Business briefs

04 Oct 2002

Including news from Lambda Physik, Corning, Lucent Technologies, DALSA, Newport and more.

•  Corning has bought Lucent Technologies' interests in two optical fiber companies in China: Lucent Technologies Shanghai Fiber Optic and Lucent Technologies Beijing Fiber Optics Cable. Corning will pay Lucent up to USD 225 million in a transaction that includes USD 50 million of Corning common stock and future cash payments of USD 25 million, should the ventures achieve certain business milestones.

•  Excimer laser specialist Lambda Physik has renewed its distribution contract with Japanese firm Marubun. The agreement focuses on the exclusive distribution of Lambda Physik's scientific and medical lasers in Japan.

•  DALSA has acquired Zarlink Semiconductor's remaining 14.5% stake in DALSA Semiconductor. The semiconductor wafer foundry now becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of DALSA. "We continue to invest in the semiconductor foundry as an important part of our growth strategy," said DALSA chief executive officer Savvas Chamberlain.

•  JMAR Technologies, US, has received a further USD 7.7 million to fund the continued development of its collimated plasma lithography (CPL) systems. A CPL system focuses short duration diode-pumped solid state laser pulses to a high intensity on a copper tape target. A hot dense plasma is created which emits X-rays to write the small features required for next generation lithography.

•  The South African Astronomical Observatory has chosen UK firm Optical Surfaces to supply two high precision prisms for the South African Large Telescope. The prisms, which will be made from fused silica of diameter 290 mm and have a wedge angle of 7 degrees, will form the telescope's atmospheric dispersion compensator.

EM4 Photonics and Newport have established a joint development-and-supply agreement. Newport gains an exclusive licence to parts of EM4's optoelectronic packaging technology for its automated manufacturing processes. The company also becomes a preferred supplier to EM4 for all test and assembly equipment used in its optical manufacturing services business.

•  Lightwave Microsystems, a maker of integrated optical components such as arrayed-waveguide gratings, has closed with the loss of 240 jobs. According to its president and chief executive officer John Midgley, the company, which had been operating for 14 years, has folded to due to current market conditions