Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox were prepared for the January 10,
2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Fabulous Fiberoptics
Gregory Olsen, founder of Sensors Unlimited and other
successful fiberoptic companies, has bragged that several dozen of
his employees were made millionaires when Sensors Unlimited was bought
out by California-based Finisar Corp last year. But even before this
infusion of cash, he and his team made a risky decision — to spend
$3 million to upgrade their operations and build a new “clean
room” for making fiber optic components.
Finisair stock has gone from $35 to about $24, so the Sensors
Unlimited
employees may not be as rich on paper as they were last year, but they
can still rejoice in their world-class facilities. In conjunction
with the New Jersey Technology Council, Sensors Unlimited will host
a technology tour: the grand opening of the 6,000-foot cleanroom for
making Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) devices, used for high
bandwidth
Internet operations. The tour is set for Friday, January 12, at 8:30
a.m. at Princeton Service Center on Route 1 North. Cost: $15. Call
856-787-9700.
“We started as a research company,” says John Sudol, vice
president of operations, “and a lot of our equipment had been
used and held together for many years. Now we have the best equipment
we can find.” The company can do photolithography, dielectric
deposition, thermal and e-beam metal deposition, p-contact diffusion
and annealing, chip dicing and automatic probing, infrared detector
testing, and automated laser diode characterization.
Four-inch is the magic size for the wafer business. “Now we can
handle four-inch wafers,” says Sudol. “We are already
processing
three-inch and are going for four-inch by the end of the year. The
larger the wafer the more output we can produce, and the better the
yields are. It’s a much better clean room than we have had in the
past.”
“At the time we made the investment it was a very large risk,”
says Sudol. “We made the decision about two years ago before we
entered into discussion with any buyers. Greg Olsen gave the OK at
the end of 1999, and construction started in January of 2000. We were
in complete operation within nine months.”
Atmos-Tech Industries, based in Ocean, did the construction and used
a design based on the opinions of the employee team. “We put the
design up on the wall and asked everyone for their opinions, and we
went through several iterations over several months,” says Sudol.
The clean room looks like one big room with service lanes (for gases,
electricity, pumps, and other utilities) separating each of three
production areas, and each area has two observation windows looking
onto the entrance hall. To enter, you must put on a paper gown from
head to toe, with elastics to your wrists and booties for your feet,
and even cover your beard if you have one. As you go into the first
chamber, an air shower blows air across your body to remove any dust
and particles.
“We did not have an air shower in the old clean room,” says
Sudol, “and the clean room itself has better designed and has
filtration, with many more HEpa filters.” The “old” clean
room was class 10,000, but the new ones are class 1,000. There is
even a section, the one for photo lithography (putting the design
on the wafer), that is class 100. Low numbers are better, and they
refer to the maximum number of particles of dirt in the air.
Sudol, a native of Bergen County, went to Bucknell, Class of 1988,
for undergraduate and master’s degrees in engineering, then earned
an MBA from Wharton. He had worked with General Electric and with
another New Jersey-based start-up before coming to Olsen’s Princeton
Service Center firm three years ago. He and his wife, a tax
consultant,
have three children under five, with the third — a baby girl —
born last week.
Finisar Corp trades on NASDAQ as FNSR (www.finisar.com) and is a
leading
provider of gigabit fiber optic solutions for high speed data
communications.
In October, 1999, Finisar paid $700 million for Sensors Unlimited,
the leading supplier of optical components that can “see”
to monitor the performance of dense wavelength division multiplexing
systems. Sensors had also been funded by private investors and by
government grants, including the Small Business Innovation Research
program of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Olsen, a former Sarnoff scientist, had previously founded Epitaxx
in 1983. This company, a developer/manufacturer of optoelectronic
devices for fiber optics networks, was sold to Nippon Sheet Glass
for $12 million and is now owned by JDS Uniphase (JDSU) based in San
Jose, California. As the Epitaxx division of JDS Uniphase, it develops
and makes optoelectronic devices for fiber optic communications
networks
on 7 Graphics Drive and also at 100 and 200 Ludlow Drive. The company
is doing its own celebrating over new clean rooms, and over the next
18 months it plans to invest $50 million in state areas such as
Freehold,
Eatontown, Asbury, and Mountain Lakes.
