Business briefs

12 Jul 2002

Including news from Alcatel Optronics, Lambda-Physik, VISX, DRS Technologies and more.

•  The management buy-out of Alcatel Optronics's non-telecom MEMS and planar design software activities in the Netherlands has been completed. The new independently owned company will be called C2V and is set to collaborate with Alcatel for an eighteen-month period.

•  Lambda Physik , the Germany-based maker of excimer lasers, has opened a sales office in San Diego, US. In a bid to boost sales and reach a larger customer base, the company has also hired Bernhard Nikolaus as its new director of west-coast sales.

•  US-based VISX, a maker of laser vision correction systems, has posted second-quarter revenues of USD 36.6 million, down USD 11.6 million from the figure reported for the same period last year. VISX chairman Liz Davilla said: "The quarter was a solid one for us. But the current trend in consumer confidence is not favourable. We are forecasting a decline in revenue for the second half of 2002."

•  DRS Technologies, US, has won a USD 12.4 million contract from the US Army to supply two prototypes for the Cost Effective Targeting System program (CETS). DRS will provide a suite of tools including a forward-looking infrared sensor, an eyesafe laser range finder and a laser illuminating viewing and ranging camera as part of the program.

•  Zia Laser, which makes quantum dot (QD) lasers, has formed an alliance with fellow US firm CyOptics for indium-phosphide services. The two companies will jointly develop 1550 nm tunable-gain lasers and 1310 nm uncooled lasers based on QD technology. The first 1310 nm devices will be packaged by the end of the year.

•  Cambridge Laser Laboratories, a US provider of replacement tubes for ion lasers, has bought a range of US-based Lexel Laser's assets, including all of its intellectual property. The latest acquisition buoys Cambridge's capacity for volume manufacture of replacement tubes for Lexel's ion-laser systems.