Business briefs

08 Apr 2004

Including news from DALSA, FLIR Systems, NP Photonics, Ocean Optics and more.

•  DALSA’s Application Specific Contracts Group has received two custom camera contracts totalling C$2.5 million. The contracts are from two separate customers who will use DALSA’s high-performance electronic cameras for semiconductor wafer inspection and remote sensing respectively. Both contracts are said to have the potential for follow-on production orders.

•  FLIR Systems has received a $7.2 million order from Northrop Grumman for its ThermoVision Sentry uncooled infrared cameras. The cameras will be used for perimeter security at US air bases worldwide and deliveries will begin immediately.

•  NP Photonics, a US maker of compact fiber-laser modules, has appointed Pat Edsell as its president and chief executive officer (CEO). Edsell is best known for his 11 year stint as the chairman, president and CEO of Spectra-Physics.

•  US-based Continuum Photonics, a maker of optical switches for the optical automation systems and telecommunications markets, has raised $17.5 million in its Series C financing round. “Given the general market conditions that exist today, the financing is a very strong validation of our unique team and technology,” said Continuum’s CEO Jeffery Farmer.

•  Ocean Optics, the US miniature fiber-optic spectrometer specialist, has been granted two patents by the US patent office. Both patents relate to the company’s method of producing dichroic filters. The first patent describes a tunable variable bandpass filter which is said to be useful for fluorescence spectroscopy. The second details a method for making patterned dichroic filter arrays for spectroscopic imaging.

•  Sacher Lasertechnik LLC of the US has signed a distribution agreement with GWU-Lasertechnik of Germany. The deal will see Sacher distribute GWU’s optical parametric oscillators throughout the US, Canada and Mexico.

•  Modulight of Finland, a maker of semiconductor lasers, has signed a long-term marketing deal with Reichenbach International of the US. Reichenbach says its offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento and Phoenix will serve Modulight’s customers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.