Business briefs

21 Oct 2005

Including news from Corning, Varioptic, FLIR Systems, Cambridge Display Technology and more.

General company news:

•  Corning, US, has resolved its lawsuit with Taiwanese firm Picvue Electronics over trade-secret misappropriation and copyright infringement. In a statement, Corning says that the Picvue employees responsible for such action are no longer with the company. Corning adds that the investigation has resulted in an arrest. The suspect is believed to have exploited proprietary information relating to the manufacture of glass substrates used in Corning active-matrix LCDs.

•  French liquid-lens expert Varioptic says that its semi-automated production line is now ready to roll out prototype lenses. "The manufacturing process we have designed has enabled us to automate the critical stages," said Varioptic's Jean-Jacques Louart. "We have proved that we can meet high-volume production needs. More than anything else, we want to see our lenses swiftly incorporated into consumer goods."

•  Thermal imaging specialist FLIR Systems has teamed up with http://www.pelco.com/, a US manufacturer of video security equipment. Through a strategic alliance, both parties will combine their knowledge to design, make and distribute a series of thermal and visible-light security surveillance systems.

•  Plastic Logic of the UK, a developer of plastic electronics, is to jointly develop flexible active-matrix displays for mobile devices with Japanese mobile telecoms giant NTT DoCoMo. "We are delighted to be working with DoCoMo to develop next-generation user interface concepts using flexible displays," added Simon Jones of Plastic Logic.

•  UK-based Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has developed a red-emitting dendrimer-based OLED material with a lifetime of 250,000 hours and an initial luminance of 100cd/m2. The previous lifetime for such a material was 150,000 hours and was reported in May 2005, according to CDT.

Contracts:

•  Aculight and Vanderbilt University, both of the US, have received a $200,000 phase I SBIR award from the National Institutes of Health to jointly develop a compact, low-cost optical device for stimulating nerves. The stimulator will use an Aculight fiber-coupled laser emitting in the mid-infrared. "Mid-IR wavelengths provide many advantages over electrical stimulation," said Jim Webb of Aculight. "Optical stimulation is more spatially precise and highly controlled so you can activate individual nerves."

Distribution & Expansion:

•  Raylase of Germany, a maker a components to deflect and modulate laser beams, has appointed Azpect of Sweden as its exclusive distributor in Scandinavia and the Baltic states.

•  Powerlase, a UK maker of high-power DPSS lasers, is expanding its Crawley manufacturing and development facility by an additional 12800 feet. Work will begin during Q4 of 2005 and is expected to be completed in early 2006.

•  Keithley Instruments of the US is expanding its office in Singapore and opening two new facilities in Malaysia for direct sales and support of its test and measurement products. The company says that more than 50% of its sales come from outside of the US.