OPTICS INDUSTRY REPORT

Aug. 1, 2006
Zygo (Middlefield, CT) received another production contract award for its Laser Fusion Program.

Laser optics contract awarded to Zygo

Zygo (Middlefield, CT) received another production contract award for its Laser Fusion Program. The initial order-valued at approximately $1 million-is scheduled for shipment in fiscal year 2007. The agreement further provides for optional orders running through 2013 for a total potential value of approximately $45.0 million. Amplifier optics are critical to the operation of high-energy lasers used in fusion research. To date, Zygo has delivered more than 2,000 High Energy Laser amplifier optics to the National Ignition Facility located at the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and to other customers around the world.

Metamaterials take Carl Zeiss Research Award

Martin Wegener and Kurt Busch are being honored with the Carl Zeiss Research Award 2006. The two scientists from the University of Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe, Germany) have added decisive momentum to the fields of three-dimensional (3-D) photonic crystals and optical metamaterials. The Carl Zeiss Research Award is seen as one of the most renowned prizes in the field of optics and is worth just over $32,000. The Carl Zeiss Research Award has been presented every two years since 1990.

Kurt Busch’s contributions to the theory of light propagation in structured materials and Martin Wegener’s experimental approaches have considerably enhanced the possibilities for the production of the 3-D photonic crystals that may allow the efficient implementation of optical processors. And, their work in metamaterials (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/259931) may lead to the production of “perfect” lenses in which diffraction does not limit resolution.

G-S Plastic Optics opens coating facility

The establishment of an in-house coating facility was announced by G-S Plastic Optics (Rochester, NY). The company integrated a precision optical coating system, built by Vacuum Process Technology (VPT; Plymouth, MA), that enables coating capabilities specific to polymer substrates.

“This is an essential component of our ongoing facility expansion,” said Will Beich, Director of New Business Development for G-S. “Many of the optics that we mold require reflection coatings, such as gold, silver, or aluminum, or an antireflective coating. By bringing this capability on site, we will be able to improve our operational efficiency and offer our customers greater flexibility and responsiveness.”

Cabot gains precision optics expertise

A primary supplier of chemical mechanical planarization polishing slurries to the semiconductor industry, Cabot Microelectronics (Aurora, IL)has entered into agreements to purchase substantially all of the assets of QED Technologies (Rochester, NY) and certain associated proprietary and intellectual property.

QED is best known for magnetorheological finishing (MRF), its proprietary surface figuring and finishing technology, and has has also recently commercialized its proprietary metrology technology, subaperture stitching interferometry (SSI).

$5.5 million goes to NIMs research

Kent State University (Kent, OH) researchers are leading a team of scientists from eight institutions that were awarded a $5.5 million Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research to study self-assembled, soft optical negative-index materials (NIMs). NIMs (more fully described as negative-refractive-index materials) can be formed as a flat surface, creating a perfect lens with superresolution and without distortion.

LCD maker grows China presence

DuPont Displays (Torrance, CA) has begun construction on a second production line for liquid-crystal-display (LCD) direct bonding in Shenzhen, China. DuPont’s direct bonding technology consists of bonding an antireflective glass or filter element directly onto the front of an LCD, which increases contrast ratio and ruggedization.

For more business news visit www.optoelectronicsreport.com.

Also in the news . . .

The acquisition and integration of Unique-Mode, a 15-person company specializing in micro-optics for diode lasers, into the Jenoptik Group (Jena, Germany) has been completed-it will now operate under the name Jenoptik unique-mode. . . . Tianwei Jing, research and development manager for Agilent Technologies’ (Palo Alto, CA) atomic-force-microscope business received the Arizona Bioscience Executive of the Year award from the Arizona BioIndustry Association. . . . Structured Materials Industries (SMI; Piscataway, NJ), a provider of metal-organic chemical-vapor-deposition (MOCVD) systems and components, has doubled the size of its Piscataway headquarters. . . . Scientific Technologies (STI; Fremont, CA) agreed to sell its Safety Products Group (SPG)-which includes the Optical Sensor Division (OSD)-to Omron (Kyoto, Japan) through a corporate merger. . . . The Singapore manufacturing facility of Edmund Optics (Barrington, NJ) attained ISO 9001:2000 certification.

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