IMAGING & DETECTOR INDUSTRY REPORT

Sept. 1, 2007
Developer and marketer of telecommunications and consumer optoelectronic solutions Arasor (Mountain View, CA) signed definitive agreements to acquire U.

Microvision, Motorola partner on display

Following its recent announcement that it would collaborate with Oerlikon Optics (Golden, CO) to optimize its ultraminiature laser projection-display engine called PicoP, Microvision (Redmond, WA) has now signed an agreement with Motorola to develop pico-projector display solutions for mobile applications. PicoP tiny laser-based projectors are expected to enable a “big screen” viewing experience from mobile devices. By projecting content displayed on the device screen onto a wall, object, or even a curved surface, mobile users could easily share Web sites or multimedia applications such as movies, personal videos, mobile TV, photographs, and presentations with friends or business colleagues.

Sumitomo to acquire Cambridge Display

Cambridge Display Technology (CDT; Cambridge, England) and Sumitomo Chemical Company (Tokyo, Japan) announced that they have entered into a merger agreement whereby Sumitomo Chemical will acquire CDT, a developer of technologies based on polymer organic-light-emitting diodes (P-OLEDs). Under the merger agreement, Sumitomo Chemical will acquire all outstanding shares of CDT common stock for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $285 million.

“CDT and Sumitomo Chemical have developed a more integrated and closer relationship since Sumitomo acquired a license to certain IP from CDT in 2001, culminating in the formation of a 50/50 joint venture in 2005 to develop, manufacture, and sell P‑OLED materials to CDT licensees and others,” said David Fyfe, chairman and CEO of. “We believe this merger is not only in the best interest of our shareholders but also of our employees and the global display industry.”

NASA land-imaging contract goes to Ball

Ball Aerospace and Technologies (Boulder, CO) was awarded a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center contract to build the Operational Land Imager (OLI) for the eighth Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). “We take great pride in being chosen to help continue NASA’s longest continuous imagery data record of our planet,” said David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball Aerospace. The OLI instrument provides 15 m panchromatic and 30 m multispectral Earth-imaging spatial-resolution capability and encompasses a 185 km swath allowing the entire globe to be imaged every 16 days. Instrument delivery is slated for September 2010.

The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. For more than 30 years, Landsat satellites have continuously and consistently archived images of Earth, creating a historical archive. The multispectral imagery is gathered for applications including agricultural monitoring, natural resource management, and land-use planning.

E-paper market to reach $2 billion by 2012

The e-paper display industry will surpass $2 billion in annual revenues by 2012 and reach $4 billion by 2014, according to a report from NanoMarkets (Glen Allen, VA), “E-Paper Markets: An Eight-Year Market and Technology Forecast.” NanoMarkets predicts that the arrival of high-quality color e-paper technology, better encapsulation, and the ability to print large e-paper displays will create new opportunities in smart shelves, point-of-purchase displays, cell-phone displays, and disposable electronics. The report says that color e-paper will directly compete with organic-light-emitting-diode and liquid-crystal displays.

Currently, the dominant player in the market is E-Ink (Cambridge, MA). Other players include SiPix (Fremont, CA), Aveso (Fridley, MN), and Siemens (New York, NY). The full report is available for purchase at www.nanomarkets.net.

For more business news visit www.optoelectronicsreport.com.

Also in the news . . .

Optical Research Associates (Pasadena, CA), supplier of imaging and illumination design/analysis software, appointed Light Tec (Hyères, France) as its new software distribution and support partner in Europe. . . . Global Display Solutions (www.gds.com), designer and manufacturer of industrial display solutions, won the 2007 DIGI Award in the Transportation - Excellence in Technology category for a customized Advanced Optical Enhancement LCD display it developed for Siemens for use in a European transportation project. . . . The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (El Segundo, CA, and McKinney, TX) an $18.5 million contract modification to provide an infrared airborne sensor upgrade on Hornet and Super Hornet targeting pods as part of its Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared program. . . . Cedip Infrared Systems (Croissy-Beaubourg, France) was retained as a partner of the system@tic Paris-region competitiveness cluster to develop thermal-imaging sensors for security and defense, telecommunications, and transportation markets. . . . Adept Technology (Livermore, CA) signed an agreement with Second2None Machine Vision Systems (Shenzhen, China) to distribute and integrate Adept robots and vision systems in China.

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