Corning to boost capacity at Benton Park photonic technologies plant

Corning (Corning, New York) is planning to invest more than $150 million dollars to add additional capacity at its Benton Park Plant in Benton Township, Pennsylvania.

As a result of this expansion, Corning Photonic Technologies will continue to maintain a market leadership position in erbium-doped amplifier modules and looks to achieve significant growth in its dispersion compensation modules product line over the next two years. Corning intends to increase its capacity in amplifier modules by more than 50% and dispersion compensation modules by more than 200%.

"Our ability to grow at or beyond market rates is dependent upon our ability to achieve the manufacturing scale and unit volume necessary to be responsive to our broadening customer base," said Frank R. Little, vice president and general manager, Optical Transport Products, Corning Photonic Technologies. "While the telecommunications industry is difficult to predict, we expect that the demand for our photonic modules will continue to be very strong." Industry analyst reports forecast strong double-digit growth in the photonic components market through 2002.

Erbium-doped amplifiers are the heart of the optical amplifier, which eliminates attenuation (reduction in signal magnitude). Dispersion compensation modules correct for chromatic dispersion (pulse spreading) in high-speed networks. These photonic products are especially important as systems providers deploy 10 and 40 Gbps DWDM networks.

Corning already employs 600 people in its Benton Park facility. When complete this expansion is expected to provide a total of approximately 2,500 jobs.

Edited by Maeve McKenna
Assistant Editor, Photonics Online