Laser Focus World articles from April 2003

Laser Focus World archives from April 2003

Looking beneath the surface. (editor's desk).
April 1, 2003... If you fly much, you've probably had the experience at one time or another of the pilot announcing a return to the originating airport because of a problem with the plane. This happened to me recently after we all noticed an "electrical smell"...

Scientists set sights on single-photon-counting sensor arrays. (newsbreaks).
April 1, 2003... Solid-state single-photon-counting avalanche photodiode detectors are useful for fluorescence-decay experiments and other applications. The next step in their evolution would be the development of a low-noise microarray of these devices--a...

Large Ce:LiCAF crystal amplifier produces 98-mJ pulses at 290 nm. (newsbreaks).
April 1, 2003... The fabrication of a large 1 x 2 x 2-cm Brewster-plate gain module cut from a 5-cm-diameter boule of cerium-doped lithium calcium aluminum fluoride (Ce:LiCAF) has allowed researchers from the Institute for Molecular Research (Okazaki, Japan),...

Photonic-crystal fiber laser is scalable to high power. (newsbreaks).
April 1, 2003... Scientists at the University of Bath (Bath, England) are achieving large mode areas and a low effective index step between doped and undoped areas in a ytterbium (Yb)-doped photonic-crystal (PC) fiber laser that is potentially scalable to high...

Uncooled directly modulated distributed-feedback laser is highly linear. (newsbreaks).
April 1, 2003... In results presented at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (March 23-28; Atlanta, GA), researchers from Bockham Technology (Abingdon, England) and the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, England) described the development of a directly...

Barrier coatings give long life to flexible OLED display. (newsbreaks).
April 1, 2003... Engineers from Universal Display (UDC; Ewing, NJ), which develops organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) displays, and Vitex Systems (San Jose, CA), a developer of barrier coatings, have demonstrated a flexible passive-matrix OLED display built on...

Solar-blind ultraviolet photodetectors exploit superlattices. (newsbreaks).
April 1, 2003... Researchers at Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX) are exploiting the properties of junctions of short-period lattices in large-bandgap devices to create solar-blind ultraviolet photodetectors based on aluminum gallium indium nitride (AlGaInN)...

Evolution drives revolution in solid-state lighting. (Conference Review).
April 1, 2003... Driven by continuous technological development, high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs), along with nontelecommunications laser diodes, provided one of the bright spots in the optoelectronics market in 2002. Both of these sectors grew by...

Fiber lasers achieve world-record powers. (optoelectronics world news).
April 1, 2003... Record-breaking output power in certain types of fiber lasers has been claimed by researchers from Southampton Photonics (SPI; Southampton, England) and the Optoelectronics Research Center (ORC; University of Southampton, England). At the...

Silicon yields light two ways. (Semiconductor Emitters).
April 1, 2003... Investors may have taken some of the money out of optoelectronics, but the fact that two different research teams on two different continents are rapidly closing in on silicon light-emitters using two different methods indicates once again that...

Simple microfluidic system tunes fiber properties. (Tunable Gratings).
April 1, 2003... Researchers at Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories (Murray Hill, NJ) have developed an easily manufactured device that allows the tuning of optical-fiber properties without the need for moving parts or specialized thermal control. In...

Diamond is a machinist's best friend. (Materials Processing).
April 1, 2003... High-power carbon-dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) lasers place great demands on beam-shaping optics. If even a small fraction of a high-power beam is absorbed in an optical element, a large thermally induced expansion can result, causing thermal lensing...

Moore's Law thrives. (Microlithography).
April 1, 2003... At the 2003 SPIE Microlithography meeting (Feb. 27-28; Santa Clara, CA), representatives of the optoelectronics world held court on topics mundane and esoteric--including Moore's Law, which predicts an exponential rise in the capacity of...

