UV water disinfection award: Trojan Technologies (London, ON, Canada), a developer and proponent of large-scale ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection systems used worldwide, was named winner of the 2009 Stockholm Industry Water Award. Trojan Technologies produces open-channel and pressurized UV disinfection systems for industrial applications, municipal water and wastewater treatment, commercial integration, residential use, and elimination of environmental contaminants from wells and other sources of drinking water, including reused water. With installed systems at more than 5800 facilities in more than 80 countries, Trojan has led the worldwide drive for commercial, engineering, and regulatory acceptance of the technology as an environmentally sound alternative to traditional chlorine-based water treatment.
Spectrometer tackles Mt. Everest: Ocean Optics (Dunedin, FL) provided a Jaz Modular Sensing Suite to the trek crew of Return to Everest 2009--a crew including Keith Cowing, Miles O’Brien, NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, and others--to measure solar irradiance at extreme altitude. Jaz was utilized to determine UV intensity levels in the Everest region where levels are typically extremely high. The handheld Jaz unit that accompanied the group included solar irradiance scripting language, a card for storage of spectra, and Jaz’s lithium-ion battery. It is suggested that UV levels on Everest should be among the highest on Earth and Jaz was used to perform analysis of the nature of the sunlight during the experiment phase of the summit. The expedition was completed on May 25.
LaserFest funded: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded LaserFest (www.LaserFest.org), a celebration in 2010 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first working laser, $300,000 to fund educational outreach activities (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/356521). Visit www.laserfocusworld.com and click the VIDEO tab to view a video from the CLEO/IQEC LaserFest booth. LaserFest emphasizes the laser’s impact throughout history and highlights its potential for the future. Through a series of events and programs, LaserFest showcases the prominence of the laser in today’s world. With $150,000 from each agency, LaserFest will use the grants for educational programs about the products and services made possible by laser technology.
Photoreceiver cancer breakthrough: Oclaro (San Jose, CA), newly formed from the merger of Bookham and Avanex, announced that its New Focus 2117 photoreceivers are underpinning an award-winning breakthrough cancer detection system developed by scientists from Japan’s Kitasato University. The optical demultiplexed (OD) optical coherence tomography (OCT) medical imaging system received the ‘Customer Application of the Year’ Award from National Instruments and delivers faster, more accurate tissue analysis with minimal stress on the patient when compared to existing techniques. The high gain and low noise features of the New Focus detectors are critical in detecting low light level signals and generating high contrast images for accurate analysis.
Pico projector distribution: Syndiant (Dallas, TX), enabling consumers to enjoy a large-screen experience in handheld electronics, entered into a distribution agreement with Hakuto, international electronics distributor. The agreement allows Hakuto to sell, market and distribute Syndiant’s VueG8 (“view-gate”) technology for pico projectors--ultra-miniature devices small enough to fit into cell phones, media players and laptops enabling projection of large, high-resolution images. “After an exhaustive evaluation, we believe that Hakuto has very strong customer relationships in Japan and throughout Asia,” said Mark Harward, CEO and president of Syndiant. “Hakuto provides a truly global presence for products and services. We are confident that Hakuto will successfully promote our pico projector technology.”
ePaper acquisition: Prime View International (PVI; Taipei, Taiwan), a small and medium display provider and the world’s highest volume supplier of ePaper display modules, signed a definitive agreement to acquire E Ink Corporation (Cambridge, MA), provider of electronic paper display materials and intellectual property for approximately $215 million. “The ePaper display module market will grow to over $3 billion by 2013. Currently, electrophoretic display technology has more than 90% market share in the overall ePaper displays, and E Ink is the #1 supplier of electrophoretic materials,” said Jennifer Colegrove, DisplaySearch’s director of display technologies.
Solar partnership: SCHOTT Solar, a leading photovoltaics (PV) manufacturer, entered into a three-year research partnership with IMEC, Europe’s leading independent nanoelectronics research center. SCHOTT Solar joins IMEC’s newly launched silicon photovoltaics industrial affiliation program (IIAP). Within this multi-partner R&D program, IMEC aims to explore and develop advanced process technologies to fuel the steep market growth of silicon solar cells in a sustainable way. The program will concentrate on a sharp reduction in silicon use, whilst increasing cell efficiency and hence further lowering substantially the cost per Watt peak.
Optical networking expansion: Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA) opened a new facility in Allentown, PA to accommodate demand for its optical communication systems based on photonic integration. The larger building is required to accommodate Infinera’s expansion of research and development and manufacturing in Allentown, where Infinera designs and assembles optical modules housing its photonic integrated circuits. The opening event featured comments from Infinera co-founder and chief marketing and strategy officer Dave Welch, who recounted Infinera’s growth from a small start-up company to its position today as the leader in the North American long-haul optical networking market, with 960 employees worldwide, including more than 700 at its facilities in Sunnyvale, CA, Allentown, PA, and Annapolis Junction, MD.
Wafer test qualification: Electro Scientific Industries (ESI; Portland, OR), provider of photonic and laser systems for microengineering applications, introduced its Model 9850 Tailored Pulse Laser Link Processing System and received qualification from Tera Probe, a Japan-based wafer testing provider. The 9850TP combines a tailored pulsed laser to deliver the highest throughput and process flexibility for the latest generation of memory devices, and will be deployed for 68 nm and future DRAM repair applications. “Our Hiroshima Operation Center provides Japan’s only on-site operation services for DRAM wafer testing,” said Tsuyoshi Yokoyama, chief production officer at Tera Probe. “Continued technological development is critical to continuing DRAM shrink roadmap and improving memory performance.”
Nanopatterning expansion: Molecular Imprints (Austin, TX), provider of nanopatterning systems and solutions, announced an expansion plan that includes increasing its workforce with the addition of 30–50 employment opportunities during 2009 and expanding the scale of its facilities by more than a third. The new job opportunities will be concentrated in a number of engineering disciplines with the majority located at its operations in Austin. The expansion is driven by an increase in the number and size of its customer contracts and a rising demand for Molecular Imprints’ products for the production of high-density memory storage devices for the semiconductor and hard disk drive (HDD) industries.
People in the news: IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) announced that its board of directors named Luc Van den hove as IMEC’s new president and CEO. Van den hove has spent his entire career at IMEC, where he started as a team leader in silicide and interconnect technologies research. In 1988, he became manager of IMEC’s micro-patterning group and as of 1998 was VP of the Division of Silicon Process and Device Technology. Since 2007, he served as executive VP and COO.
Luminus Devices (Billerica, MA), developer and manufacturer of PhlatLight LEDs, announced the appointment of Keith T.S. Ward as its president, CEO, and member of the Board of Directors. Prior to joining Luminus Devices, Ward was president and COO of EYE Lighting International of North America, where he led the company to profitability and growth as well as expanded market share. Before EYE Lighting, Ward served as general manager of General Electric Company where he was responsible for developing global synergy in specialty lighting products serving niche segments.
The Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA) announced that a former board member was just confirmed as U.S. Undersecretary of Energy. Kristina M. Johnson, most recently Provost at Johns Hopkins University, had served as director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Optoelectronics Computing Systems while at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1995 to 1999. During this time, she was one of the instrumental forces in forming CPIA and served on the board of directors from 1998–1999.