of IR product for any application across the whole spectrum from visible to very far infrared."
SOURCE: Sofradir; http://www.sofradir.com/pure-infrared/fr/35/news_39.html
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.