Clark County laser manufacturer nLight Corp. expects to be valued at close to a half-billion dollars following its initial public offering.

The company issued its "red herring" Monday morning with additional detail on its prospective IPO, announced last month. The filing indicates nLight expects to sell shares between $13 and $15 and to raise between $70 million and $80 million.

That implies nLight would be worth somewhere between $430 million and $510 million based on total shares outstanding.

That's relatively small by the standards of tech IPOs, which often value newly public companies at well over $1 billion. It still represents a milestone in the Silicon Forest, which hasn't had a tech company go public since 2004.

And nLight is a big company by the standards of the Portland metro area. It reports sales of $138.5 million last year - up from $101.3 million in 2016. The company reported a $1.8 million profit in 2017, compared to a $14.2 million loss the prior year.

Founded in 2000, nLight makes semiconductor lasers that manufacturers use to produce electronics, defense, aerospace and industrial products. Demand is taking off as lasers grow more powerful and supplant conventional manufacturing tools.

nLight Corp.

Founded: 2000

Headquarters

: Unincorporated Clark County, just north of Vancouver

Business

: Semiconductor lasers for manufacturing industrial, aerospace, defense and electronics products.

Financials

: Sales of $138.5 million in 2017, up 36 percent; profits of $1.8 million, compared to a $14.2 million loss in 2016.

Funding

: $170 million; nLight's largest backers include venture firms Oak Investment Partners, Menlo Ventures and Mohr, Davidow Ventures, which each hold about 20 percent of the company's stock.

Investors anticipate a surge of IPOs this spring as companies seek to cash out their early backers and employees and capitalize on the strong economy and investors' appetite for new opportunities.

In Washington alone, nLight was one of three companies that filed for IPOs in the same week last month (the others were Smartsheet and DocuSign, which is technically based in California but was founded in Seattle and still has its primary office there.)

Oregon and Southwest Washington haven't had a tech IPO since 2004, when Cascade Microtech went public. The long drought reflects the region's inability to produce large tech companies beyond its roots in hardware manufacturing, even as many Silicon Valley companies set up software outposts in the Portland area.

The region has had a handful of non-tech public offerings in the intervening years, but no blockbusters. Typical was Erickson Air Crane's 2012 offering, which raised $32 million - half what the company had sought - as it struggled to pay down $130 million in debt.

-- Mike Rogoway; Twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699