“We are really excited about our teaming up with Finsar, and the
clean room provides a great foundation for growth of new
products,”
says Sudol.
Sensors Unlimited Inc., 3490 Route 1, Building12, Princeton 08540. Gregory H. Olsen, president. 609-520-0610; fax,609-520-0638. Home page: www.sensorsinc.comJDS Uniphase – EPITAXX Division (JDSU), 7 GraphicsDrive, West Trenton 08628. Yves Dzialowski, general manager.609-538-1800;fax, 609-538-8122. Home page: www.jdsuniphase.comTop Of PageIn the NewsUniversal Display Corporation Inc. (PANL), 375Phillips Boulevard, Ewing 08618. Steven Abramson, president.609-671-0980;fax, 609-671-0995. Home page: www.universaldisplay.comThe OLED display company was featured in Business Week Online’s storyon December 28, “Roll Up That Monitor When You’re Done,” asfollows: “Universal is developing OLEDs that are transparent whennot energized, making it possible to create image viewers on clearplastic or glass mediums,” for instance, as interior displaydevicesfor automobiles.” The article also quotes a research company sayingthe market for organic light-emitting devices could be $1 billionby 2006.Top Of PageExpansionsAbco Printing Co., 115 North Gold, North GoldIndustrialPark, Trenton 08691. Howard D. Mathues, owner. 609-587-4949; fax,609-890-7543.The commercial printing company more than tripled its space with amove, the week before Christmas, from 6,000 square feet on MarlenDrive, to 20,000 just a block away. The owner, Howard Mathues, boughtthe real estate and acted as his own general contractor for theconstruction.The 50-year-old company was founded by Maurice Perelli, who sold thebusinessto Mathues in 1992. Mathues moved it from South Broad Street inTrenton in 1997.Patrinely Group, 100 College Road West, Suite 275,Princeton 08540. Dean R. Johnson, development manager. 609-514-1799;fax, 609-514-1791. Home page: www.patrinely.comHaving finished the first of two buildings, the Patrinely Group hasopened a a management office at 100 College Road West. Now it isworkingto construct the sister building.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesYong H. Hyon, Attorney at Law, 947 State Road,Princeton 08540. 609-497-4911; fax, 609-497-4910.This immigration law office moved from Princeton-Hightstown Road.A 1973 alumnus of Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, Hyonwent to Florida State Law School and concentrates on all aspects ofimmigration and naturalization law. His main office is in Manhattan.Top Of PageDown-SizingCenter for Claims Resolution, 504 Carnegie Center,Second Floor, Princeton 08540. Michael F. Rooney, COO. 609-951-6000;fax, 609-452-1533.In July the asbestos litigation organization will move from 37,000square feet at the Carnegie Center to 29,500 feet at Scudder FallsCourt, Sullivan Way and Sylvia Street in Ewing. James V. Doughertyof GMH Capital Partners represented the tenant in the 10-year leasethat amounts to more than $5.6 million. Scudder Falls Court is ownedby Preferred Real Estate Investments in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania,and has a total of 60,000 square feet.Top Of PageLeaving TownTakeda America Research and Development CenterInc.,104 Carnegie Center, Princeton 08540. Mikihiko Obayashi PhD,president.609-452-1113; fax, 609-452-1218.The R&D center of Japan’s largest pharmaceutical company moved toLincolnshire, Illinois, where it joins Takeda Pharmaceuticals America(475 Half Day Road, Lincolnshire, Illinois, 60069, 847-383-3000).At its peak, 35 people worked in the Carnegie Center office.Top Of PageManagement MovesTrenton Lightning, 230 Nassau Street, Princeton08542. Philip Subhen, general manager. 609-688-8844; fax,609-279-1940.Kenneth Samu has invested in a future indoor football team and isnow co-owner. Samu is CEO of E.U.S. Communications, a full-servicetelecommunications company that designs and installs voice, data,and fiber optic cabling systems. The team is the first in this leagueon the east coast and its inaugural season starts this April at theSovereign Bank Arena. Phil Subhan is the founding co-owner and generalmanager. Marketing will be provided by Global Spectrum, the arena’smanagement company. Season tickets are on sale.Top Of PageName ChangesNewton Interactive, 2425 Pennington Road,Pennington08534. Debra Newton, president. 