All-dome imaging fits together seamlessly. (Laser Entertainment Systems).
April 1, 2003... Often projected onto planetarium domes and set to music, laser light shows usually display moving lines, figures, or other patterns. Examples of movies projected by laser light-show equipment have been rare--but this situation may change, based...

Laser produced plasma sources shine brighter. (EUV Lithography).
April 1, 2003... Extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is considered an attractive candidate to succeed conventional optical lithography in the coming years (see Laser Focus World, February 2003, p. 55). Its wavelengths of approximately 13 nm would allow the...

Frustration gets results. (Reflective Displays).
April 1, 2003... Light traveling inside glass reflects at certain angles off the glass/air interface back into the glass with no loss, a phenomenon called total internal reflection (TIR). Placing a substance against the outside of the glass, however, can...

Lasers find flaws in Scotland's roads. (Laser Triangulation).
April 1, 2003... If you've ever bounced uncomfortably along a road with ruts, cracks, and potholes, then optical technology could soon come to your rescue, at least if you travel in Scotland. The Society of Chief Officers for Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS)...

Coherent buys Positive Light. (laser industry report).
April 1, 2003... Coherent (Santa Clara, CA) has signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Positive Light (Los Gatos, CA) for an undisclosed amount of cash. Positive Light will continue to operate from its base in Los Gatos under the existing management...

LED flashlight bulb hits the market. (laser industry report).
April 1, 2003... LEDdynamics (Rochester, VT) has announced the introduction of an LED flashlight bulb replacement, providing up to five times the battery life of traditional incandescent or LED flashlights, according to the company. The LED bulb replacement...

TuiLaser celebrates 10th birthday. (laser industry report).
April 1, 2003... TuiLaser (Munich, Germany) marked its 10-year anniversary in February and has shipped more than 2500 excimer lasers worldwide since 1993. Along the way, the company has also launched a successful spin-off--Toptica Photonics (Martinsried,...

Quantum delivers eyesafe rangefinder. (laser industry report).
April 1, 2003... Quantum Group (San Diego, CA) has implemented a new eyesafe microlaser originally conceived, designed, and developed by the U.S. Army CECOM RDEC Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD; Fort Belvoir, VA). Other members of the...

Grumman delivers ABL BILL. (laser industry report).
April 1, 2003... The Northrop Grumman Space Technology sector (Redondo Beach, CA) has delivered the Beacon Illuminator Laser (BILL), a high-power solid-state laser and a key component of the Missile Defense Agency's Airborne Laser (ABL) program. The ABL will...

Actinix receives UV-laser patent. (laser industry report).
April 1, 2003... Actinix (Soquel, CA) has received a patent for high-coherence and high-power vacuum-ultraviolet light generation. The patent is applicable to 157-nm semiconductor microlithography, photomask metrology and inspection, atomic physics research,...

TOPTICA Photonics. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... TOPTICA Photonics (Munich, Germany) has opened a U.S. office for sales and OEM customer support in Westfield, MA, and also plans to open a West Coast Office in the near future.

BFi OPTiLAS. (Evry, France) and Exitech (Oxford, England) have signed a distribution agreement. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... BFi OPTiLAS (Evry, France) and Exitech (Oxford, England) have signed a distribution agreement for Exitech pulsed-laser microprocessing systems in several European countries.

iolon (San Jose. CA), Intel (Santa Clara, CA), Bookham Technology (Oxfordshire, England) and Santur (Fremont, CA) have formed a multi-source agreement. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Iolon (San Jose, CA), Intel (Santa Clara, CA), Bookham Technology (Oxfordshire, England) and Santur (Fremont, CA) have formed a multi-source agreement (MSA) for tunable lasers.

Palomar Medical Technologies (Burlington, MA) and Gillette (Boston, MA) have signed an agreement. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Palomar Medical Technologies (Burlington, MA) and Gillette (Boston. MA) have signed an agreement to complete development and potentially commercialize a patented home--use, light-based hair-removal device for women.

