Sensores

Imaging solutions company Teledyne e2v has signed a technology and design collaboration with 3D vision solution provider Airy3D. The agreement targets the development of commercial 3D vision solutions supporting applications in numerous market segments.

The first product to come out of the collaboration is the Topaz5D — a low power and passive 2 MP global shutter CMOS sensor that produces both 2D images and 3D depth maps. The collaborators have already released a Topaz5D evaluation kit, along with monochrome and color sensor samples.

Researchers from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST) introduced a one-step method to generate holograms in real time. This approach to creating computer-generated holograms (CGH) could provide a practical solution to create immersive 3D visualizations, opening a path to adopt holographic displays in diverse industries and applications.

The method uses a Split-Lohmann lens-based diffraction model based on a Fourier holography system between an RGB image and the hologram plane. The model enables rapid synthesis of 3D holograms through a single-step, backward propagation calculation.

The light-wave propagation from the RGB image to the hologram is modulated by a predesigned, depth-dependent, virtual...

cleansort GmbH, a company using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for the sorting of recyclable materials, earned the first place prize of the 2024 Innovation Award for Laser Technology. cleansort took this year’s award — and €10,000 (~$10,644) in prize money — for its "Cleansort process." The smart software-enhanced solution uses a combination of laser ablation and laser spectroscopy to increase resource efficiency and reduce material costs, energy costs, and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Innovation Award for Laser Technology is presented every two years to laser manufacturers, users, researchers, and developers who have spearheaded a laser technology innovation from application-oriented research to...

INTECH, the annual in-house trade show of laser pioneer TRUMPF, is always an impressive event. This year, TRUMPF was prepared to welcome 3000 guests — many of them customers — to its Ditzingen, Germany premises, the site of the company’s global headquarters. When Intech started on April 9, the company made sure that all machines in the vast halls of TRUMPF’s application center were staffed with the appropriate technology experts, primed and ready to speak with the visitors. While showing around several dozen members of press, Manuel Thomae, who heads international media relations, at TRUMPF, said that the firm has the largest number of laser systems worldwide available for testing in its application center.

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Researchers at Ohio State University are pioneering the field of “imageomics.” Founded on advancements in machine learning and computer vision, the researchers are using imageomics to explore fundamental questions about biological processes by combining images of living organisms with computer-enabled analysis.

The field was the subject of a presentation by Wei-Lun Chao, an investigator at Ohio State University’s Imageomics Institute and a distinguished assistant professor, during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The presentation focused on the field’s application for micro- to macro-level problems by turning research questions into computable problems.
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Researchers from Tsinghua University have reported the development of a photonic AI chiplet called “Taichi” which empowers 160 TOPS/W artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Developments in the field of AGI impose strict energy and area efficiency requirements on next-generation computing. Poised to break the plateauing of Moore’s Law, integrated photonic neural networks have shown the potential to achieve superior processing speeds and high energy efficiency. However, it has suffered severely limited computing capability and scalability such that only simple tasks and shallow models have been realized experimentally.

The team at Tsinghua University developed the large-scale chip along with a distributed...

Teledyne FLIR Defense, part of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract worth up to $249 million by the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command for its Organic Precision Fires-Light (OPF-L) program. According to the solicitation statements, the OPF-L systems are designed to provide rifle squads and platoons with a packable “organic, loitering precision strike capability to engage the enemy beyond the line of sight.” Teledyne FLIR will deliver the first 127 loitering munition systems to the Marines for test and evaluation later this summer. The contract has a five-year performance period with a three-year option.

The OPF-L program, which uses a recoverable and...

The PriFUSIO research project, led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT (Fraunhofer ILT), aims to develop key technologies for climate-neutral fusion power plants. The initiative, now underway, brings together fusion startups, medium sized companies, and large corporations, as well as Laser Zentrum Hannover and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF (Fraunhofer IOF). The project will focus on principles for targeted component development and explore practical photonic approaches for the commercial utilization of laser-driven inertial fusion energy (IFE).

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) has allocated €18 million ($19.2 million) for the project over the...

The European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) has named the winners of the EPIC Lifetime Achievement Award and the EPIC CEO Award. Viacheslav Artyushenko was named as the recipient of the EPIC Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions and leadership in the optical fiber industry. Artyushenkois is founder and CEO of art photonics GmbH, a manufacturer of fiber cables, bundles, and spectroscopy probes for industrial, medical, and scientific applications. The company was acquired last year by the Nynomic Group.
Viacheslav Artyushenko, recipient of the 2024 EPIC Lifetime Achievement Award. Courtesy of EPIC.
Also at EPIC's Annual General Meeting 2024, the consortium named Axel Kupisiewicz, founder and CEO of LASEA, recipient of...

Bruker has entered into a deal to acquire NanoString Technologies, a developer of spatial single cell imaging technology, for approximately $392.6 million. Per the deal, NanoString’s business operations will no longer be the subject of a chapter 11 proceeding and will be owned by Bruker.

The transaction was agreed to under a chapter 11 sale process and is expected to close early next month.

Bruker submitted a qualifying bid to acquire Seattle-based NanoString earlier this week in a move that followed a March 10 agreement whereby private equity firm Patient Square Capital was to serve as a "stalking horse" bidder in conjunction with the NanoString sale process. Patient Square had agreed to purchase NanoString’s...

