过去十年电信产业的兴盛，仅是让美国光电组件厂商加速将制造移往泰国等亚洲地区；但就如同其它技术领域所面临的状况，当某种电子零组件的本土制造基地不断萎缩，得经过很长的距离供应日益增加的安全存量，产业领导人也越来越对这样的情况感到不安。
为此，毕业于美国德州理工大学(Texas Tech)、目前担任光电产业发展协会(Optoelectronics Industry Development Association)执行技术总监的工程师Ganesh Gopalakrishnan决定，是该做点事情来遏止美国光电组件制造业出走潮的时候了。他四处联系相关人士并于近日在洛杉矶举办了一场座谈会，主题就 是探讨美国光电组件制造业的衰退；参与该场座谈会的美国产、官、学各界专家也对振兴美国光电组件制造业达成了共识。
Gopalakrishnan 表示，尽管仍有部分与会者抱持怀疑态度，但振兴美国光电制造业的行动若再等个五年就会太迟：“无论采用哪种方法，我们将尝试大声疾呼产业界正视此一问题。”他曾执掌一家位于马里兰州的光电组件制造公司，直到过去十年电信产业兴起之前；他估计，在这十年北美所流失的制造业职缺约有20万个。(包括破产的北电网络- Nortel Networks在内的加拿大电信设备业者，曾贡献40%的北美光电组件制造产业)
而Gopalakrishnan也指出，包括硅光子芯片、光纤零件、网络接口、LED等光电组件的制造，以及相对应的封装制程，并不只是工作机会；因为具安全性、高速的光学网络是一个国家的通讯基础建设骨干，唯有本土制造才能确保该光学网络是可避免骇客攻击的。
在座谈会举行同时，一个新的光电产业计划也在俄亥俄州公布；美中经济与安全审议委员会(U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission)成员Dan Slane透露，有关当局将在俄亥俄州Dayton附近的Wright-Patterson空军基地外围，建立一个光电产业聚落；相关经费将由地方政府负 责筹措，并提拨70英亩的土地做为兴建研发机构、光电组件组装封装厂使用。
Slane表示，有数所位于俄亥俄 州的大学将与Wright-Patterson基地内的空军研究实验室(Wright-Patterson)合作建立一个最终可做为“可信赖光电组件组装 厂”的机构。Gopalakrishan则强调，俄亥俄州新发起的产业计划，以及一连串促进光电组件标准化的复兴行动，将是振兴美国本土光电产业的第一步。
在政府的监督之下进行产业标准开发，将有助于减少产业的不确定因素，并因此降低光电组件的设计与生产成本；“此一策略与 整个产业生态系统息息相关。”Gopalakrishnan并认为，继续在美国以外的区域进行光电组件生产将会扼杀创新：“如果你丧失了制造能力，也意味着失去做那些应用于新一代终端产品之小东西的能力。”
Gopalakrishnan补充指出，仅仅是产出光电组件知识产权(IP)，并不足以维持本土产业发展；因为IP已经成为“数字游戏”而已。
编译：Judith Cheng
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
参考英文原文：Optoelectronics industry seeks manufacturing comeback，by George Leopold
相关阅读：
• 中国移动欲将服务器打造成基地台
• 10G EPON临近商用，xDSL接入市场萎缩已成必然
• 10G EPON需求减弱的几个原因0FKesmc
{pagination}
Optoelectronics industry seeks manufacturing comeback
George Leopold
WASHINGTON – The telecom bust of the last decade only served to hasten the offshoring of U.S. optoelectronics manufacturing to Asian countries like Thailand. As with other technology sectors, industry leaders are becoming increasingly restive about a shrinking manufacturing base in an electronics sector that provides ever-increasing amounts of secure bandwidth over long distances.
Alarmed by this exodus, Ganesh Gopalakrishnan decided it was time to do something to stem the erosion of the optoelectronics manufacturing base. Gopalakrishnan, an engineer trained at Texas Tech and executive technical director at the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association, based here, picked up the phone and started lining up a panel of speakers for a workshop highlighting the manufacturing decline at a recent industry conference in Los Angeles. The panel, made up of experts from industry, academia and government agencies like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency concluded that “it was clear that something needs to be done” to reverse the decline in optoelectronics manufacturing, Gopalakrishnan said in an interview.
Some conference attendees remained dubious, he added, saying the effort to revive photonics manufacturing is five years too late.
Either way, Gopalakrishnan said, “We’re trying to be the squeaky wheel.”
Gopalakrishnan, who headed a successive optoelectronics manufacturing company in Columbia, Md., up until the telecom bust early in the last decade, estimates that about 200,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in North America over the last ten years. (Canadian telecom equipment makers like bankrupt Nortel Networks once accounted for about 40 percent of North American optoelectronics manufacturing.)
The manufacturing of network equipment such as silicon photonics circuits, fiber optic components, network interfaces, LEDs and accompanying packaging isn’t just about jobs, he argued. Secure, high-speed optical networks are the backbone of the nation’s communications infrastructure. Hence, domestic manufacturing is one way to ensure that optical networks remain shielded from hackers and cyber attacks, Gopalakrishnan said.
Beyond talk, the manufacturing effort appears to be gaining steam. A new photonics initiative in Ohio was unveiled during the association’s manufacturing workshop. Dan Slane, a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, announced plans to create a cluster of photonics companies around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. Local governments are expected to fund the effort and allocate 70 acres of land for an R&D facility and a photonics assembly and packaging plant.
Several Ohio universities will work with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson to create a facility that will eventually be designated as a “trusted assembly/packaging plant” for photonics, Slane said.
Gopalakrishan stressed that the Ohio initiative along with a renewed push to promote optoelectronics standards are among the first steps toward reviving the domestic photonics industry.
Industry standards developed with the help of government referees would help reduce industry uncertainly and, with it, the cost of designing and manufacturing optoelectronics. “The ecosystem evolves around the strategy,” Gopalakrishnan said.
Moreover, continuing to assembly photonics components overseas stifles innovation. “If you lose your manufacturing capability you lose the ability to do the little things” needed to produce the next generation of products, Gopalakrishnan stressed. Merely generating intellectual property related to optoelectronics also isn’t enough to sustain a domestic industry. IP has become “just a numbers game,” Gopalakrishnan warned.
责编：Quentin
扫码分享到好友
