Business briefs

24 Jun 2005

Including news from Melles Griot, Coherent, Philips, DALSA, FLIR Systems and more.

General company news:

•  DALSA of Canada has signed a license agreement with Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands. The deal gives DALSA a licence to use Philips' patent rights, know-how and product and prototype device designs relating to CMOS imaging technology.

•  Thales Group has decided to merge Thales Laser and DIS, another Thales division specialising in linacs, cyclotrons and synchrotrons. Thales says this move will "allow an even stronger position on scientific, medical or defense-related markets."

•  PerkinElmer has won a contract to supply the National Ignition Facility (NIF) with high-damage threshold pulsed xenon flashlamps for use in its pre-amplifier modules (PAMs). There are 48 PAMs in NIF, each using 12 pulsed xenon flashlamps.

•  Royal Philips Electronics has signed an agreement to sell and transfer Philips' monitor and entry level flat screen TV business to TPV of China. The deal states that "TPV will take over Philips' existing OEM monitor business as well as the manufacturing of monitors and entry-level flat TV products that Philips will continue to sell under its own brand." The value of the transferred business is estimated at $2 billion.

•  Sherwood Technology of the UK has been granted a European patent for its "DataLase Edible" method of laser-marking edible products, such as tablets. The company also holds a US patent for the technique.

•  FLIR Systems has received a $32.8 million fixed-price contract for its SAFIRE airborne thermal imaging systems from the US Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. The contract includes options to purchase additional units, taking its value up to $61 million.

•  Janos Technology, a maker of infrared optical components, has moved to a new 40,000 square foot facility in New Hampshire, US. The facility has a class 1000 clean room where Janos will assemble lens systems. It also hopes to expand into production of high-powered laser optics.

Distribution agreements:

•  Melles Griot has signed a limited global distribution agreement with Coherent. The deal will see some of Coherent's laser measurement and control product line, which includes power-, energy- and wavelength-measuring kit, appearing in the new Melles Griot catalogue.

•  CVI Technical Optics has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with BFi OPTiLAS. BFi will distribute CVI's products in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finaldn, France, German, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.

•  Quintessence Photonics, the US maker of high-power semiconductor lasers, has appointed AMS Technologies as its exclusive distributor in Germany.

•  Archer OpTx of the US has named Pro-Lite Technology as its sales representative covering the UK and Ireland. Archer specialises in aspheric lenses.