Business briefs

08 Dec 2008

Featuring news from Oerlikon Optics, Ocean Optics, Firecomms, the Airborne Laser project and more.

• The Oerlikon Optics business unit in Colorado, US, has been acquired by Ocean Optics. It will be integrated into Ocean Optics' Thin Films operation, which manufactures dichroic filters for entertainment, architectural and display products, as well as precision optics and coatings for defence and metrology applications. Oerlikon Optics was recently the subject of a management buyout and will trade under the name Optics Balzers from 2009.

• Boeing, Northrop Grumman and other industry partners working with the US Missile Defense Agency, have successfully fired a high-energy laser through the beam control and fire control system of the Nemoptic, an e-paper display company headquartered in France, has licensed its BiNem technology to Seiko Instruments. BiNem is claimed to enhance existing LCD technologies and improve image quality. The new agreement complements an existing subcontracting agreement between the two companies, which enables Nemoptic to source BiNem modules for its own sales activity.

• Firecomms, a developer of high-speed plastic optical fibre transceivers and VCSELs, has announced a strategic partnership with Repretech Nordic Oy of Finland. Repretech will represent Firecomms in Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine. These territories share strong growth potential for both Firecomms' product families, according to the company. (See earlier coverage of Firecomms and other photonics companies in Ireland on optics.org.)

• Mobius Photonics has signed Kantum Electronics to distribute its family of fibre-based laser sources in Japan. Kantum will also provide applications laboratory capabilities, service and support throughout the country. (See earlier coverage of Mobius Photonics in its Start-up Spotlight.)

• Fibre Photonics, a developer of fibre-optic spectrometer probes and systems based in Scotland, will partner the University of Strathclyde and the Institute of Photonics in the SPIRIT Studentship programme, designed to increase Scotland's economic growth rate through the exploitation of science. A SPIRIT Studentship project specific to fibre photonics has been created through ScotChem and Chemical Sciences Scotland, intended to enhance real-time analysis of chemical and biological systems through novel fibre optic based spectroscopic systems in the mid- and near infrared.

• Firstsight Vision, a UK manufacturer of image capture, machine vision and related systems, will be renamed Stemmer Imaging from January 2009. The change is part of a rationalization of the Stemmer Imaging Group's activities throughout Europe, which will also see IMASYS in France adopt the Stemmer Imaging name.

• INO, the largest R&D centre for optics and photonics in Canada, has signed a worldwide license agreement with Searidge Technologies granting the company full use of all technologies developed by INO. The deal is intended to allow further development of IntelliDAR, a system of digital sensors and video analytics used in air traffic control operations that belongs to Searidge.

• The Christmas tree in Chicago's Daley Plaza will this year be strung with LED lights supplied by PolyBrite International. This is claimed to be the first year that incandescent light bulbs have not been used, according to a statement from the company, and the change is said to reduce electricity consumption by 68,000 kilowatt hours.

People

• Martin Jackson has been appointed vice president of Plastic Logic, a developer of plastic electronic displays for use in eBook readers. Jackson has more than 20 years of executive and technical management experience in leading corporate and technical strategies in the communications, consumer electronics and semiconductor industries.