Photonics News: Week in Brief: 08/27/21

SEOUL, South Korea — Speclipse, a startup focused on laser spectroscopic and AI-based medical diagnosis technologies and a member of Born2Global Centre, received $7.7 million in investments for an accumulated investment total of $13 million. Speclipse’s Spectra-Scope uses laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) technology to enable the real-time, noninvasive diagnosis of skin cancer. Since the device has 95% sensitivity and 87% specificity, it can reduce the performance of unnecessary biopsies while increasing patient comfort and convenience. Speclipse is also expanding the application of its laser spectroscopic technique and artificial intelligence technology to blood analysis; it was originally used for tissue diagnostics.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Skywater Technology and Rockley Photonics have broadened their relationship to include wafer back-end-of-line processing for Rockley’s spectrophotometer-on-a-chip health-monitoring solution. The expanded relationship with Skywater will enhance Rockley’s manufacturing network reliability and scalability.

BOSTON — AEMtec GmbH, a manufacturer of high-precision microelectronics and silicon photonics, opened its Engineering Tech Center within the Boston University Photonics Center. The center will be managed by Robin Jerratsch. The Tech Center will enable support for the company’s U.S. customer base by providing prototyping for product development programs, which can later be transferred to AEMtec’s production facility in Berlin.

AEMTec’s Engineering Tech Center, located within the Boston University Photonics Center. Courtesy of AEMTec.

MONTREAL — CMC Microsystems has brought together 14 project founders from industry, academia, and nonprofit technology research organizations to support a five-year, 700 million CAD program ($551.71 million) to accelerate high-tech manufacturing in Canada. Called FABrIC (Fabrication of Integrated Components for the Internet’s Edge), the program expects to attract $480 million in industrial R&D. Under the program, CMC will build and assemble quantum devices in Canada with the help of partners and quantum institutes at Université de Sherbrooke, University of British Columbia, and University of Waterloo. This will provide manufacturing capacity to startups and scale-ups that would otherwise be out of reach. The proposal also details 100 million CAD ($78.82 million) generated as revenues or provided by provinces or matching funding and used during the project. The proposal has been submitted to the government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — NeuroVision Imaging received an additional investment from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) — the foundation’s second round of funding to NeuroVision this year — to hasten the development of a novel blood-based lab test to provide detection and measurement of biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias before clinical onset. ADDF’s investment will support NeuroVision’s work to commercialize an “ultra-multiplex assay” to measure multiple blood biomarkers that are associated with dementia development. Additionally, the project will further NeuroVision’s work on a proprietary blood assay that appears to mirror beta-amyloid protein load in the brain.

OLDSMAR, Fla. — The laser optics manufacturer formerly known as Quality Thin Films, acquired at the end of 2020 by Edmund Optics, has been renamed Edmund Optics Florida.

WESTLAKE, Ohio — Nordson Corp. signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of the NDC Technologies business, a provider of precision measurement solutions for in-line manufacturing process control, from Spectris plc. The acquisition expands Nordson’s test and inspection platform. The transaction is valued at $180 million.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Center for Atomically Thin Multifunctional Coatings (ATOMIC), operated by Penn State’s Materials Research Institute in partnership with Rice University, has won $1.5 million in Phase II funding from the National Science Foundation that will allow it to add both a new academic partner, Boise State University, and new industry partners. ATOMIC has 13 industry partners and five government partners. The center’s research focuses on designing and developing 2D materials with unique physical, optical, electrical, and chemical properties.