Daily News Briefs

Bruker Daltonics NBC Detection Corp. has received a $0.75 million follow-on contract award for further research and development of an autonomous rapid facility chemical agent monitor (ARFCAM) from the US Department of Homeland Security. ARFCAM is intended to monitor government facilities. Bruker Daltonics, a subsidiary of Billerica, Mass.-based Bruker BioSciences, is a provider of science tools based on mass spectrometry and of nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) detection systems. . . . iRobot Corp., of Burlington, Mass., was awarded a patent for a modular firing system that makes a robot's actions safer and more reliable when disposing of dangerous explosive devices. The new patent (6,860,206), "Remote Digital Firing System," covers technology already incorporated into the iRobot PackBot EOD, an explosive ordnance disposal robot that is being used to disable roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan. iRobot holds 19 US patents as well as several in foreign countries. . . . Michael J. Luttati was named CEO of Photronics Inc., a Brookfield, Conn., photomask manufacturer. Effective June 7, he will replace Constantine Macricostas, who will continue to serve as chairman. Luttati, who will also serve on the Photronics board, was formerly executive vice president and COO of Axcelis Technologies Inc., a Beverly, Mass., manufacturer of semiconductor processing equipment.