News in Brief
17 Jun 2002
This week's news includes job-cuts, tough competition for displays and self-assembling atoms.
US optics manufacturer
Digilens has cut back its UK-based production, shedding 11 jobs. "We do not believe that the optical component market will recover until 2003 and have consolidated manufacturing in the US," said Mike Adams, marketing director of Digilens. "We are now well positioned to ride out the recession."
Cambridge Display Technology of the UK is developing handheld light-emitting polymer displays for the US
National Imagery and Mapping Agency. Aimed at defense combat, the prototype will use a red/infrared monochrome display and also offers potential for flexible displays.
US market researcher
DisplaySearch says that Japanese manufacturers of thin film transistor liquid crystal displays are losing their large-screen market share to Korean and Taiwanese counterparts. Stiff competition and declining revenues are forcing Japanese companies to focus on mobile phone, personal digital assistant and car navigation markets.
Korea-based
Hynix Semiconductor is selling 80.1% of its liquid crystal display (LCD) business to the Taiwanese filter maker Cando for USD 400 million. Harry Ling, Cando's chief executive says the acquisition will help the company to become LCD industry leaders.
China's optical transport market has hit a record revenue level of USD 1.1 billion says
RHK, an US market researcher. RHK predicts that revenues will reach USD 1.9 billion by the end of the year.
EFOS, a Canadian manufacturer of light-based adhesive curing technologies and subsidiary of
EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering, is now called EXFO Photonic Solutions. Mario Larose, vice-president of marketing at EXFO says that the name change will highlight the links between EXFO and its subsidiary.
Returning to research, self-assembling atoms could lead the way to advanced light control in the telecoms industry. Researchers at the US-based
Sandia National Laboratories have produced real-time videos of atom assembly processes and hope that the work will help to develop devices such as photonic lattices. 
