IPG Photonics Acquires Mobius Photonics

IPG Photonics Corp. have acquired privately held Mountain View, Calif.-based Mobius Photonics to accelerate its entry into the UV laser market and deepen IPG’s development team. Mobius provides high-power pulsed UV fiber lasers for micromachining, such as dicing and scribing of wafers, and VIA drilling and solar hybrid panel processing.

“The acquisition of Mobius Photonics will augment our current development efforts in UV fiber 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,” says Dr. Valentin Gapontsev, IPG Photonics' CEO. “The market has been waiting for a cost-effective, reliable and stable UV fiber laser. Now that we can combine Mobius’ UV laser expertise experience with IPG’s low-cost, proprietary fiber, pump diode and component technologies, we believe that we can effectively build a presence in the fine processing market.”

“This combination will enable us to leverage IPG’s industry-leading fiber laser technology to advance Mobius’ UV technology and provide our customers with low-cost advanced UV fiber lasers,” says Dr. Robert Byer, co-founder and chairman, Mobius. “We are proud of the accomplishments of our talented team and look forward to the many opportunities resulting from this transaction.”

In the acquisition, IPG acquired an exclusive license of U.S. Patent No. 5,745,284, an early and broad patent claiming pulsed fiber lasers with frequency conversion into UV light, as well as other Mobius patents, licenses, and trade secrets.

The employees from Mobius will become part of the IPG Silicon Valley Technology Center. Mobius had revenue from operations of approximately $1.4 million for 2012.