Business briefs

20 May 2005

Including news from Sumitomo Chemical, Cree, Cedip Infrared Systems, Jenoptik and more.

General company news

•  Sumitomo Chemical has purchased Dow Chemical's LUMATION light-emitting polymer (LEP) business for an undisclosed sum. "This acquisition will accelerate our R&D activities and facilitate the application of our technologies not only to displays, but more broadly to solid-state lighting applications," said Satoshi Kawachi, Sumitomo's executive vice president.

•  Cree has licensed its white LED patent (US number 6,600,175) to several of its chip customers, including Stanley Electric and Rohm, both of Japan, and Cotco Holdings of Hong Kong. The licences provide the rights to make and sell white LEDs that use Cree's high performance LED chips. Cree adds that it is in discussions with other potential partners.

•  Cedip Infrared Systems, the French maker of thermal IR camera systems, has opened subsidiary in the UK. The office will be located in Nottingham, England, and will headed up by Jonathan Chicken.

•  Jena-Optronik, a subsidiary of Jenoptik, has won a EURO 11 million order from the German army. The order is for an instrument called Nyxus, which is equipped with a laser rangefinder, GPS receiver and digital compass. Nyxus can be used as a hand-held or fixed device and operates both in daylight and in the dark using infrared technology.

•  Litrex of the US has shipped the second of two M-series large format inkjet printers to a major Asian display. The printers can be used to create polymer light-emitting diode (P-OLED) displays on large glass substrates of Gen4 (730x920mm) and upwards. P-OLED pioneer Cambridge Display Technology has a 50% stake in Litrex.

Distribution agreements

•  nLight of the US has named EO Technics as its exclusive distributor for Korea and Laser Lines for the UK. Both firms will be responsible for sales and support of nLight's continuous wave (CW) and quasi-CW high-power visible and near-infrared diode laser product line in their respective countries.

•  Polychromix and Ocean Optics have announced a worldwide distribution agreement. Ocean Optics will now add Polychromix's near-infrared digital transform spectrometer (DTS) to its product range. "This is a real testament to our DTS solution," said Mouli Ramani of Polychromix. "Our MEMS architecture works perfectly within the spectroscopy market and provides a portable, cost-effective device."

•  Phlox of France has appointed Lambda Photometrics as its exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland. The French firm designs and manufactures LED backlights.