609-818-0025; fax, 609-818-0045.(warning: It is hard to exit from this page: www.nrg-i.comFormerly known as Newton Resource Group, this company’s new name isNewton Interactive, to reflect its core focus — digital mediasolutions, specifically Internet-based technologies, for thehealthcareindustry. This year it was named as both an Inc 500 company and aForbes Fast 500.Nextera Enterprises (Sibson & Company), 600AlexanderPark, Suite 208, Princeton 08540. Donald Gallo, principal.609-520-2700;fax, 609-520-0369. Home page: www.sibson.comSibson & Company expanded last summer from the Carnegie Center to24,000 square feet at Alexander Park, and now it is officiallychangingits name, to be known as Nextera Enterprises. In 1998 it was acquiredby Nextera, which also has Lexecon and Nextera Interactive as separatebusiness units. “Collaboration among these groups has led toa diverse team of consultants with services that are particularlyattuned to these times of great change,” says Janet Dow, marketrelations manager. “We are approaching the marketplace as aunifiedcompany with more than 600 consultants who have deep and functionexpertise in human capital and technology solutions.”Top Of PageContracts AwardedFrontLine Technologies Inc., 3131 Princeton Pike,Building 4, Suite 206, Lawrenceville 08648. Kris Subramaniam,principal.609-912-0004; fax, 609-912-0307.The 40-person IT consulting company designed and installed a missioncritical E-service system for the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging,a 400-person agency funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Aging(www.pcaphl.org).The Consumer and Provider System (CAPS) was athree-yearjob to redesign and automate the work of eight departments includingprovider billing, departmental workflow, and wait list management.The system also does internal and external statistical reports, saysPeter Gust, vice president of technology. FrontLine Technologies doesclient server application development with Visual Basic and relationaldatabases, and it is a premier partner of Vision Software.PharmaSeq Inc., 11 Deer Park Drive, PrincetonCorporatePlaza, Suite 204, Monmouth Junction 08852. Wlodek Mandecki, presidentand CEO. 732-355-0100; fax, 732-355-0102. Home page:www.pharmaseq.comAfter a two-year collaboration with the Sarnoff Corporation, WlodekMandecki announced his firm has made its first fully functionallight-powerednanotransponder using a chip measuring six nanoliters, less than 1/000the size of a grain of rice.This DNA chip achieved a record of being the smallest, externallypowered, monolithic integrated circuit that can transmit its identitycode by radio frequency. It will help develop microchip flow systemsfor DNA assays and is suitable for high-throughput assays in biology,medicine, combinatorial chemistry, and drug discovery.Top Of PageDeathsMila Gibbons , 87, on December 16. A professional dancerwith Loie Fuller in the 1930s, she founded and operated the AparriSchool of Dance on Nassau Street for more than 40 years. A memorialservice will be at the Princeton University Chapel on Sunday, January14, at 1:30 p.m.Terri Anderson-Hyman , 49, on December 17. She was a packerat Grainger Distribution Center in Cranbury.Myroslaw “Mike” Kardasz , 54, on December 18. Hewas a telecommunications manager with Dow Jones.Barry A. Omilinsky , 57, on December 19. He was a chemicalconsultant who owned two companies, Formulogics and Ocapco.Richard A. Tindall , 56, on December 19. With his brotherhe owned Farmdale Farms in West Windsor.Harold E. Wertz , 69, on December 21. He was a stationaryengineer with Princeton University.James B. Owens, 71, on December 25. He had been a seniorengineer for Mobil Oil Corp.Max Winget , 72, on December 26. A traffic safetyconsultant,he had been public relations director for AAA Central-West Jersey.Edward A. Ring , 78, on January 1. He was president andboard chairman of Circle F. Manufacturing Company in Trenton.James M. Tuozzolo , 57, on December 31. The principaltrumpetplayer of the Greater Trenton Symphony, he had a heart attack afterperforming in the New Year’s Eve concert. He also owned a pavingcompany,Pat Pavers, in Hamilton.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
