Optocap has formed a strategic alliance with Palomar Technologies to enhance their offerings in the development of optoelectronics packaging for the opto, micro and nanotechnology industries
Optocap, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scottish Enterprise, is a leading edge design centre for the optoelectronics industry.
The alliance with one of the world's leading suppliers of high precision assembly systems will enable it to offer customers from across Europe integrated process development, manufacturing services and advanced packaging solutions, from its base in Livingston, Scotland.
Palomar has had an extensive process development and prototyping laboratory at its headquarters in Carlsbad, California since 2002.
By utilizing Palomar's precision equipment and processing expertise, and combining it with the facilities and packaging experience of Optocap, customers in the communications, medical and automotive markets will now have a centre of packaging excellence available to them in Europe.
This new process development and manufacturing service meets the needs of companies looking to develop or validate new products, but who require the design, engineering, prototyping, assembly, and automation expertise to bridge the gap between product concept and automated production.
It enables new products to be brought to market with minimum risk and capital spend, while also reducing time-to-market.
Because Palomar manufactures the equipment for assembling all types of advanced, optoelectronic, and high frequency wireless packages, the company is familiar with the processes and manufacturing methods to optimize the performance, yield, throughput, and quality of the finished product.
Optocap provides additional design, development and pilot manufacturing capabilities.
Josef Schmidl, managing director of Palomar, says: "Building prototypes and initial production in-house on manual equipment is not a true test of whether that product can be successfully produced in volume".
"Automated production requires additional considerations that must be designed into the process".
"Having Palomar and Optocap integrate the automated assembly line and create the prototype allows a company to anticipate manufacturing requirements and discover any problems before production begins".
"Plus it provides a rapid route to initial production with minimum capital cost and risk" David Ruxton, CEO of Optocap, adds: "Start-up or established companies can benefit from our process development and prototyping services collaboration".
"Start-up companies can use this service when they lack the initial resources to go from concept to product, while established companies can use the engineering services if they've been downsized, have a new product and don't want to take resources from an existing product, or need help to build a device that's not their core technology".
"Plus, venture capitalists today are asking for working prototypes and production validation before they invest in a new company or product".
"Working with established and experienced companies like Palomar and Optocap to produce the prototypes and initial production with the equipment and processes needed to manufacture it in high volume in a real world setting, demonstrates the viability of the product." Scottish Enterprise set-up Optocap to fill a gap in the supply-chain.
Developers of new optoelectronic devices in universities or SMEs could not readily bring products to market as there was no organisation which could package the fragile devices.
It is too expensive and specialised for this to be done in-house and Scottish Enterprise approved the Optocap project to a level of £3.6m and the resultant company, Optocap , has been fully operational now for two years.
Based in Livingston, Scotland, Optocap is a developer of packaging solutions for optoelectronics, microelectronics, micro displays, sensors, medical devices, and Mems.
It meets the packaging design requirements of a global market.
Optocap offers a range of packaging services across the development process, including design, prototype and low volume assembly, environmental testing, failure analysis, and transfer to low cost volume manufacture.
Optocap will ensure that the packaging solution developed for a device balances industry standardization with any unique requirements.
Optocap is focused on providing full packaging design services for devices targeting a wide range of applications across the consumer, industrial, communications, medical, and automotive markets.
Palomar Technologies, established in 1975 as part of Hughes Aircraft, has been an independent company since 1995.
It is a leading supplier of automated high-precision assembly systems that increase yield and lower costs for manufacturers of optoelectronic, RF, and microelectronic packages in the photonics, wireless, microwave, automotive, aerospace, medical, and life sciences industries.
Processes include high accuracy component assembly with eutectic solder, epoxy, or laser attach, precision ball and wedge bonding, and active optical align and attach.
Palomar's process development and prototyping services assists companies in developing or validating new products by providing design, engineering, prototyping, assembly, and automation expertise, as well as metrology resources to bridge the gap between product concept and automated production.
