Business Briefs

10 Feb 2006

Including news from Osram, ficonTEC, Carl Zeiss, CIP and more.

General company news:

•  ficonTEC of Germany has received an order for its fully-automated laser bar soldering and inspection system from US-based high-power laser diode developer Alfalight. The equipment is said to improve the positional accuracy of laser bars on heat sinks and increase yields by eliminating manual handling of devices during inspection and mounting.

•  The Centre for Integrated Photonics (CIP), Bookham, Epichem, Loughborough Surface Analysis and the Universities of Sheffield and Surrey have been jointly awarded £1.7m ($3m) by the UK's DTI to develop InP-based photonic materials. The 2.5 year project will enable high temperature operation of devices such as widely tunable lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers, superluminescent diodes and avalanche photodetectors.

•  JDSU has appointed CCL Label, US, as an authorized SecureShift partner. An alternative to holograms, JDSU's SecureShift pigments produce a color-shifting effect that can be used as part of a label or packaging to authenticate a product.

•  Aculight of the US has won two contracts totalling just over $3.5 million from the US Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate. The contracts will fund development of prototype mid-infrared and infrared semiconductor laser transmitters for use in future aircraft defensive systems. Applications include infrared countermeasures, which detect, track and jam heat-seeking missiles.

•  CRLO Displays, the UK developer of single-chip microdisplays, has changed its name to Forth Dimension Displays (ForthDD). "Forth Dimension Displays clearly identifies both our Scottish roots on the Firth of Forth and our focus on developing and commercializing one-chip, high-speed, high-resolution microdisplay technology," said ForthDD's CEO Leslie Polgar.

Patent news:

•  LG Electronics and Toshiba have signed a patent cross-licensing agreement covering patents related to optical disc technology. The deal is said to cover the discs themselves as well as the drives, players and recorders that use them.

•  The microscopy group of Carl Zeiss has licensed several patents to Prairie Technologies of the US. The patents cover the use of femtosecond laser pulses for multiphoton fluorescence excitation in laser scanning microscopy. Carl Zeiss acquired the exclusive global rights to this method, including the ability to grant sub-licenses, from the Cornell Research Foundation, US, in 2004.

•  Osram Opto Semiconductors has won a patent action in the US against Dominant Semiconductors, a Malaysian manufacturer of LEDs. Dominant is now forbidden from importing its Power DomiLED and Super Small DomiLED products into the US. Osram has also filed an action for patent infringement against Dominant in Germany.

•  Osram Opto Semiconductors also signed a patent cross-license deal with Avago Technologies this week. Avago has granted Osram a license covering LED systems, including systems for projection and flat-panel LCDs. In turn, Osram has granted Avago a license to manufacture and sell white LEDs with special conversion technology and surface mount LEDs.