Enfis. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Enfis (Swansea, England) has developed proprietary high-brightness LED array and optical and thermal management technologies aimed at providing low-cost, high-power solutions for medical and aesthetic applications, such as acne treatment,...

Joining Technologies (East Granby, CT) has been named as the primary North American distributor of the TRUMPF. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Joining Technologies (East Granby, CT) has been named as the primary North American distributor of the TRUMPF (Ditzingen, Germany) PowerWeld laser workstation specifically designed for welding operations in the mold and tool-making industry.

CyOptics buys assets and hires staff from CENiX. (optics industry report).
April 1, 2003... CyOptics (Waltham, MA) has purchased certain assets of CENiX (Irvine, CA), including all capital equipment, inventory, and intellectual property in the CENiX package development and manufacturing facility in Allentown, PA. In addition, CyOptics...

Zygo receives and extends LLNL contracts. (optics industry report).
April 1, 2003... Zygo (Middlefield, CT) has received a contract from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL; Livermore, CA) for 94 precision opto-mechanical assemblies, with a potential value of $8.6 million. The work will be performed at Zygo's Optical...

OMM ceases operations. (optics industry report).
April 1, 2003... OMM (San Diego, CA) ceased operations in March. Originally known as Optical Micro-Machines, the company started in 1997 with funding by a combination of venture capital and strategic customer investments. At its peak, the company had received...

John Stack, president and COO of Edmund Industrial Optics (Barrington, NJ), has been named president of the Automated Imaging Association. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... John Stack, president and COO of Edmund Industrial Optics (Barrington, NJ), has been named president of the Automated Imaging Association (Ann Arbor, MI) for 2003-2004, and Edmund Optics has also opened an Asian sales/customer service/technical...

FeinFocus. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... FeinFocus (Garbsen, Germany) celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2002 with an impressive 35% overall growth over 2001, despite a downward trend in the industry.

Coventor (Cary, NC) has announced a multiyear alliance with Cadence Design Systems. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Coventor (Cary, NC) has announced a multiyear alliance with Cadence Design Systems (San Jose, CA) to offer comprehensive design tools for developing next-generation MEMS (microetectromechanical systems).

Newport. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Newport (Irvine, CA) has launched a rapid prototyping program for custom optics.

Infineon (Munich, Germany) has become the second company to join the IMEC. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Infineon (Munich, Germany) has become the second company to join the IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) industrial affiliation program (IIAP) that focuses on technology for reconfigurable systems.

Matheson Tri-Gas (Parsippany, NJ) and ATMI (Danbury, CT) have entered into a manufacturing and distribution agreement for ATMI's product line. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Matheson Tri-Gas (Parsippany, NJ) and ATMI (Danbury, CT) have entered into a manufacturing and distribution agreement for ATMI's product line of sub atmospheric gas storage and delivery technology for the compound semiconductor market.

Special Optics. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Special Optics (Wharton, NJ) has won a Phase I SBIR contract from the Army to design and build a motorized zoom lens for long-range missile imaging, and has also doubled its manufacturing space in Wharton, NJ, to 20,000 sq ft.

First Keating. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... First Keating (Tulsa, OK), a new company seeking to identify, promote and develop the use of holograms in business and personal communications, has begun trading common stock on the over-the-counter market.

IQE. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... IQE has announced the resignation from the board of directors of Tom Hierl, currently chief technical officer and Steve Byars, currently chief operating officer in support of restructuring and cost-cutting efforts.

Intel (Santa Clara, CA) has seeded a microprocessing fab in the Next Generation Economy. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Intel (Santa Clara, CA) has seeded a microprocessing fab in the Next Generation Economy (Albuquerque, NM) economic development group with $17.5 million in donated equipment.

Correction.
April 1, 2003... Scheduled for launch in 2007, the Kepler Mission, at the NASA Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, CA) will search for Earth-like planets beyond the solar system. In addition to NASA Ames, major research partners include the NASA Jet Propulsion...

