October 2008
ITW Acquisition Offers OEMs Even Greater Design Flexibility in The Opto Industry
llinois Tools Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) announced today that it has
acquired the assets of Opto Diode Corporation. Opto Diode specializes
in the manufacture of LED’s, IRLED’s, LED arrays, silicon photodiodes,
gallium aluminum arsenide photodiodes and optoelectronic assemblies.
Opto Diode offers a broad range of standard products that are primarily
in metal packages for high reliability. Opto Diode also specializes in
providing custom solutions including line sources, point sources,
custom geometry photodiodes, custom packages and high power LED and
IRLED arrays. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Opto Diode
will be a wholly owned business unit of ITW and part of the company's
Opto Electronics Group. In accordance with ITW's decentralized business
structure, Opto Diode will maintain its brand name and operate as a
separate business. It will be closely aligned with the other companies
of the Opto Electronics Group including Lumex and Cal Sensors. Opto
Diode has its sales, operations and manufacturing located in Newbury
Park outside of Los Angeles, California. For more information on Opto
Diode go to www.optodiode.com.
“Opto Diode is an excellent strategic
fit for the ITW Opto Electronics Group,” said Ron Schmidt, General
Manager of Lumex and Manager of the Group. “Opto Diode has a long
history of high performance products in the marketplace and
sophisticated packaging capabilities. Their addition to the Group
strengthens all of the companies in it. Lumex will benefit from their
strong illumination and indication products and Cal Sensors will
benefit from their sensor development and manufacturing capabilities.
By the same token, Opto Diode will be able to benefit from Lumex’s
broad and deep penetration into the electronics marketplace and Cal
Sensors long experience with best in class emitting and detecting
products.”
The ITW Photonics Group is a premier source of
opto-components to enable designers of demanding circuits to fine-tune
their specifications for maximum performance and precision. Together
the Group is capable of offering OEM designers application-specific
solutions from the chip level all the way to packaged devices involving
complete circuits. “Becoming part of ITW gives Opto Diode additional
marketing, R&D and manufacturing resources. These resources will
increase Opto Diode’s ability to offer complete solutions to the
marketplace”, said Russ Dahl, General Manager of Opto Diode Corp.
Typical applications for Opto Diode’s products include photo-electric
controls; medical, scientific and industrial florescence; guided
missile systems, ophthalmology, LED based tracking systems for surgery,
vending machines and aviation lighting.
Lumex is a designer, manufacturer and distributor of user interface
technology. Lumex offers thousands of high-efficiency, state-of-the-art
optoelectronic components, devices and displays, with an emphasis on
both semi-custom and custom design solutions. Since its inception in
1980, Lumex has been established as a global organization offering
application-specific solutions with the manufacturing efficiencies
normally associated only with volume operations. Lumex is the founding
member of the Group. Lumex is headquartered in Palatine, Illinois and
Chu Dung, Hsin Chu County, Taiwan, ROC, with a Sales and Operations
center near Frankfurt, Germany. Manufacturing facilities are located in
Illinois, Taiwan and China with distributors throughout North America,
Europe and the Pacific Rim. Lumex received its initial ISO 9001
registration in 1996. For more information on Lumex go to
www.lumex.com.
Cal Sensors, the other member of the Group, is the
leading manufacturer of standard and customized lead selenide (PbSe)
and lead sulfide (PbS) infrared detectors, infrared arrays, and
infrared emitters. The detectors are sensitive in the 1-5.5 micron
wavelength region and are used in spectroscopic, imaging, medical,
automotive exhaust, gas detection and moisture analysis instruments,
non-contact temperature measurement, flame detection and combustion
control. For more information on Cal Sensors go to www.calsensors.com.
Lumex, Inc. and Cal Sensors are Illinois Tool Works Inc. Companies
(NYSE:ITW).
With $16.2 billion in revenues, ITW is a diversified and
value-added manufacturer of highly engineered components and industrial
systems and consumables. The Company consists of approximately 825
business units in 52 countries and employs some 60,000 people. In 2007,
ITW had more than 14,000 unexpired patents and pending patent
applications worldwide, including 2,400 U.S. patents and 900 pending
U.S. applications. ITW typically ranks in the top 100 of patent issuers
in the U.S. More information can be found at www.itw.com. Lumex, Inc.,
Cal Sensors and Opto Diode Corporation are Trademarks of Illinois Tool
Works Inc.
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