IPG Photonics has announced that is has bought the California-based Mobius Photonics.
Mobius, which provides high-power pulsed UV fibre lasers for micromachining, such as dicing and scribing of wafers, drilling and solar hybrid panel processing, had revenues of about $1.4 million for 2012. IPG has stated that the purchase was to accelerate its entry into the UV laser market and deepen the company’s development team. Mobius employees will become part of the IPG Silicon Valley Technology Center.
‘The acquisition of Mobius Photonics will augment our current development efforts in UV fibre lasers to quickly penetrate the UV laser market, which we believe could be a significant sales driver for IPG in the coming years. Mobius has deep expertise in UV lasers, a strong patent portfolio and proprietary techniques relating to UV lasers,’ said Dr Valentin Gapontsev, IPG’s chief executive officer.
Through the acquisition, IPG acquired Mobius patents, licenses and trade secrets and in particular, an exclusive license of Mobius’ US patent number 5,745,284. This is an early and broad patent claiming pulsed fibre lasers with frequency conversion into UV light.
