The SAES Getters Group, based bear Milan, Italy, and Southampton Photonics Inc. (SPI), of Southampton, England, have introduced a variety of products at Photonics West.
   SAES launched its PaGe thin films for impurity removal in hydrogen-sensitive packages, microelectronic hermetic devices in ceramic or metallic packages and wafer-level MEMS/MOEMS (micro/optoelectromechanical systems). The PaGe film product line consists of getter thin films, a few microns thick, that can be deposited and patterned on different substrates -- silicon, glass, germanium, metallic and ceramic -- in a virtually unlimited variety of shapes. Through chemical sorption of all active gases, SAES thin-film getter solutions keep the device operational conditions under control, thus increasing long term reliability and lifetime of vacuum and inert gas sealed packages. The getter thin film technology was developed by SAES Getters to support the continuous trend in miniaturizing the package dimensions of electronic devices, as well as to address increasingly more sophisticated geometry requirements. PaGe films are fully compatible with MEMS, MOEMS and hydrogen-sensitive device architecture as well as manufacturing processes.
   "We had a very positive market response for our product PaGeWafe(tm), the getter thin film pattern for wafer-to-wafer bonded MEMS devices, which we launched one year ago, and this has greatly motivated us to further extended the technology into a product line targeting diversified applications," said Marco Moraja, business development area manager for Getters for MEMS at the SAES Getters Group.

   In addition to PaGeWafer and PaGeLid, the PaGe product line includes Rel-Hy, a getter thin film specifically engineered to control the harmful outgassing of hydrogen in hermetically sealed microelectronic devices, typically gallium-arsenide packages for microwave and RF applications.
   SAES also announced it is expanding its optical crystal product line to encompass optical-grade congruent lithium tantalate. The new crystal has been developed in response to the increasing interest that optical tantalate is generating in the optoelectronic, laser and display application fields, which exploit its wavelength conversion capability.
   Southampton Photonics announced five additions to its redPOWER fiber lasers: a 2- to 20-W compact laser module; a 20- to 25-W continuous wave/modulated (CWM) system; an enhanced 100-W CWM fiber laser; a 1550-nm 5- to 10-W laser module/system and the 1550-nm redENERGY pulsed laser module.
   SPI said these products are the result of extensive market research and dialogue with customers and enable it to offer a broader variety of products for materials processing applications as diverse as flexo-printing, engraving, medical device manufacture, micro-manufacturing, micro-welding and micro-electronics.
   SPI's 1550-nm pulsed laser module is the first of the new redENERGY pulsed product line being launched in 2005. It operates at an "eye safe" wavelength and has applications that include range finding, target spotting, 3-D imaging and geomatics.