Galileo sells business and other assets
Galileo Corp. (Sturbridge, MA) has sold its scientific detector products business to Burle Industries (Lancaster, PA). The business specializes in components for scientific and analytical instrumentation, such as microchannel plates and microchannel-plate-based detectors, detectors for mass spectrometers, and other detectors, as well as flexible fiberoptic light guides. Burle, which makes photomultiplier tubes and silicon detectors, will not relocate the business. Galileo has also sold certain unnamed manufacturing assets to IPG Photonics Corp. (Burbach, Germany), a supplier of lasers and optical amplifiers. Galileo has used the $8.5 million it received from these transactions to pay off debts, reducing its outstanding balance to less than $6 million. Gerhard Andlinger, currently chairman, was named president and CEO.
NASA accepts Lockheed Martin infrared instrument
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), built by Lockheed Martin IR Imaging Systems (Lexington, MA), has been accepted by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA) for delivery. To be flown on the Earth Absorbing System satellite, the AIRS will measure the Earth's atmospheric temperature to within one kelvin per kilometer of altitude by continuously measuring more than 2000 separate spectral bands in the 3.74-15.4-µm wavelength range. The resulting data will be used to extend long-range weather-forecasting abilities from five to ten days.
Group receives funding for TOPS
A group working to develop optoelectronic plastics has received $5 million in funding from the US Department of Defense. The five-year project, Tunable Optical Polymer Systems (TOPS), will be headed by researchers at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics (Rochester, NY) and will include scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA), the University of Texas (Austin, TX), and Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL). The aim is to create polymer materials that can be used for holographic storage and computer displays.
Dalsa acquires Silicon Mountain Design
Dalsa Corp. (Waterloo, Ont., Canada) has acquired Silicon Mountain Design (SMD; Colorado Springs, CO) for $11.5 million. Both are semiconductor image-sensor companies. Dalsa and SMD will operate as sister companies under a Dalsa Corp. holding company. Dalsa is looking to the megapixel, electronic-area-scan, charge-coupled-device cameras in the SMD product line to help it enter the medical-imaging market, which Dalsa estimates to be $194 million with a growth of 25% per year over the next five years. No change in operations is planned, although some manufacturing capabilities will be gradually consolidated.
Irvine Sensors gains equity financing
Irvine Sensors Corp. (Costa Mesa, CA) has secured $5.6 million of equity financing in a private placement. To achieve this, the company sold 4 million shares of unregistered common stock to a limited number of investors, the largest one being a publicly traded European Mutual fund. The financing closed in June and will be reflected in the company's third fiscal quarter, which ended June 27. Irvine Sensors develops and sells miniature cameras, image capture systems, wireless infrared communications products, and other optoelectronic devices.
Also in the news . . .
Lasershow Systems, an operating subsidiary of Light Management Group Inc. (Burlington, Ont., Canada), has reached agreement with DJL Capital Corp. (Toronto, Ont., Canada) for up to US $75 million in financing for the deployment of its billboard projection systems. . . . Photosense LLC (Boulder, CO) and the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California Irvine (Irvine, CA) will work together to commercialize noninvasive medical sensing technologies.
John Wallace