New patents strengthen Ocean Optics
Ocean Optics was issued two U.S. Patents, reinforcing its strength in providing next-generation spectrometer technology. The first covers the composition and method of producing high-reflection silver mirrors or thin-film optical filters that increase sensitivity in Ocean Optics’ spectrometers. The second is for tunable variable bandpass optical filters that combine Ocean Optics’ patented high-pass and low-pass linear variable filters to create the first notch filter with an adjustable bandpass.
Ocean Optics provides spectrometers, chemical sensors, metrology instrumentation, optical fibers, thin films, and optics for diverse applications in medical and biological research, environmental monitoring, science education, and entertainment lighting and display.
OrSense gets $6 million for glucose monitoring
OrSense (Nes Ziona, Israel), a developer of noninvasive glucose-monitoring products, announced that several investors have committed an additional $6 million in funding to the company. “We believe that this additional investment will help us establish OrSense as the world leader in noninvasive glucose monitoring, promising a significant improvement to the quality of life of people with diabetes,” OrSense chairman Shimon Eckhouse said,
OrSense products are based on proprietary occlusion spectroscopy technology. OrSense’s intellectual property portfolio consists of 18 granted patents, with more than 25 additional applications in process.
LightPath sees first optics from China
Manufacturer of molded aspheric optics and other glass products, LightPath (Orlando, FL) announced the first production output of molded aspheric lenses from its new 17,000-sq.-ft. facility in Jiading, located on the western edge of Shanghai, China. The operation was established to increase production capacity, enabling LightPath to compete for larger-volume orders of optical components and assemblies, and strengthen partnerships in the Asia/Pacific region.
In addition to providing increased production capacity, the Jiading operation will house LightPath’s Asia/Pacific sales, marketing, and engineering organizations, enabling the Orlando headquarters to concentrate on lower-volume, quickturn manufacturing and advanced custom optical product development. “Our Shanghai operation employs 27 people and is poised to deliver product for our third-quarter shipments,” said Ken Brizel, CEO and president.
Oscar-nominated films use Cooke Optics
Three of the five films nominated for Best Picture at the 78th Annual Academy Awards were shot through S4 Prime lenses manufactured by Cooke Optics (Leicester, England), a manufacturer of precision lenses for cinematography and ultra-high-end professional photography. The films were Brokeback Mountain, Munich, and Capote.
According to the company, Cooke’s multicoating provides what is known in the cinema realm as the “Cooke Look”-a lush, velvety appearance with rich, warm colors.
Thin-film merger completed
Rudolph Technologies (Flanders, NJ), provider of process control equipment for thin-film measurement and macro defect inspection, announced that its merger with August Technology (Bloomington, MN) has been completed. August Technology provides defect inspection and analysis equipment for front-end processes and final manufacturing.
“We believe that leveraging the front- and back-end knowledge of Rudolph and August Technology places the combined company in a unique position as a leading provider of one of the broadest and most complete process-control offerings in inspection and metrology solutions,” said Paul F. McLaughlin, chairman and CEO of Rudolph Technologies.
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Also in the news . . .
ULO Optics (formerly Umicore Laser Optics; Stevenage, England) has emerged as an independent company specializing in the manufacture of CO2 laser optics and beam-delivery equipment by acquiring all the shares of Umicore. . . . Ondax (Monrovia, CA) has reached an agreement whereby T.E.M. in Japan will be responsible for the promotion and distribution of Ondax’s PowerLocker volume holographic gratings (VHGs) for laser stabilization. . . . Adaptive Optics Associates, a subsidiary of Metrologic Instruments (Blackwood, NJ) received $6.8 million of additional funding from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA) for optical products to be used on the National Ignition Facility project. . . . Benchmark Technologies (Lynnfield, MA) and Holographix (Hudson, MA) have signed a fabrication services agreement whereby its proprietary polymer replication technology for replicated optics will be sold worldwide exclusively by Benchmark. . . . Kaiser Optical Systems (Ann Arbor, MI), supplier of Raman spectrographic analyzers and holographic volume phase gratings for telecommunications, astronomy, and ultrafast laser applications, has received certification to ISO 9001:2000.