STI and Navy look for whales. (imaging & detector industry report).
April 1, 2003... Science & Technology International (STI; Honolulu, HI) has begun a mission along the northeastern coastline of Florida to locate and study the behaviors of whales, under a U.S. Navy contract, using its 200-ft-long airship (blimp) outfitted with...

OminVision camera chips head for handsets. (imaging & detector industry report).
April 1, 2003... OmniVision Technologies (Sunnyvale, CA), is supplying its VGA CameraChip modules in high volumes to privately held Pantech & Curitel (Seoul, Korea) to be embedded in their mobile phone handsets. By integrating the camera directly into the...

DICUT to use USC detection technology. (imaging & detector industry report).
April 1, 2003... The Detect-X Division of DICUT (Marietta, GA) has entered into a licensing agreement with the University of South Carolina (USC; Columbia, SC) through the USC Research Foundation that gives Detect-X the exclusive worldwide rights to...

Analogic inks more security agreements. (imaging & detector industry report).
April 1, 2003... Analogic (Peabody, MA) has entered an agreement with Sanders Design International (Wilton, NH) for the development, manufacture, and deployment of an aircraft infrared countermeasures (IRCM) system for the protection of commercial airliners...

Applied Multilayers to offer coatings. (imaging & detector industry report).
April 1, 2003... Applied Multilayers (Kidderminster, England) has been formed to offer a range of optical-coating equipment using "closed field "reactive sputtering technology. The coating systems from Applied Multilayers will be used in applications such as...

MicroOptical forms HUD partnerships. (imaging & detector industry report).
April 1, 2003... MicroOptical (Westwood, MA) and Instrument Technology (ITI; Westfield, MA) are partnering to provide heads-up displays (HUD) for covert surveillance and staging tactical assault in the law enforcement, SWAT, and explosives ordinance and...

Corning make MOEMS for Xerox consortium. (imaging & detector industry report).
April 1, 2003... Corning IntelliSense (Wilmington, MA), a subsidiary of Corning (Corning, NY), has been chosen to manufacture MOEMS (micro-optoelectromechanical systems) devices by a consortium led by Xerox (Stamford, CT). The consortium, which also includes...

Indigo Systems (Goleta, CA) has been awarded a major contract by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Indigo Systems (Goleta, CA) has been awarded a major contract by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems (Baltimore, MD) to deliver infrared detector assemblies for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a multi-role, supersonic stealth aircraft designed...

Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto. CA) has acquired exclusive rights to absolute encoder technology from Optolab Microsystems. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto. CA) has acquired exclusive rights to absolute encoder technology from Optolab Microsystems (Erfurt, Germany) for use in industrial automation applications later this year.

Micron Technology. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Micron Technology (Boise, ID) has announced a series of cost-reduction initiatives to further capitalize on its aggressive migration to 0.11-[micro]m manufacturing process technology that include reducing worldwide workforce levels by...

Foveon (Santa Clara, CA) has announced a license agreement. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Foveon (Santa Clara, CA) has announced a license agreement for the manufacture and distribution of Foveon's image sensor technology to National Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA),

Agilent cuts 4000 jobs, opens Malaysia facility. (fiberoptics industry report).
April 1, 2003... Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA) plans to cut an additional 4000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, in the wake of first-quarter losses of $369 million. The company eliminated 2500 jobs in November and 8000 jobs in late 2001, and said...

Bandwidth9 suspends operations, seeks partners. (fiberoptics industry report).
April 1, 2003... Bandwidth9 (Fremont, CA), a privately held firm that makes VCSEL-based components for metro fiberoptic networks, has suspended its business operations while it seeks long-term opportunities to integrate its products with interested companies....

Corning drops switch, blocker and 200 employees. (fiberoptics industry report).
April 1, 2003... Corning (Corning, NY) is again making good on its promise to reduce losses in its photonics business by narrowing product lines, reducing fixed costs, and cutting jobs and capacity. The company plans to discontinue commercialization of its...

