Business briefs

23 May 2008

Featuring news from TeraView, Enfis, Northrop Grumman, FLIR Systems, Nichia and more.

• TeraView, the UK company pioneering terahertz solutions and technology, will be supplying a number of its partners with a terahertz system that can detect explosives at different "stand-off" distances. The partners will use the laboratory system to evaluate applications such as suicide bomber identification and screening at airports. The US Navy has recently received its system and others will be distributed later this year.

• Northrop Grumman and the University of Central Florida have signed a five-year research and license agreement that aims to co-develop advanced optic and photonic technologies. Northrop Grumman will provide financial support and engineering expertise to two research centres within the College of Optics & Photonics: the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers, and the Florida Photonics Center of Excellence. In exchange, Northrop Grumman will receive preferential rights to any resulting technology developed through the partnership.

• In the long-running patent infringement litigation between Seoul Semiconductor and Nichia, a US judge has issued an order "denying plaintiff's (Nichia's) motion for finding of exceptional case and award attorney's fees". Nichia was seeking $2.5 million in fees but the judge ruled that it "would not be appropriate" to award fees to Nichia. The judge added that Nichia's decision to pursue its suit against Seoul "imposed a significant burden on the jurors' time and the court's resources, not to mention the burden on defendants (Seoul)".

• FLIR Systems has been awarded two contracts totalling over $400 million from the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command. The first deal adds $358.4 million to an existing contract for FLIR's Star Safire III stabilized multi-sensors systems. The second is a support contract for up to $60.5 million to provide service, upgrades and logistics support. FLIR estimates that revenue from the second contract will not exceed $15 million in 2008.

• Enfis, a manufacturer of high-power LED arrays and light engines has signed a global distribution agreement with component supplier Edmund Optics. Edmund Optics will add new products from Enfis to its catalogue, providing a quick and easy way for customers to purchase Enfis' products. The distributor will also offer optical integration support to develop and launch new products built around Enfis' LED devices.

• Boeing has fired a high-energy chemical laser aboard a C-130H aircraft in ground tests for the first time, achieving a key milestone for the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program. ATL is being developed for the US Department of Defense to destroy, damage or disable targets with little or no collateral damage, supporting missions on the battlefield and in urban operations. Boeing's ATL industry team includes L-3 Communications/Brashear, which made the laser turret, and HYTEC, which made various structural elements of the weapon system.

People
• Teem Photonics, developer of passively Q-switched microlasers, has appointed Jacques Bourgoin as director of the companies sales and marketing activities in North America. Bourgoin has more than 20 years’ experience in the laser and electro-optics industry, and has spent the last nine years developing OEM accounts for JDSU’s commercial laser division. Teem Photonics is based in Grenoble, France, but also operates a US subsidiary in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

• Xiaoliang Sunney Xie of Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology will receive the prestigious Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis, which is awarded biennially by the German non-profit foundation Berthold Leibinger Stiftun for outstanding research milestones in applied laser technology. Xie is one of the world’s leading researchers in molecular imaging and single-molecule dynamics, and the €20,000 prize recognizes his "valuable contributions to high-resolution optical imaging techniques". The prize will be presented to Xie by jury member Theodor Hänsch at an award ceremony in Ditzingen, Germany on 15 September 2008.