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21 October 2010
Industry Newsmakers - Third Quarter 2010
INDUSTRY NEWSMAKERS
Third Quarter 2010
The following is a corporate news roundup from the Optical Society (OSA). This quarterly gathering of industry news is a complimentary service offered by the OSA PR team.
For more information on these or other OSA corporate members making news, please contact Lyndsay Meyer at lmeyer@osa.org or 202.416.1435.
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OSA CORPORATE MEMBERS
Arbor Photonics -- Arbor Photonics Awarded SBIR Phase IB Funding for High Power, Short Pulsed Fiber Lasers JDSU -- JDSU Provides Core Technology for Gesture-Based Home Entertainment and Computing Lockheed Martin Aculight Corporation -- U.S. Army Awards Lockheed Martin $14 Million Contract for Innovative High Power Fiber Laser System Ocean Optics -- Ocean Optics’ LIBS Technology Spots Fake Antiques Optimax -- Optimax Named Winning Workplace by Inc. Magazine Shasta Crystals -- Shasta Crystals Awarded Phase 2 SBIR Grant from the National Science Foundation |
Third Quarter 2010 Industry News Summary
Technology developed by OSA’s corporate members continues to flourish in a wide range of applications from artifact sleuthing to revolutionary home entertainment to improving the efficiency of solar cells. Corporate member companies are finding ways to advance their cutting-edge technologies thanks to funding from the U.S. government and new business partnerships.
Focus on Applications
Technology from Ocean Optics is being used in China’s Beijing Antique City to separate authentic ceramic antiques from fakes that are artificially aged. Ocean Optics’ LIBS system uses a laser to “burn” away a very tiny area (invisible to the naked eye) of the object, causing a plasma to form. The plasma is then analyzed for the key elements of interest, such as chemicals used to simulate the process of aging.
JDSU announced that it is providing optical technology for gesture recognition systems that let a person control technology with natural body gestures instead of using a remote, mouse or other device, with applications in home entertainment and computing. JDSU near-infrared light source technology and optical coatings are integrated into gesture recognition platforms, such as a 3-D sensor or set-top box, to detect and extract external information from a person’s movements. The information is then mapped into a 3-D image, and incorporated into the system so that a person can easily manipulate an application.
Corning Incorporated and Oerlikon Solar announced that they have achieved a record-breaking 11.9 percent stabilized conversion efficiency in a silicon-tandem, research-size photovoltaic cell. Results were confirmed by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Based on the unique combination of Oerlikon Solar’s Micromorph® technology and Corning’s thin specialty glass, the resulting solar cell’s energy conversion efficiency exceeds the current 11.7 percent industry record, set in 2004, and was achieved without the use of antireflective coating.
Business Partnerships and Agreements
Optical equipment maker Go!Foton announced the acquisition of Zenko Technologies, Inc., a privately held developer of burst-mode technologies for digital communications. Zenko’s product portfolio includes PON transceiver modules, ICs for burst-mode communications, and optical video modules for RFoG solutions.
Awards and Accolades
Optical components maker Optimax was named one of Inc. Magazine’s and Winning Workplace’s Top 20 Small Company Workplaces. The competition’s goal is to identify the best small and mid-sized companies to work for. Optimax was recognized for documenting and tracking standardized processes that empower their employees to make informed decisions; for implementing cost-cutting measures and reduced rework, supporting the bottom line; for investing in the workforce; and for focusing on customer satisfaction, which in recent months has amounted to the highest bookings in the history of the company.
The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $14 million contract to design, develop, build and test a first-of-its-kind high power fiber laser-based system suitable for military applications. The program, called the Robust Electric Laser Initiative (RELI), features a fiber laser architecture capable of producing the 100 kilowatts or more of high quality power needed for a broad range of military “speed-of-light” defensive applications on air, land and sea platforms. The work will be performed at the Lockheed Martin Aculight facility in Bothell, Wash.
Arbor Photonics, Inc. both received SBIR grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Arbor Photonics received Phase IB funding for its work on “High Power Pulsed Fiber Lasers for EUV Lithography.” This supplemental award will support production of 3C™ (Chirally-Coupled Core) optical fiber to achieve 200 W average power, several mJ, nanosecond lasers in the 1030 – 1090 nm wavelength range with single mode output. The 3C fiber concept is a revolutionary type of optical fiber that utilizes an internal structure to produce single spatial mode output from very large core fibers. Shasta Crystals received nearly $0.5 million for the Phase 2 project titled: “Low Cost High Quality Nonlinear Optical Crystals for Laser Light Sources for Miniature Projectors.”