India fiber boomed during market bust. (fiberoptics industry report).
April 1, 2003... Fiber deployment in India has surged over the past two years, according to a new KMI (Providence RI) report, Single-mode Optical Fiber & Cable in India. As fiberoptic cable demand began to tumble in North America and Europe in late 2000, India...

NP Photonics SBIR goes to Phase II. (fiberoptics industry report).
April 1, 2003... NP Photonics (Tucson, AZ) has won a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) worth $750,000 over the next two years. In Phase I of the MDA SBIR Program, NP Photonics developed a low-cost...

NetTest (Copenhagen, Denmark) has announced a decision to spin off its Telecommunication Laboratory Products Division NetTest (Canada), to a management buy-out. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... NetTest (Copenhagen, Denmark) has announced a decision to spin off its Telecommunication Laboratory Products Division NetTest (Canada), to a management buy-out. Stephane Attal, formerly general manager of the division, will head the new...

Corona Optical Systems. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Corona Optical Systems (Lombard, IL) raised $7.5 million in its Series B round of funding and will use the funds to accelerate growth and expand sales of its optical transmitter and receiver modules.

Opto Speed. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Opto Speed (Ruschlikon, Switzerland) has established a U.S. sales office in Alviso, CA.

Codeon (Columbia, MD) and Quantum Photonics (Jessup, MD) have combined to become Covega (Jessup, MD) with $17 million in first-round financing. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Codeon (Columbia, MD) and Quantum Photonics (Jessup, MD) have combined to become Covega (Jessup, MD) with $17 million in first-round financing. Codeon CEO Robert Harvey and Quantum Photonics CEO Dar, Petrescu have been named Covega CEO and...

Eblana Photonics. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Eblana Photonics (Dublin, Ireland) has secured a $4.5 million investment in a Series B fundraising, which brings the total funds raised by Eblana Photonics to $7.75 million.

Lightbit. (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Lightbit (Mountain View, CA) has announced its pure-optical processor chip technology intended to vastly reduce the system cost for handling multiple channels over optical fiber networks by processing multiple DWDM channels simultaneously,...

Teem Photonics (Grenoble, France) has raised 10 million [euro] (US$10.76 million) in third-round funding for a total investment of 47.4 million [euro] (US$51 million). (Also in the news ...).
April 1, 2003... Teem Photonics (Grenoble, France) has raised 10 million [euro] (US$10.76 million)in third-round funding for a total investment of 47.4 million [euro] (US$51 million). The company plans to use the money to push development of its integrated...

Optical fibers link automotive systems; immune to electrical noise, fiberoptic systems are finding their way into luxury cars. With further development they will appear in lower-cost cars, too (Optical networking: automotive fiberoptics)(Cover Story).
April 1, 2003... After years of development, fiberoptic networks are finally starting to appear in luxury automobiles. The first applications are in high-end broadband entertainment and information systems, linking compact-disc (CD) changers, audio systems, and...

Reliable laser-diode technology impacts the industrial-laser marketplace; advances have allowed 980-nm AlGaInAs laser diodes to move from telecom to nontelecom applications across a gamut of wavelengths and output powers. A survey of AlGaInAs industrial-laser applications focuses on reliable high-power diode technology. (Laser Diodes).
April 1, 2003... In the 1990s, laser-diode development mainly targeted high-dollar-volume telecom applications. Much of this technology is now available to cost-sensitive industrial applications. Sophisticated industrial systems unable to afford significant...

Twice as good: after decades of development, second-harmonic generation has fulfilled its early potential, and promises to extend coherent light production further into the ultraviolet. (Back to basics: nonlinear optics).
April 1, 2003... The first nonlinear optical effect to be observed after the invention of the laser was frequency doubling, also called second-harmonic generation (SHG). Its potential was recognized immediately, but it took three decades for SHG to achieve its...

