Japanese
Japanese

Corporate history

1954
Factory at the time of the founding

Factory at the time of the founding

Founded as Showa Koki Seizou.
Started to manufacture lenses for camera or binoculars.
1959
Night-vision system installed at Tokyo Tower

Night-vision system installed at Tokyo Tower

Became NEC Corporation affiliated company.
Started to manufacture NIR lenses.
1961 Started to manufacture microscopes.
1973 Started to develop laser optics technologies.
1981 Started to macufacture objective lenses for DUV lasers.
1984
Developed high-laser-tolerance coating technologies
Developed coating technologies for high power lasers.
1985 Developed lenses for IR camera.
1987
Yokohama plant at completion

Yokohama plant at completion

Opened Yokohama plant.
1989 Started to manufacture laser radar optical systems for air pollution observation.
1990 Released fluoride coating products for high power UV lasers.
1993 Started to manufacture satellite optical systems for Mars exploration.
1994 Changed the company name to Showa Optronics Co., Ltd.
1995
The world's first continuously-variable titanium-sapphire lasers for all wavelength region (Left). Medal of the industrial technology development prize (Right)

The world's first continuously-variable titanium-sapphire lasers for all wavelength region
Medal of the industrial technology development prize (Right)

Developed continuously-variable titanium-sapphire lasers for all wavelength region (Industrial technology development prize commended by Kanagawa prefecture).

Developed ultra-low-loss mirrors through ion-beam sputtering.
1996 Released diode pumped solid state laser products (JUNO series).
Released aspheric lenses for infrared.
1997 Opened Setagaya head office and plant.
Released DUV objective lenses for semiconductor inspection.
Developed diode laser beam shaping technologies (International patent applied).
1998 Unique dissertation prize commended by Laser Society of Japan (Title: Broad-bandwidth, low-loss mirrors for wavelength-tunable laser)
1999 Took over NEC Corporation gas laser operations.
Developed satellite camera optical systems for the asteroid explorer 'HAYABUSA'.
Certified ISO14001.
2000
Developed diode pumped compact visible lasers
Released compact diode-pumped visible laser products as JUNO series.
2001 Certified ISO9001.
2002
VUV lenses for semiconductor inspection
Released VUV objective lenses for semiconductor inspection.
2007 Certified ISO27001.
2010 Industry prize commended by Laser Society of Japan (Compact blue/green lasers).
2020 Became KYOCERA Corporation affiliated company.
Changed the company name to KYOCERA SOC Corporation.