Daily News Briefs

David R. Williams, a professor of medical optics and director of the University of Rochester Center for Visual Science, received the annual Friedenwald Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), presented at its 2006 annual meeting recently, in recognition of his groundbreaking studies on human optics, human cone receptors and color vision. Williams and his colleagues developed a laser-based camera that allows scientists to see the optical defects in eyes more clearly than previously possible; they are also investigating ways to use adaptive optics to allow people to see more clearly. The technology makes possible customized contact lenses and refractive surgery. Bausch and Lomb's Zyoptics laser system for customized refractive surgery emerged from Williams's research. . . . Veeco Instruments Inc. and Picogiga International, a division of the Soitec Group, of Paris, have announced a joint development program to advance gallium nitride (GaN)-on-silicon technology for wireless devices such as high-electron-mobility transistors. Picogiga is a maker of engineered substrates and compound semiconductors; Veeco is a Woodbury, N.Y.-based supplier of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) products. The companies will develop an industrial MBE reactor for use on Picogiga's GaN-on-silicon process. Work will initially take place in Veeco's Process Integration Center in Saint Paul, Minn. The completed system will be delivered to and installed at Picogiga's production facility in Les Ulis, France, enabling it to produce up to six-inch GaN-on-silicon epitaxy wafers.