MARCH 25–Oxfordshire, England– Bookham Technology plc continues to prepare for the opening of its advanced manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, China, a measure that is part of its Asia Pacific strategy that has yielded revenue growth in the last two years.

The factory was obtained through Bookham’s recent acquisition of New Focus Inc., and covers 250,000 square feet of space that includes classified cleanrooms, and will be a key assembly and test facility, company representatives say.

The first products to be manufactured in Shenzhen will be Transmitter Optical Assemblies (TOAs) and Receiver Optical Assemblies (ROAs), simple amplifiers, connectors, and fiber assembly.

“Bookham has already demonstrated its ability to relocate product and processes around the world,” contends Liam Nagle, president and chief operating officer at Bookham. “We have successfully relocated an indium phosphide (InP) wafer fab facility from Ottawa, Canada, to Caswell, UK, during 2003, six months ahead of schedule, with no impact to our growing customer base,” says Liam Nagle, Bookham’s president and chief operating officer. “We will use the same processes and management focus to create and transition the products to Shenzhen, in a similar way to that which we have done over the last two years.”

Siak Chiew Lim has already been appointed as vice president of Asia Pacific Operations and is responsible for leading the manufacturing start-up in Shenzhen. Prior to joining Bookham, Lim spent 20 years at Intel where he held a number of senior management positions, including general manager of manufacturing operations in Malaysia, Puerto Rico, and Ireland. Lim also led the manufacturing development of Intel’s flip-chip PGA platform in the United States and served as the platform’s assembly and test manufacturing chairperson worldwide.