April 14, 2006 – Olympus Corp. and Movaz Networks Inc. announced the creation of a joint venture company named Olympus Microsystems America Inc. which will provide MEMS technologies and products for optical equipment suppliers worldwide.
The companies say that by combining Movaz intellectual property and engineering resources with Olympus’ established MEMS foundry services and optical technology will result in a new company with the capability to develop, manufacture and market new products with anticipated gross sales of approximately $60 million within 5 years.
Olympus Microsystems America Inc. will be based in San Jose, Calif., with Olympus Partnership Development Group vice president Lawrence Wang serving as the president of the new company. Movaz R&D engineers will work with Olympus staff to further expand the portfolio of products using MEMS and free space optical technologies.
The first jointly developed product, a MEMS-based wavelength selective switch (WSS) for reconfigurable optical add drop modules (ROADM), has been deployed since last August.