TRW Buys Commercial Laser Company

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Oct. 25 -- Cutting Edge Optronics Inc., a privately owned designer and manufacturer of solid-state lasers and laser diodes based near St. Louis, Mo., has agreed to be acquired by TRW in exchange for $19 million in cash and the assumption of about $5 million in debt by TRW. The acquisition gives TRW additional laser technologies and design capabilities, as well as the ability to produce in volume several key solid-state laser products. Cutting Edge Optronics will become a wholly owned subsidiary of TRW.
The main product TRW will acquire will be extreme UV light sources, a laser-based photolithography technology for the semiconductor equipment-manufacturing segment. Extreme UV allows semiconductor chipmakers to shrink the size and increase the operating speeds of advanced microcircuits, said TRW.