Gooch & Housego consolidates
Sixty years after Archie Gooch and Leslie Housego collaborated to form a company that would focus on precision optics and crystalline materials, Gooch & Housego (Ilminster, England) has launched a new company that brings together five players in the photonics industry under the Gooch & Housego brand name. The launch combines Gooch & Housego U.K., Cleveland Crystals, NEOS Technologies, Landwehr Electronic, and SIFAM Fibre Optics into one company with headquarters in the U.K. and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. “Our global integration as Gooch & Housego will enable us to better leverage the combined skills from across the organization to develop new products,” said Gareth Jones, CEO.
CREOL ‘Affiliates Day’ focuses on biophotonics
The College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida (UCF/CREOL; Orlando, FL) will hold its annual Industrial Affiliates Day on April 18 in Orlando. This year’s program – Biophotonics & Bio-applications – includes invited speakers Yaron Silberberg from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Jim Fujimoto from MIT, and UCF/CREOL faculty Daniel van der Weide and Aristide Dogariu.
The Industrial Affiliates Program was created to build collaborations between CREOL/UCF and corporations that are involved in the development or use of optics and photonics. Progress in this arena will play an increasingly important role in many segments of our society, in our technological future, and in the economic strength of our nation. Go to www.creol.ucf.edu to register.
OCT market to top $800 million by 2012
Invented at MIT in the early 1990s and first commercialized for medical imaging applications by Carl Zeiss in 1996, optical coherence tomography (OCT) promises fast, high-resolution diagnostic images for a variety of clinical applications. According to Optical Coherence Tomography – Technology, Markets, and Applications: 2008 – 2012, a new market research report from BioOptics World (Nashua, NH; www.bioopticsworld.com) that quantifies this rapidly growing market for the first time, the global market for OCT systems is currently around $200 million and growing at an annual rate of 34%. This growth is expected to continue at this pace for the next several years, with revenues topping $800 million by 2012.
Joint venture targets aspheric lenses
LightPath Technologies (Orlando, FL) entered into a joint venture agreement with CDGM Glass Company, under the name “LightPath CDGM Chengdu Optical Co.” LightPath and CDGM will each own a 50% interest in the joint venture, which will be located in Chengdu, China. The initial capital contribution of each party will be a cash investment equivalent to $5 million. CDGM is China’s largest optical glass manufacturer and produces preforms to convert into optical lenses.
The joint venture will develop, mold, and manufacture aspheric lenses with a diameter of less than 20 mm for high-volume visible-imaging applications for cell phones, digital cameras, and video equipment. Target production volume is 1 million lenses per month.
Partnership benefits sub-32 nm CMOS
Powerchip Semiconductor (PSC; Hsinchu, Taiwan) entered into a partnership with nanotechnology research center IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) to perform research and development for the sub-32 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) industry. PSC will collaborate within IMEC’s advanced lithography program addressing immersion, double patterning, and extreme ultraviolet lithography challenges.
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Also in the news . . .
McPherson (Chelmsford, MA) received a contract from WaferMasters (San Jose, CA), manufacturer of thermal processing tools to fabricate advanced semiconductor devices, to deliver high-resolution visible-light spectrometers. . . . Light Blue Optics(Cambridge, England), developer of holographic laser projection technology, opened its U.S. operations with an engineering and business-development facility in Colorado Springs, CO. . . . Imagine Optic (Orsay, France), provider of wavefront-analysis and adaptive-optics technologies, reported that preliminary results for its fiscal year 2007 indicated approximately 150% growth in the U.S. market with steady growth in Europe and Asia. . . . Gooch & Housegowas presented a “Vendor Appreciation” award from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratoryfor the supply of crystal quartz wave plates used in the National Ignition Facility’s laser preamplifier modules. . . . Edmund Optics moved to larger facilities in Karlsruhe, Germany, to keep pace with increased business activity, up 20% annually since opening eight years ago. . . . Spectrum Thin Films (Hauppauge, NY) moved to a 16,000 sq ft building with a 3000 sq ft clean room to expand optical coating manufacture. . . .G-S Plastic Optics (GSPO; Rochester, NY) acquired the tooling to produce the “Standard” and “Apex” lines of injection-molded optics from 3M Precision Optics (Cincinnati, OH).