Hamamatsu Photonics Europe has entered into a partnership with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)-based photonics research group B-Phot, led by engineering professor Hugo Thienpont, to explore avenues for supporting companies in various stages of photonics development. The collaboration will provide support in the form of photonics feasibility studies, proof-of-concept demonstrations, prototyping, and quality control. It will also explore the development of photonic modules and subsystems to enhance Hamamatsu Photonics' product portfolio.

Additionally, the partnership will extend its reach to European companies through PhotonHub Europe, facilitating collaborative efforts with partner research institutes across Europe.

An...

OptoSigma Europe SAS, a provider of photonics and optical components, has appointed Alain Schebath CEO of the newly established OptoSigma Germany GmbH. Based in Munich, OptoSigma Germany will serve as a central hub serving customers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. Schebath has served as general manager of OptoSigma Europe since 2021.
Alain Schebath, CEO of OptoSigma Germany GmbH. Courtesy of OptoSigma Europe. OptoSigma opened a location in Munich in 2020, the first office outside of France since the company’s European division was established in 2014.

“This strategic step reaffirms our commitment to serving our valued customers in Central Europe with excellence,”...

Microcircuit Laboratories, a developer of hermetic package solutions, named Herman Itzkowitz CTO. Itzkowitz previously served as CEO of SSEC, which was acquired by VEECO in 2015. Following the acquisition, he was CTO and executive vice president at SSEC. Itzkowitz previously held engineering management roles at DPIX, a DuPont/Xerox joint venture, and QUAD systems.

NICE, France — The European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) added Björn Dymke, managing director of TRUMPF Laser, to its board of directors. Dymke served as CFO of TRUMPF in the U.S. from 2016 to 2023, having served in a variety of executive positions in the company since 2008. As an industry association, EPIC represents more than 800 companies across 33...

Defense technology company Shield AI has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sentient Vision Systems. The Australia-based developer of AI-enabled real-time situational awareness previously introduced a visual detection and ranging (vidar)-enabled wide area motion imagery solution, called “Sentient Observer,” which Shield AI plans to fly this year. Sentient’s vidar system uses an electro-optic or infrared sensor to detect and classify targets in the imagery stream that would be invisible to a human operator or to a conventional radar.

"The [Department of Defense] (DOD) has asked for an all-seeing eye over tens of thousands of square miles, 24/7, without the need for GPS or communication links. For Shield...

Deep tech venture capital firm PhotonVentures has raised more than €15 million ($15.9 million) in a funding round, bringing the fund’s total to its target amount of €75 million ($79 million). PhotonVentures, the investment arm of Netherlands’ photonics ecosystem PhotonDelta, targets applications in data transmission, health diagnostics, and smart sensor systems, while also aligning with major global trends such as AI, AR, and VR.

PhotonVentures plans to raise more than €100 million ($106 million) for the closure of its initial fund by the end of 2024. This fund focuses on Seed to Series A investments, with participation ranging from €1 million to €2.5 million ($1.1 million to $2.7 million). The...

Syntec Optics Holdings, Inc., a provider of optics for defense and aerospace OEMs, has made changes to its executive team to support strategic growth initiatives, including potential inorganic growth. The company appointed current chair Al Kapoor CEO and named previous CEO, Joe Mohr, chief manufacturing officer.

The moves come less than six months after Syntec became a publicly traded company.

A polymer that can be modified quickly with low-power lasers emitting infrared and visible light could provide a safe, inexpensive method to produce polymer surfaces for biomedical devices, electronics, information storage, microfluidics, and other applications. The photosensitive polymer, made from elemental sulfur and low-cost dienes, was discovered by researchers at Flinders University during a routine chemical analysis.

“The novel polymer was immediately modified by a low-power laser — an unusual response I had never observed before on any other common polymers,” researcher Christopher Gibson said. The polymer identified by Gibson was invented in the lab of Flinders University professor Justin Chalker in 2022....

SPIE’s annual showcase for mission-critical sensing technology and innovation heads to the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area for a five-day run from April 21-25. The Defense + Commercial Sensing (DCS) show will play host to over 250 exhibitors and run more than 1200 presentations located at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

The Symposium Plenary on Monday evening, April 22, will feature Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and Deeph Chana, managing director of the NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA). Shenoy’s topic has yet to be determined, and Chana...

NTT Corporation (NTT) and NTT DATA Group Corporation (NTT DATA) have demonstrated Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) All Photonics Network (APN) connections between NTT Group data centers in the U.S. and the U.K. Two data centers, located approximately 100 km apart in the U.K., communicated via IOWN APN connection and recorded a low delay of 1 ms or less, with similar performance demonstrated in the U.S., NTT said.

According to the company, the demonstration served to show multiple datacenters functioning as an integrated information technology infrastructure logically equivalent to a single data center. In doing so, the demonstration further showed the applicability to distributed real-time AI analysis and the financial...

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a programmable metafluid with tunable springiness, optical properties, viscosity, and the ability to transition between a Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid.

The first-of-its-kind metafluid uses a suspension of small, elastomer spheres — between 50 to 500 μm — that buckle under pressure, radically changing the characteristics of the fluid. The metafluid could be used in everything from hydraulic actuators to program robots, to intelligent shock absorbers that can dissipate energy depending on the intensity of the impact, to optical devices that can transition from clear to opaque.

“We are just...