Sensores

As part of the Belgian research project Q-COMIRSE, researchers presented a prototype SWIR image sensor with indium arsenide quantum dot (QD) photodiodes. The sensor successfully demonstrated 1390 nm imaging results, offering an environmentally friendly alternative to first-generation QDs that contain lead, which has limited their widespread manufacturing.

Because SWIR sensors can distinguish between objects that appear identical to the human eye and are able to penetrate through fog or mist, they are useful in applications like facial recognition or eye tracking in consumer electronics and autonomous vehicle navigation. While current versions are costly and limited to high-end applications, wafer-level integration promises broader...

Quantum ghost imaging (QGI), a technique that leverages quantum mechanics to capture images at extremely low light levels, could provide a way to image living plants without exposing them to harmful wavelengths. QGI also removes the need to insert dyes or other labels into plant specimens, further protecting these delicate samples.

Use of QGI for live plant imaging could foster the development of biofuel crops like sorghum, by contributing to the optimization of plant growth for maximum yield and sustainability.

A research group at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) used nondegenerate QGI, an advanced form of QGI, to acquire images of living plants with light that was orders of magnitude below starlight. The researchers...

Laser scanning solutions developer SCANLAB GmbH has named Alexander Roth CEO. Roth succeeds Georg Hofner, who will focus exclusively on his position of CEO at SCANLAB’s parent company, TecInvest Holding AG. Alexander Staudt, who has overseen operations at SCANLAB since 2023, will take on the role of COO.

The changes in management, which also include the naming of Dirk Thomas as CFO, take effect Jan. 1, 2025.
The newly named SCANLAB management team, as of January, 2025, (from left): Alexander Staudt, Alexander Roth, Dirk Thomas, and Christian Sonner. Courtesy of SCANLAB. Roth has prior experience at Siemens and Giesecke & Devrient, as well as in photonics at Rofin Baasel Lasertech, Coherent-Rofin, and, Fraunhofer...

A team of researchers from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications has demonstrated a prototype mobile all-light communications network, paving the way for seamless connectivity across air, land, and underwater environments, even when communication nodes are on a moving vehicle. The advance could enable uninterrupted data exchange in dynamic and challenging settings for navigation, emergency response, research, and commercial operations.

According to research team leader Yongjin Wang, the network combines different light sources to allow uninterrupted connectivity while at the same time dynamically aligning optical paths between moving nodes. “This enables two-way real-time data transmission, ensuring reliable...

A technique from researchers at the University of Adelaide could enable microscopic imaging to be performed through a very thin optical fiber. This new technique could make it possible to image areas in the body that are difficult to reach using conventional methods.

The team from Adelaide worked with researchers from the University of Nottingham and the University of Cambridge to investigate how light propagates through a multimode optical fiber and how to control the light more effectively. The researchers developed a method that allowed them to achieve exceptional control over the amplitude, phase, and polarization of the light beam at the output of the fiber.
Experimental projection of Bessel, Airy, and Laguerre-Gauss beams...

ULVAC, Inc., a vacuum technology developer, has entered into a collaboration with Silicon Austria Labs GmbH (SAL), a research center for electronics and software-based systems, on the development of plasma etching processes for high-volume manufacturing of thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN). SAL will be implementing ULVAC's NLD-5700 plasma etching system to advance R&D of TFLN, with the goal to continuously advance the manufacturing processes crucial to enhancing the materials' integration and scalability on a 200 mm platform.

ULVAC’s NLD-5700 plasma etching system. Courtesy of SAL. LEDERHOSE, Germany — PI Ceramic, a piezoceramic components developer, has introduced a new, fully automated production line for multilayer...

In a step toward making diamond a viable material for semiconductors and quantum applications, researchers at Macquarie University developed an etching technique for modifying the surface chemistry of diamond. The highly precise technique can be used to remove as little as 1% of a single atomic layer from the material. Precision etching of the diamond surface is achieved by dosing the surface with pulsed deep ultraviolet (DUV) light at fluences below the ablation threshold.

