eMagin wins $5 million to develop bright microdisplay
eMagin Corp. (Hopewell Junction, NY) announced the renewal of its Phase III Small-Business Innovation Research contract from the US Air Force. The $5-million contract will help the company further develop its high-resolution, active-matrix, organic light-emitting-diode microdisplays for extremely high-luminance applications. Under the agreement, eMagin will increase the luminance of displays for sunlight-readable, see-through, head-wearable applications. The target is 30,000 cd/m2, or 200 times brighter than notebook computer displays. The transparent display will allow the user to see data overlaid on real-life images in broad daylight. The contract, to be managed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (Dayton, OH), includes development, integration, and demonstration of the microdisplay technology.
Cognex and ESI plunge into patent dispute
Machine-vision specialist Cognex Corp. (Natick, MA) has served a complaint against Electro Scientific Industries (ESI; Portland, OR), claiming that ESI's system for placing surface-mount devices infringes on a patent granted to Cognex in 1994. The complaint was filed in the US District Court in Massachusetts. Cognex is seeking action by the court to stop ESI from making and selling its surface-mounting product, and is also seeking unspecified damages to compensate for ESI's alleged patent infringements. ESI replied by stating that it believes that the Cognex suit is without merit, and that ESI will mount a vigorous defense.
Kodak forms global imaging business
Eastman Kodak (Rochester, NY) has formed a business called Kodak Global Imaging that will offer information derived from images of Earth to commercial customers such as telecommunications firms. The new business will be a division of Kodak's commercial and government systems unit. To support the initiative, Kodak acquired the Earth image-processing, geographic information systems, and mapping businesses of Groupe Hauts-Monts Inc. (Beauport, Que., Canada), a privately held provider of Earth imagery products and related services. Excluded from the acquisition is Groupe Hauts-Monts' aerial-image capture business. Kodak Global Imaging will bring its own analysis and visualization software and tools to bear on Earth images, producing, for example, three-dimensional images of cities. Projected uses of the processed information will be to aid telecommunications companies in positioning cell towers and fiberoptic hardware, and to help insurance companies assess natural disasters.
European consortium to develop new low-light detectors
The European Union has awarded a European consortium € 2 million ($1.79 million) to develop efficient and fast low-light-level detectors. The project, named Impecable (improved photon-efficient cathodes with applications in biological luminescence), brings together the University of Sussex (Falmer, England), the Laser Zentrum (Hannover, Germany), the Autonoma University of Madrid and CIEMAT (both in Madrid, Spain), along with companies Photek Ltd. (Hastings, England), Electron Tubes Ltd. (Ruislip, England), and Novara Technology (Novara, Italy). The optical detectors developed by the consortium will be produced by Photek and Electron Tubes. Previous work undertaken by Photek and the University of Sussex led to the construction of a system for the spectral analysis of thermoluminescence based on photon-counting cameras. The new grant will take this research further, aiming to create European dominance in these products. Electron Tubes will develop new high-efficiency photocathode layers for Impecable. The target markets for the new detectors are medical diagnostics and new sensor applications, especially in the medical and biological areas. Among the applications foreseen is a new technique for the early diagnosis and subsequent monitoring of Alzheimer's disease, and luminescence analysis for a variety of types of cancer.
Also in the news. . .
Philips Components (Sunnyvale, CA) invested $5.5 million in Visson Enterprises (Ramat Gan, Israel) to help develop Visson's flexible display technology. . . . Three-Five Systems (Tempe, AZ) has revised revenue projections downward for the first quarter of 2001.
John Wallace