Business briefs

12 Sep 2003

Including news from Dow Corning, Cymer, Bookham Technology and more.

•  Dow Corning, the US specialist in silicon technology, is creating a photonic solutions business. The new business will supply customers with silicon-based materials for optical applications such as data storage, waveguides, holography and LED packaging.

•  Cymer has upgraded its revenue guidance for its third quarter. The US maker of excimer lasers says it now expects revenue of $64 million rather than its previous estimate of $62.4 million. The firm says that it shipped a few more krypton fluoride systems than originally anticipated.

•  Bookham Technology, the provider of components for optical networks, says that it has completed the consolidation of its two main wafer fabrication facilities four months ahead of schedule. The restructuring means that the firm's activities in Ottawa, Canada have now been integrated with a facility in Caswell, UK.

•  Actuality Systems, a US maker of spatial 3D visualization technology, has closed its seed-funding round on $6.2 million. As well as a number of private investors, participants in the round included Hoyo of Japan and Navigator Technology Ventures of Massachusetts, US.

•  TDK of Japan, the supplier synonymous with digital recording and playback products, has developed its first optical disc that can be read by blue diode lasers. The company says its disk can hold 23.3GB of data and is compatible with the 405 nm laser and high numerical aperture lenses used in Sony’s current optical disk recording systems.

•  Optical Research Associates, the US supplier of illumination design software, has opened an office in Detroit to support the region’s automotive lighting industry. The office will support users of the company’s LightTools package and offer design and engineering services.