Sensores

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...

Coherent Corp. has secured $15 million in funding from the CHIPS and Science Act to accelerate the commercialization of next-generation wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors, specifically silicon carbide and single-crystal diamond. The funding will be distributed through the Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors Hub, which the company is a member of, led by North Carolina State University.

Coherent’s CHIPS funding will go toward advancing wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors. Courtesy of Coherent. PHOENIX — Semiconductor manufacturer TSMC Arizona and the U.S. Department of Commerce (U.S. DoC) have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms for up to $6.6 billion in direct funding under...

Semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation has entered into a technical partnership with Toray Engineering Co., Ltd., a provider of engineering technology and equipment, to promote efficient production technology for mini- and microLED displays. The companies will offer display manufacturers their combined inspection, transfer, and mounting technologies, data analysis technologies, and manufacturing-related technologies. The collaboration, Advantest said, aims to accelerate the expansion of the mini- and microLED display market and encourage the adoption of microLED displays through the joint provision of integrated data linkage solutions for manufacturing.

North American Coating Laboratories (NACL) has acquired Optical Filter Source, LLC. Both companies provide optical coating services to industry professionals working with optical components from UV to the FIR. The acquisition brings new capabilities including photolithography, busbar application, dicing, and sputtering technology.

The combined companies will have 15 coating chambers and approximately 42 employees operating in two locations, one being NACL's existing facility outside Cleveland. Following the transaction, Optical Filter Source's Round Rock, Texas, location will be named OFS by NACL, LLC and continue to operate as Optical Filter Source. NACL’s Brian Wilson will serve as CEO and current Optical Filter Source CEO...

Researchers at the University of Rochester and University of Copenhagen’s Center for Translational Neuromedicine developed a bioluminescence imaging technique that tracks the movement of oxygen in mice brains to reveal the level of oxygen present in the mice’s cortical tissue under different physiological conditions. As more oxygen enters the brain, the luminescence grows brighter.

The method can be easily replicated by other labs and is expected to enable the forms of brain hypoxia, such as oxygen deprivation to the brain during a stroke or heart attack or in patients with dementia, to be more precisely studied.

The researchers used a genetically encoded, bioluminescent oxygen indicator for partial oxygen tension...

An approach to deep brain imaging developed at the University of Washington uses microprisms to provide stable tracking of neuronal activity over a large field of view. According to the research team, the microprism technique is a significant improvement over existing imaging methods used to characterize neuronal ensemble dynamics within deep brain tissues.

Organisms rely on their brains’ complex neural circuits to process information and perform functions that will help them find resources and avoid danger. Optical imaging techniques allow scientists to chart the changes to these circuits over time, to gain a clearer understanding of how new behaviors develop.

Fluorescence microscopy is used to track neuronal activity...

Imperx, a provider of ruggedized cameras for aerospace and machine vision, named David Head director of business development. Head has over 20 years of experience in the computer vision industry, most recently focusing on customized solutions. Prior to joining Imperx, he held business development positions at Teledyne Dalsa, Coreco Imaging, and Imaging Technology, Incorporated.
David Head. Courtesy of Imperx. PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The IEEE Photonics Society’s board of governors appointed Patrick Iannone vice president of publications and as chair of the society's publications council. Iannone has a background in optical and wireless systems. He previously worked for AT&T Bell Labs (AT&T Labs) and Nokia Bell Labs, and...