News Briefs
Adaptive optics retinal imaging grant: Following on the success of the INOVEO project, which unveiled the world's first compact Adaptive Optics Flood Illumination Fundus Camera (AO FIFC) in 2008, the iPhot project has received a $1.35 million grant from France's National Research Agency (ANR) TecSan program. iPhot will unite Imagine Eyes (www.imagine-eyes.com) and Onera with four academic partners including the Quinze-Vingts hospital (France's National Institute for Ophthalmology), the INSERM (France's National Institute for Health and Medical Research), Telecom ParisTech, and L2TI. "The ultimate goal of the iPhot project is to optimize the process of adaptive-optics enabled retinal imaging in order to obtain morphological, quantitative and longitudinal information at the level of single photoreceptor cells in humans," said Imagine Eyes' CEO Nicolas Chateau.
New biomedical online journal: The Optical Society (OSA; Washington, DC) is launching a new peer-reviewed journal focusing on biomedical optics and photonics called Biomedical Optics Express (www.opticsinfobase.org/boe). It will launch this fall, joining OSA's portfolio of 12 peer-reviewed optics journals. Joseph A. Izatt, professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University, will serve as editor-in-chief. Biomedical Optics Express will become OSA's principal outlet for serving the biomedical optics community with rapid, open-access publication of content related to optics, photonics, and imaging in the life sciences.
LED projector launched: Luminus Devices (Billerica, MA) announced that its PhlatLight LED PT-120 is the light source in Samsung's new XGA (1024 x 768 pixels) LED data projector--the projection display industry's first LED-powered data projector. The new Samsung LED data projector marks a milestone in the industry by validating that LEDs will start replacing conventional arc lamps in mainstream front projectors used in business, education, and commercial applications. Pacific Media Associates says this market will be in excess of 6 million units in 2010. The high reliability of LEDs eliminates the need for expensive lamp replacement in projectors, which typically ranges from $250 to $400 including parts and labor.
Lifetime filter warranty: Oclaro (San Jose, CA), a provider of optical components for industrial applications, will provide lifetime warranties for all of its Clarity Fluorescence filters used in biomedical applications. Oclaro Clarity filters have been incorporated into thousands of systems and have continued to provide excellent performance after many years of operation. Oclaro says that customers rely on this exceptional reliability and industry-leading ultra-steep edges that enable superior accuracy and throughput.
Ernest Orlando Award winners: U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced the winners of the 2009 E.O. Lawrence Award for their outstanding contributions in research and development supporting the Department of Energy and its missions. The six winners will receive a gold medal, a citation, and $50,000. Among the winners were two notable researchers in the field of photonics: Sunny Xie of Harvard University and Wim Leemans of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Xie will be honored for his innovations in nonlinear Raman microscopy and highly sensitive vibrational imaging, his scientific leadership in establishing the field of single-molecule biophysical chemistry, and his seminal work in enzyme dynamics and live cell gene expression. Leemans will be honored for his work in developing the laser plasma wakefield accelerator from concept to demonstration, and his scientific leadership exploring its promise and unprecedented possibilities ranging from hyperspectral light sources to high energy colliders.
IR imaging contract: Opel Defense Integrated Systems (ODIS; Shelton, CT) received a $750,000 Award to develop "Monolithic Infra-Red Pixel Structures Enabled by Thyristor-HFET EO Logic". Infra-Red technologies currently require cryogenic cooling to operate and use independent readout integrated circuits. The ODIS technology has been developed to provide the new "state of the art" in integrated approaches to infrared imaging combined with transistor readout circuits.
Thin-film PV market: NanoMarkets LC (Glen Allen, VA), an industry-analysis firm, sees consumption of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) materials to rise to $13.1 billion by 2017. NanoMarkets' new report, Materials Markets for Thin-Film Photovoltaics: 2010 to 2017 provides a complete analysis of the commercial opportunities for materials used in thin-film PV and includes eight-year forecasts of thin-film materials broken out by applications and chemistry, as well as reviews of the latest research and the corporate strategies of firms active in the sector.
Molecular imaging market: In vivo optical molecular imaging (OMI) is poised to move into clinical use as one of the key tools in personalized medicine, complementing more established imaging tools such as CT and MRI. Growth of equipment sales is on track to reach $400 million in 2014 and nearly $1 billion by the end of the decade. However, this growth hinges on partnerships with key medical equipment vendors, the outcomes of clinical trials assessing imaging agents, regulatory approvals, patent litigation, and decisions about insurance reimbursement. These are some of the findings of a new market report from Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, CA) called Optical Molecular Imaging 2010: Technology, Applications, and Markets (see www.strategies-u.com).
People in the news: Don Golini is transitioning from his role as president of QED Technologies (Rochester, NY), a Cabot Microelectronics Corporation (CMC) company that supplies optics polishing/finishing and metrology products. CMC's VP of corporate development, Dan Pike, will take on the role of president of QED until a permanent replacement is named.
Ondax (Monrovia, CA), designer and manufacture of volume holographic gratings (VHGs) and semiconductor lasers, appointed Randy Heyler as president and CEO, succeeding Christophe Moser who will be relocating to his native Switzerland to pursue an academic career but will stay with Ondax in the role of CTO. Heyler brings nearly 30 years of leadership experience in the photonics industry, most recently with Newport Corporation.
Optical networking company Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA) announced that Kambiz Hooshmand joined the Infinera board of directors, succeeding Alexandre Balkanski who is stepping down from the board after serving since 2001. Hooshmand was recently CEO and president of Applied Micro Circuits (AMCC) where he helped launch the company into the 10G Ethernet & optical transport networks markets and helped significantly increase AMCC revenues.
Luxtera, manufacturer of silicon CMOS photonic solutions, appointed Séamus Daly to VP of operations. Daly spent the last 14 years in leadership positions at Intel Corporation, most recently holding a senior position as general manager of Global Platform Solutions.
Submit your news to Optoelectronics Report. Sales reports, market outlooks, and strategic moves are just a few of the items we would like you to share. Please fax information to Gail Overton at (603) 891-0574 or send e-mail to[email protected].