Balzers Thin Films is changing its corporate structure and its name in accordance with the demands of the information technology market, the company said. The thin-film coating specialists formerly known as Balzers Thin Films will now provide their know-how for the optical industry under the name Unaxis Optics. With this move, Unaxis Optics has dedicated itself to the age of the photon and information technology, the company said.

Unaxis Optics is part of the Unaxis international high-tech group, which grew out of the Oerlikon-Buhrle Group. Unaxis Optics is one of the five divisions in the company's Information Technology segment, along with Semiconductors, Data Storage, Materials and Displays. Thanks to the outcome of research and development, the Optics division set the course for a successful development of the business, said Unaxis Optics.

With the telecommunications industry becoming more and more dependent on optical transmission for faster and more efficient communication of data and information, existing electrical lines are being replaced more and more by glass-fiber cable, the company said.

This is where the thin-film coating specialists come in. Inside the glass-fiber networks, components are employed based on complex coating technology such as multiplexers, switches, and gain flattening filters or ball lenses. In the medical industry analyzing devices use light as a means of diagnosis. Such technology reduces costs and accelerates evaluation, said Unaxis Optics. Coating specialists have even worked with the automobile industry to develop a coating that permits maximum luminosity for headlamps.