Sensores

In the past decades, data traffic has grown exponentially driven by emerging technologies. The field of integrated circuits has enabled that growth, making electronic devices smaller and faster. But the start of the Zettabyte Era in 2016 has pushed the technology to its limits, posing critical challenges in speed, bandwidth, cost, and power consumption. Photonic integration, particularly silicon photonics, presents an opportunity to alleviate those challenges.

Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed an integration technique for efficient coupling of III-V compound semiconductor devices and silicon, paving the way for photonic integration at low cost, large volume, and high speed and...

Civan Lasers, a developer of laser technology, has opened its first European office in Hannover, Germany. The office will function as a central hub for sales, service, and R&D, with a focus on welding process innovation. It includes a demonstration room equipped with a 14kW laser with a galvo scanner and a fast axis XY table. The office serves to meet growing demand in Europe. Civan Lasers has opened its first office in Euope, in Hannover, Germany. The office features a demonstration room equipped with a 14kW laser (shown). Courtesy of Civan Lasers.
BRUSSELS — Sensing technologies company VoxelSensors has acquired the intellectual and industrial property of XR glasses developer EyeWay Vision. The acquisition strengthens...

Image scanning microscopy (ISM), a superresolution technique enabled by the advent of fast and compact detector arrays, provides signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), optical sectioning, and spatial resolution better than that of a traditional confocal microscope. The lateral resolution of the ISM image can surpass Abbe’s limit by up to a factor of two.

However, these advantages are achieved by exploiting only spatial information; modern fluorescence bioimaging can be further enriched by time-resolved acquisition, which enables access to structural and functional information encoded into the fluorescence dynamics (e.g., fluorescence lifetime).

Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa developed a compact...

DustPhotonics, a silicon photonics technology developer for data center and AI applications, has completed an oversubscribed $24 million series B follow-on funding round. The company said that the funding will be used to scale production of current products — namely its Carmel-4 and Carmel-8 products, which are used for 400Gb/s and 800Gb/s applications — and accelerate development of future innovations.
Ronnen Lovinger, CEO (left), and Yoel Chetrit, CTO and vice president of R&D. Courtesy of DustPhotonics.
Dust Photonics debuted its Carmel-8 product at 2023's European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC). As the company aims to advance its merchant 800 Gb/s silicon photonics chip, it also plans to use funds...

Commercial OLED applications such as display technologies require blue emitters that are more stable and efficient. This need has been intensified by newly proposed power-efficient OLED display architectures that only use blue pixels with external fluorescent color conversion layers.

A Durham University team took an unexpected approach to improving blue light emission in OLEDs. The team used sensitizer molecules long considered poor emitters, like ACRSA, to enable brighter, more efficient blue OLEDs. When ACRSA was used as a sensitizer in the new technology, which the researchers called hyperfluorescence (HF) OLEDs, the efficiency of blue light emission almost tripled.

“We discovered a ‘blind spot’ where...

Coherent Corp. CEO Vincent "Chuck" Mattera has informed the company’s board of directors that he will retire as CEO, following the hiring of a successor. The board has retained a leading executive search firm to commence a comprehensive search process, which will include evaluating internal and external candidates, to identify a new CEO. A subcommittee has been formed to oversee the search process.
Vincent Mattera will retire as CEO of Coherent following the completion of the company's search for a replacement. Courtesy of Coherent. Mattera’s intention to retire, the company said, does not reflect a dispute or disagreement. In August 2022, Coherent extended Mattera's contract through 2030.

Mattera has been with Coherent...

An optical metamaterial from Aalto University has the potential to enable applications that would otherwise need a strong external magnetic field to work.

The 3D metamaterial demonstrates an isotropic and resonant nonreciprocal magnetoelectric (NME) response in the visible frequency range. The NME effect, also known as the Tellegen effect, has both electric and magnetic properties. In materials exhibiting the NME effect, magnetization can be induced by the electric component of light, and polarization can be generated by the magnetic component.

The NME effect is negligible in natural materials. However, due to its technological potential, there have been various attempts by scientists to enhance the NME effect using...

Xiaomi and Leica Camera AG have established the Xiaomi x Leica Optical Institute, which the companies plan to use to develop digital imaging and AI technologies for mobile imaging. The institute will lead to the design of ultra-precision optical lenses in a compact form factor, advance performance in computational photography, ensure adherence to optical standards for lenses, and conduct research and develop applications for optoelectronic technology.

Per the endeavor, Xiaomi and Leica have assembled a joint team of over 200 experts. Peter Karbe, the optical designer behind the fourth-generation lenses from Leica including designs like Noctilux and the APO series, will serve as optical expert. Zeng Xuezong, senior vice president of...

The U.S. Department of Commerce will provide $1.5 billion in planned direct funding for GlobalFoundries (GF) as part of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act. GF plans to use the funds to expand its footprint in Malta and to modernize its facility in Essex Junction, Vt.

GF is the first semiconductor pure play foundry to receive a major award from the CHIPS and Science Act.

At its existing Malta, N.Y. fab, GF will add critical technologies already in production in GF’s Singapore and Germany facilities geared towards enabling the U.S. auto industry. The company will also construct a new state-of-art fab on the Malta campus to meet expected demand. The new fab has already been granted some necessary permits and will leverage...

Semiconductor technology company BluGlass Limited has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Tucson, Arizona-based directed energy and laser technology company Applied Energetics. Per the agreement, the companies will collaborate on next-generation military and commercial applications, leveraging BluGlass’ high-performance GaN distributed feedback (DFB) lasers in Applied Energetics’ advanced systems development.
BluGlass has informally partnered with Applied Energetics, a developer of directed energy and laser technology for defense and commercial markets. Courtesy of BluGlass. Through this collaboration the companies plan to develop solutions that address technology needs in emerging dual-use and national security...

