Business briefs

• The Photonics Society of Poland (PSP) has been established to serve the needs of the country's optics and photonics community. The new society has strong ties to SPIE, as many of the founders were leaders in the SPIE Poland regional chapter. SPIE has been transitioning its regional chapter programme to develop more effective, locally based organizations while maintaining close connections with SPIE. Tomasz Wolinski of the Warsaw University of Technology will serve as president of the PSP, which becomes the largest optoelectronics and photonics organization in Poland.

• The International Photovoltaic Equipment Association (IPVEA) has been established by a group of more than 30 PV equipment suppliers from Europe, Asia and the US. Bryan Ekus has been appointed managing director of the association, the goal of which is to provide members with a forum for information, discussion and exchange of ideas, in addition to developing business opportunities and strategic partnerships. The new group intends to play an important role in the future development of solar technology and provide a single voice for the fabrication industry, according to a statement. A website for the Association will be established soon.

• Modulight of California and the Finnish environmental measurement developer Vaisala have announced that the laser supply agreement between the companies will continue until 2010. The agreement includes supply of specialized laser diodes for Vaisala's DCS111 product, designed for remote road friction measurement. Vaisala is now delivering this product globally to its existing road weather stations and also to new application areas where slipperiness of roads and streets are of concern, including highways, larger cities and airports.

• The first ground-based laser activation test for the Airborne Laser missile defence program (ABL) has been successfully carried out. The ABL aircraft consists of a modified Boeing 747-400F whose back half holds a high-energy laser designed and built by Northrop Grumman. The aircraft's front half contains the beam control/fire control system, developed by Lockheed Martin, and the battle management system, provided by Boeing. Laser activation testing is designed to ensure that ABL's high-energy chemical laser has been properly integrated aboard the aircraft and is ready to produce enough power to destroy a ballistic missile. The system's first missile shoot-down demonstration is planned for 2009.

• Nichia and Call/Recall have reached an agreement to jointly develop an ultrahigh-capacity optical disc recording and playback system. The platform is designed around Nichia's commercially available violet and blue laser diodes and Call/Recall's one terabyte media. Call/Recall anticipates being able to release a Blu-ray compatible disk and a backward compatible player able to read Blu-ray disks as well as Call/Recall's higher capacity formats. Call/Recall also intends to use the technology for the enterprise market for the archiving of corporate information. The demand for blue–violet recording and playback is expected to grow as the US market approaches the hard shut-off of standard analogue broadcasting in February 2009.

• Optical Surfaces has delivered three high-precision off-axis parabolic mirrors to the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California, US, that will form key focusing components in the adaptive optical system associated with BBSO's new solar telescope. Due for completion later in 2008, the 1.6 m aperture off-axis Gregorian solar telescope will enable precise studies of the physics of the Sun and observation of solar phenomena. Adaptive optics will allow atmospheric seeing to be corrected to the diffraction limit, and allow the telescope to image actual photospheric flux tubes at about 100 km resolution.

• Showa Denko KK has started commercial shipment of aluminum-gallium-indium-phosphide (AlGaInP) ultrabright red LED chips with a luminous efficiency of 80 lumen per watt. The luminous efficiency of the new chips is claimed by the company to represent a 40% improvement over SDK's existing grade and to be the highest level available on the market.

• Oxxius has appointed Scitec Instruments Polska as the distributor of its visible and ultraviolet laser diode modules in Poland. Offerings include up to 300 mW at 561, 532 and 473 nm from the SLIM DPSSL products and up to 50 mW at 445, 405 and 375nm from the Violet series. Companies already represented in Poland by Scitec Instruments Polska include CVI, Gentec E-O, Owis, Sperian Protection, Lasermet, NoIR, Pacer, sglux and Terahertz Technologies.

People
• Markos Tambakeras has joined the board of Newport, bringing experience of international operations said to be an asset in Newport's expansion of global sales and marketing infrastructure, according to a statement. Tambakeras was formerly executive chairman of tooling supplier Kennametal.

• Stan Lumish has joined the board of Chiral Photonics, a producer of optical components, lasers and displays based on its proprietary in-fibre and thin-film technologies. Lumish was formerly chief technology officer at JDS Uniphase, and continues to serve JDSU as a consultant on intellectual property.

• Richard Martin has been appointed operations manager by Telops, a Canadian developer of opto-electronic systems for the defence, aerospace and photonic industries. Martin brings over 20 years' experience in management and finance, and has most recently served as vice-president of operations Groupe Environnemental Labrie.