Business briefs

13 Apr 2006

Including news from Aglient, Dalsa, Olympus Microsystems and more.

•  Olympus of Japan and Movaz Networks of the US have formed a joint venture called Olympus Microsystems America to provide MEMS-based technologies to optical equipment suppliers. Based in San Jose, California, the new company predicts gross sales of ¥6 billion ($50 million) within five years.

•  Novaled and Ciba Specialty Chemicals have agreed to collaborate on the development of OLED materials. Ciba will continue to produce the unique organic dopant and transport materials developed by Novaled. The two companies will also jointly develop future OLED products and platforms based on Novaled's technology and materials.

•  DALSA of Canada has received a contract to develop and supply CMOS image sensor chips for a manufacturer of dental X-ray equipment. The contract, which is expected to be completed over the next 12 months, is valued at CDN$1.5 million and is said to have the potential for significant follow-on volume.

•  Boston Micromachines (BMC) says fellow US firm Physical Sciences has selected BMC's Multi-DM deformable mirror for use in an adaptive optics spectral domain optical coherence tomography (AO-SDOCT) system. The Multi-DM's aberration compensation is said to enable better resolution imaging of the human retina than ever before.

•  Agilent Technologies, US, has opened up its precision optics design and manufacturing capabilities to external customers. The company says it offers an array of custom capabilities for flat and monolithic optics and will work one-to-one with customers to design and produce the product they require.

•  DataLase has expanded its UK headquarters to include larger R&D and physics laboratories. The firm's laser marking process uses a combination of color change chemisty and low power laser light to create a range of security and product coding.

•  According to a Japanese news source, Samsung Electronics and Sony will jointly manufacture eighth generation amorphous TFT LCD panels and plan to sign a definitive agreement by the end of June.

•  Aixtron has received an order for its AIX 2600G3 GaAs system from Russian firm Saturn JSC for the production of solar cells.