Properties like high thermal conductivity and resistance to electrical breakdown make diamond a valuable material for high-power, high-frequency electronic devices. Moreover, diamond surfaces help stabilize quantum states. The ability to engineer diamond surfaces...

An international research team has developed an electrically-pumped continuous wave semiconductor laser suitable for seamless silicon integration. According to the team, this is the first laser of its kind directly grown on a silicon wafer.

Developed by scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), the University of Stuttgart, and the Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP), together with CEA-Leti, the laser is composed exclusively of elements from the fourth group of the periodic table — the “silicon group.” Built from stacked ultrathin layers of germanium-tin and silicon germanium-tin, the device opens new possibilities for on-chip integrated photonics, the researchers said.
An...

A device developed by researchers at CEA-Leti combines the ability to sense light and modulate it accordingly by pairing a liquid crystal cell and a CMOS image sensor into a single device. According to the researchers, this is the first time a single device has had these capabilities simultaneously.

The compact system provides intrinsic optical alignment and compactness and is easy to scale-up, facilitating the use of digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) techniques in applications such as microscopy and medical imaging.

In a paper presented at the 2024 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, the researchers state that this is the first solid-state device integrating a liquid crystal-based spatial light modulator...

Lightwave Logic, a developer of electro-optic polymer technology, has named Yves LeMaitre CEO, and Thomas Zelibor president. The company announced that Michael Lebby has retired as chairman and CEO, effective Dec. 10.

The company board also appointed Ronald Bucchi, current lead independent director, as non-executive independent chairman.

LeMaitre joined the company’s board of directors in August as a photonics industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in the optical network and AI/datacenter industry, as well as in global technology, corporate strategy, and marketing. LeMaitre led the Optical Coherent Division of IPG Photonics and advised and oversaw its divestiture to Lumentum in 2022. For 10 years, he held...

Optical interconnect solutions company Ayar Labs has secured $155 million in financing for the high-volume manufacturing of its optical I/O technology, as the company prepares its optical solution for high volume manufacturing strategically aligned to customer roadmaps. Participating investors on the latest round include AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, and NVIDIA.

The financing brings the company’s total funding to $370 million and raises the company’s valuation to over $1 billion.

“We believe optical I/O is on the cusp of revolutionizing the future of AI infrastructure, and we recognize the significant growth potential of in-package optical interconnects,” said Jordan Katz, partner at Advent Global...

POET Technologies, a developer and designer of photonic integrated circuits, has appointed Bob Tirva to its board of directors and audit committee, expanding the board to six members. Tirva brings over 30 years of executive experience in the technology industry, having held various management positions at IBM, Broadcom Corporation, Dropbox, and Intermedia Cloud Communications Inc. He currently serves on the board of Skyworks Aeronautics.

(From left) Oliver Brandmayer, Evosys managing directors Frank Brunnecker and Holger Aldebert, and Marie Schafnitzl. Courtesy of Evosys. ERLANGEN, Germany — Laser welding company Evosys has added Marie Schafnitzl as head of finance and Oliver Brandmayer as technical director. Schafnitzl has...

Pixxel, a space technology company building high-resolution hyperspectral satellites, closed $24 million in additional funding as part of its Series B round. The financing will enable Pixxel to accelerate the development and launch of its entire planned constellation of 18 commercial hyperspectral satellites. It will also support the growth of the company’s software offerings, including its AI-driven Earth Observation platform, Aurora, enabling seamless analysis and actionable insights for diverse applications from hyperspectral data.

Pixxel’s hyperspectral satellites are designed to capture data across 250+ spectral bands at 5 m spatial resolution, spectrally fingerprinting the earth and delivering details invisible to...