Post-objective mirrors allow for large fields. (Scanners).
April 1, 2003... As new lasers and laser-friendly materials are introduced, the number of laser-based materials-processing applications continues to expand. To meet the needs of these new applications, laser-system designers require a broad range of...

Inductive storage yields efficient power alternative; delivering more than 100 A of laser-diode driver output can be problematic for conventional power-supply designs. (Power Supplies).
April 1, 2003... Traditional laser-diode power supplies are designed using a linear regulator, a switch-mode regulator, or a pulse-forming network, but these designs encounter serious limitations at high current levels due to excessive power dissipation and...

Tunable filters facilitate nondestructive analysis of art. (Multispectral Detectors).
April 1, 2003... Nondestructive analysis is vital to the characterization, preservation, and restoration of works of art. A number of spectroscopic tools and analysis techniques are currently available to art historians, conservators, museum curators,...

Multifiber backplane connector system. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The MPAK multifiber two-piece connector system consists of a female connector and a male jack with 6 MT-style ferrules for a total of 48, 72, or 144 optical fibers, depending on the ferrule combination. Designed to meet Telcordia GR-1435-CORE...

Phase modulator. (new products).
April 1, 2003... A new phase modulator for optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is based on a piezoelectric stack. The balanced mounting of the stack eliminates resonances attributed to the support structure and allows modulation frequencies up to several hundred...

Modular alignment system. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The new AutoAlign MODAL is a modular system for performing alignment and metrology of fiberoptic components, including planar waveguides, AWGs, fiber collimators, and other devices. The system is designed as an entry-level system for early...

350-mW UV laser. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The Vanguard 350-HMD 355 is a frequency-tripled, modelocked Nd:YV[O.sub.4] laser with a pulse repetition of 80 MHz. The laser is a solid-state alternative for applications currently using water-cooled UV ion lasers. Operating from 110- or 220-V...

Voice coil actuator. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The model LA100-90-001 is a cylindrical voice coil linear actuator with a total stroke of 2.0 in., a continuous stall force of 290 lb and a peak-force rating of 550 lb. It is a two-terminal, hysteresis-free, cog-free, direct-drive linear servo...

CMOS area camera. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The DALSTAR 1M75-SA CMOS area camera is a small-body, "stop action" (SA) camera. It has a one megapixel CMOS image sensor with a global nonrolling shutter capable of 75 f/s at full resolution and 100,000 f/s with windowing. The camera utilizes...

Tire/wheel identification systems. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The TIS-8000 tire identification system and the WIS-8000 wheel identification system allow tire and wheel manufacturers and assemblers to automate part identification to minimize handling and assembly errors. The TIS-8000 uses machine-vision...

Optical components and assemblies. (new products).
April 1, 2003... Optical components and lens assemblies are available for the OEM market for industrial, medical, military, and scientific applications. Products include: multi-glass-element lens assemblies; optoelectronic and optomechanical subassemblies, and...

Multimode fiber. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The multimode high-attenuation fiber (HAF) utilizes a patent-pending manufacturing process resulting in multimode fibers with attenuation levels ranging from 0.05 to 5 dB/cm at 850 nm. The fiber is intended for the fabrication of fixed-type...

Volumetric dispensing machine. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The I & J Fisnar volumetric dispensing machine, P/N FO-12-IJ123, provides air-free dispensing of single syringes or dual-barrel cartridges. It can dispense from 0.0004 cc with a programmable pullback to prevent dripping. Prepacked, premixed,...

Laser-control software. (new products).
April 1, 2003... New graphical user interface (GUI) laser-control software provides full control for the JK Series of pulsed and CW Nd:YAG laser systems. The software is driven by a Windows operating environment and is available in either a touch-screen...

Si photodiodes. (new products).
April 1, 2003... The S8745 and S8746 silicon (Si) photodiodes are suited for ultraviolet to near-IR precision photometry designs such as spectrophotometry, as well as optical measurement applications. The S8745 has a TO-5 package and an active area of 2.4 x 2.4...