Business briefs

13 Sep 2002

Including news from Advanced Photonix, Kodak, Coventor, Avanex, DisplaySearch and more.

•  Advanced Photonix, a US maker of silicon-based photodetectors, has paid USD 1.7 million in cash for Silicon Sensors, a fellow US detector maker. "The acquisition will increase our manufacturing and technical capabilities as well as expand our sales into commercial and industrial applications," said Advanced Photonix's chief executive officer Brock Koren.

•  US market analyst DisplaySearch has reported that the number of small/medium displays shipped in the second quarter of 2002 rose 20.3% year-on-year. Quarterly revenues generated from shipping the 114.4 million units increased by 15.1% year-on-year to USD 1.8 billion. The company says this rebound is thanks to good sales in areas such as mobile phone and PDA displays.

•  Kodak has licensed its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology to Opto Tech of Taiwan. Opto will use the technology in flat-panel passive-matrix displays. The agreement also gives Opto the opportunity to purchase Kodak's patented OLED materials to make the displays.

•  Coventor, a US developer of MEMS, is spinning-off a company to focus on biotech applications. Teragenics, which has already received initial funding from outside investors, will use Coventor's existing microfluidics and biotech patent portfolio to target the biotechnology market.

•  US-based Avanex, a provider of photonic processors for optical networks, is reducing is workforce by 140. Effective immediately, the company says it will now outsource its manufacturing operations to China. Key design, product integration and prototyping capabilities will remain at the company's California headquarters.

•  Optical Mechanics has acquired the assets of Torus Technologies, a fellow US-based developer of research telescope systems and large-scale optics. The company says it will build on its existing product offerings while expanding into the large-precision and opto-mechanical markets.