In-sensor edge AI devices are increasingly used to predict events that require an immediate response, from natural disasters to medical emergencies. To predict emergency events in advance, edge AI devices must be able to process time-series data.

To provide edge AI with the ability to handle time-series data on various time scales, a research team at Tokyo University of Science developed a synaptic device that achieves multiscale, time-series data processing using physical reservoir computing (PRC). The time constant in the device is controlled by the intensity of the input light.

Human synapses are junctions that transmit signals between neurons, facilitating communication within the nervous system. Optoelectronic, artificial...

With the growing popularity of solar energy systems, concerns about fire risks have also risen. However, it is challenging to determine whether the solar panels were the cause of the fire and under what circumstances the fire started. Also, until 2023, building fires involving solar energy systems were not systematically recorded.

Newly published research led by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Institute for Public Safety (NIPV), and the Standardization Institute (NEN) have now mapped how many building fires between 2022 and 2023 have involved a solar energy system. Of 10,000 building fires during this period, 152 cases involved buildings equipped with solar energy systems (<2%). Of these 152...

A new microscopy platform could improve investigations into the mechanisms that drive cellular behavior by providing fast, precise 3D imaging of multiple cellular structures at the nanoscale, while allowing flexible control of the extracellular environment.

The microscopy method is called soTILT3D — short for single-objective tilted light sheet with 3D point spread functions (PSFs). It was developed by a team at Rice University to address the constraints of existing fluorescence microscopy and single-molecule super-resolution microscopy techniques.

“Our goal with soTILT3D was to create a flexible imaging tool that overcomes limitations of traditional super-resolution microscopy,” professor Anna-Karin...

The growth in digital manufacturing has intensified the need for fast, reliable quality control methods to assess the microstructures of critical metal parts, like those used in aerospace. While 3D scanners and other technologies are available to analyze the build quality and integrity of metal parts, there is no equivalent solution for imaging and analyzing the microstructure of a part.

A new approach to analyzing microstructures, based on directional reflectance microscopy (DRM), enables direct microstructure imaging and measurement of entire parts, and provides microstructure information for curved, complex surfaces.

The method, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge and Nanyang Technological University, is...

Earth observation startup SatVu has secured £20 million (~$25.4 million) in strategic funding, comprising a £10 million equity round and an insurance payout. The funds will accelerate the company’s build and launch of its HotSat-2 and HotSat-3 satellites, expected to ship out for launch in 2025.
Thermal satellite images by SatVu’s HotSat-1 on Dec. 6, 2023 indicated increased levels of activity at North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. Courtesy of SatVu.
SatVu’s HotSat-1, launched last year, provided 3.5-m resolution thermal data for insights on global carbon emissions and energy activity. In a December press release, the company stated that the “insured satellite”...

The U.S. Department of Commerce has signed three separate preliminary memoranda of terms under the CHIPS and Science Act to provide up to $33 million in proposed direct funding to Coherent, up to $16 million to Skywater Technology Foundry, and up to $50 million to X-Fab.

The proposed investment in Coherent would support the modernization and expansion of a state-of-the-art manufacturing cleanroom in Coherent’s existing 700,000 sq ft facility in Sherman, Texas, to establish the world’s first 150-mm indium phosphide (InP) manufacturing line by adding advanced wafer fabrication equipment to produce InP devices at scale.

InP optoelectronic devices are widely used in applications such as datacom and telecom transceivers,...

To make quantum dot technology more sustainable, researchers at the University of Strathclyde developed a practical, inexpensive way to recycle the colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) used to make microscopic supraparticle (SP) lasers. The researchers created new lasers from the recycled CQDs and demonstrated that the performance of these lasers was comparable to their predecessors.

Recovery and reuse of CQDs would improve their economic and environmental sustainability. Additionally, the method developed by the team could be used to recycle a variety of nanoparticles. “Our method reduces costs and environmental impact by minimizing the need for new nanoparticles and the disposal of old ones, and it should be applicable to any...