Quantum experts from the EU’s Quantum Flagship initiative met with policymakers and representatives to present the Strategic Research and Industry Agenda SRIA 2030: Roadmap and Quantum Ambitions over this Decade. Themes in the roadmap include economic and technological sovereignty with calls to strengthen the EU’s role as a global player in quantum technology.

The document outlines a strategy for Europe to build an autonomous ecosystem for scientific and industrial applications in the quantum space, with thousands of researchers, a robust workforce, and the highest level of public funding for quantum technologies in the world, according to Quantum Flagship.

Coordinated by the French Atomic Energy and Alternative...

Motorola Solutions has acquired specialized long range camera provider Silent Sentinel. The acquisition compliments Motorola Solutions’ portfolio of fixed video cameras and expands its footprint with government and critical infrastructures, while strengthening its position as a provider of end-to-end video security solutions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Silent Sentinel’s rugged, thermal cameras offer clear visibility in the complex and extreme environments associated with military, aviation, maritime, and critical infrastructure. Equipped with highly accurate detection capabilities in the long- and mid-wave infrared regions, Silent Sentinel’s cameras can identify anomalies from up to 30 km miles...

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has awarded $20 million to Chao Zhou, a professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, to support the development of a portable OCT system. The solution could offer advanced eye screenings to many more patients at lower costs. Additionally, the technology could be used in other applications, including cardiology, dermatology, dentistry, endoscopy, and urology.

Zhou plans to build the portable system using a design based on PICs and custom-designed electronic integrated circuits (ICs). This, he said, will simplify the assembly process and lower production costs, making OCT more accessible to a wider range of...

BluGlass Limited, a semiconductor developer, has received $4.3 million in commitments from institutional and sophisticated investors. The funds will be used to scale and speed production and delivery of BluGlass’ visible lasers to fulfil new and existing contracts. The funds will also support the acquisition of additional fabrication equipment, working capital, and development of products to increase market competitiveness and sales.

Amazec Photonics' €1.5 million seed round will go to developing cardiovascular monitoring tools. Courtesy of PhotonDelta. OUDKARSPEL, The Netherlands — Medtech company Amazec Photonics has secured a €1.5 million ($1.6 million) seed round to develop its minimally invasive diagnosis...

Researchers from ICFO have introduced a type of polaritonic cavity which redefines the limits of light confinement. The work demonstrates an unconventional way of confining photons, overcoming traditional limits in nanophotonics.

Confining photons to increasingly small volumes has long been an area of interest for physicists. The natural length scale of the photon is the wavelength and when a photon is forced into a cavity much smaller than the wavelength, it effectively becomes more “concentrated.” This concentration enhances interactions with electrons, amplifying quantum processes within the cavity.
Researchers have developed nanocavities that enable deep subwavelength volume and extended lifetime using an...

Multiverse Computing, a developer of value-based quantum computing solutions, and Single Quantum, a provider of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors, launched an industrial materials science R&D project under a $1.4 million contract with the German Aerospace Center (DLR)’s Quantum Computing Initiative (DLR QCI).

Under the contract, Multiverse Computing and Single Quantum will use quantum simulation to improve the superconducting film that allows the hardware to detect photons. The quantum companies won funding through a competitive bidding process to use quantum simulation to improve the transmission capabilities of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors. These detectors are essential for quantum...

A new, spiral-shaped lens could make consistently clear vision possible for people with lens implants or age-related farsightedness. The spiral diopter works similarly to progressive lenses used for vision correction, while foregoing the often-found distortions. Its spiral shape creates many separate points of focus, allowing the user to see clearly at different distances and in various light conditions.

In addition to advancing contact lens technologies and intraocular implants for cataracts, the spiral diopter lens could be used to miniaturize imaging systems while maintaining their optical quality.

According to the researchers, the spiral diopter lenses are superior to conventional trifocal lenses at larger apertures for...

Organic-based optoelectronics have the potential to provide an energy-efficient way to operate low-power indoor devices and wireless IoT sensors. Organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) and organic photodetectors (OPDs) show exceptional promise for powering indoor electronic devices sustainably. However, the manufacturing processes for standalone OPVs and OPDs can be complex and costly, resulting in high production costs and limited scalability.

OPVs can absorb energy and generate electricity, even under very low light conditions, while OPDs are able to acquire images. So far, the independent development paths for OPVs and OPDs have kept them from achieving the level of efficiency necessary for practical use in next-generation,...

Sivers Semiconductors AB, an integrated chips company, has nominated Bami Bastani to become chairman of its board of directors. Bastani was also appointed as executive chairman of Sivers’ U.S. subsidiary, Sivers Semiconductors Inc. He previously served as strategic advisor to the company's board and management team and, held president, CEO, and board member positions at Meru Networks, Trident Microsystems, and ANADIGICS.

WASHINGTON D.C. — Hyperspectral satellite company Kuva Space appointed Jerry Welsh to the board of its newly established U.S. subsidiary, Kuva Space US. Welsh is the former CEO of ICEYE US and served as a mentor for space and aerospace startups participating in the Techstars accelerator program.
Jerry...

Teledyne Technologies Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire Adimec Holding B.V. and its subsidiaries. Adimec, headquartered in Eindhoven, Netherlands, develops customized high-performance industrial and scientific cameras. The move, Teledyne said, adds products, technology, and customers in healthcare, defense, and semiconductor and electronics inspection from Adimec that are complementary to its existing portfolio.

Adimec has offices in Boston, Japan, and Shanghai and Shenzhen, China. The company spearheaded the development and adoption of the CoaXPress standard, forming the CoaXPress Consortium in 2009. The work earned a 2009 Vision Award for CoaXPress, and the format became a global standard in 2011 following endorsement...