Oscmar wins Australian contract
Oscmar International (Auckland, New Zealand), a subsidiary of Cubic (San Diego, CA), has won a US$46.6 million (AU$79 million) contract to provide the first transportable combat training system for the Australian Armed Forces. Australian industry will provide extensive, seven-year contractor support following system delivery and acceptance in 2005-2006. Oscmar, the prime contractor and systems integrator, will supply its Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) for individual soldiers, tanks, and combat vehicles.
Aculight wins contract for laser defense systems
Aculight (Bothell, WA) announced the award of a three-year, $3 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base to develop and demonstrate a new class of semiconductor lasers for future aircraft infrared countermeasures systems. Aculight will conduct a technology demonstration of an advanced type of semiconductor laser being jointly developed with researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory (Albuquerque, NM) and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (Lexington, MA).
JMAR achieves 130-nm lithography feature sizes
JMAR Technologies (San Diego, CA) has achieved a major milestone in its Department of Defense-funded collimated plasma lithography (CPL) technology program, producing 130-nm feature sizes. In the tests that produced these results, JMAR's Research Division in San Diego configured the source's beam line to simulate integration with JMAR's NanoPulsar stepper, using a 1× mask supplied by the IBM Advanced Mask Facility in Burlington, VT.
Northrop Grumman to build high-resolution ladar sensor
Northrop Grumman's Systems Development and Technology (SD&T) Division (Los Angeles, CA) has been awarded a contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to design, build, and conduct a proof-of-concept airborne demonstration of a synthetic-aperture ladar sensor that generates high-resolution two- and three-dimensional imagery. The 27-month contract, valued at $20 million, will be managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Sensors Directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, which is serving as technical and program execution agent for DARPA's Advanced Technology Office.
Surface-emitting laser achieves 6 mW
Optical components supplier Photodigm (Richardson, TX) announced today that it has achieved 1310-nm grating-outcoupled surface-emitting (GSE) laser-technology-yielding devices with single-mode output powers up to 6 mW. Photodigm's GSE laser uses an edge-emitting epitaxial material structure aluminum indium gallium arsenide/indium phosphide (AlInGaAs/InP) and relies on first- and second-order gratings for the DBR reflectors and the outcoupler. Photodigm has also been awarded a contract for approximately $1 million from the U.S. government to develop a high-power surface-emitting laser.
Osram achieves 8 W from disk laser
Osram Opto Semiconductors (Regensburg, Germany) has announced an optical-pumped semiconductor (OPS) disk-laser prototype with an 8-W optical output power with an optical pumping power of 19 W at a wavelength of 980 nm, enabling laser projection for consumer applications such as laser televisions. As part of the miniaturized radiation sources (MISTRAL) research project, Osram Opto Semiconductors is developing semiconductor lasers with high optical output power, good beam quality, and long lifetimes.
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Also in the news . . .
Cymer (San Diego, CA) announced orders for its new XLA 100 argon fluoride (ArF) light source from all three lithography system suppliers, with delivery of initial systems to all three slated for the first quarter of 2003. . . . Thermo Electron (Waltham, MA) reported fourth-quarter 2002 revenues of $569 million in 2002, up 2% from $560 million in the same period in 2001. . . . Ultratech Stepper (San Jose, CA), has announced the delivery of two alpha laser-spike anneal systems in the second half of 2002 and the booking of one preproduction system to be delivered at the end of 2003. . . . Candela (Wayland, MA) has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market its Smoothbeam diode laser for the noninvasive treatment of atrophic acne scars, as well as its GentleYAG laser for treatment of facial wrinkles and beard bumps. . . . Millennium Dental Technologies (Cerritos, CA) has received FDA clearance for its digital dental laser in the U.S. marketplace and also has received the first ever FDA regulatory clearance for the specific wording and procedure known as "laser curettage" (removal of diseased or inflamed soft tissue in the periodontal pocket).