Photonics News: Week in Brief: 10/11/21

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Sivers Photonics, a subsidiary of Sivers Semiconductors, will develop CW-WDM MSA compliant laser arrays to support Ayar Labs’ optical I/O solution. The announcement follows Ayar Labs’ demonstration of a terabit per second wavelength division multiplexing optical link with its TeraPHY optical I/O chiplet and SuperNova multiwavelength optical source, supporting high data rate advanced optical communication and computing applications.

SEATTLE — BlueDot Photonics received funding from Hamamatsu Ventures during its Series Seed financing. The lead investor for BlueDot’s Series Seed financing was VoLo Earth Ventures. Other investors include Clean Energy Venture Group (CEVG) of Boston, Mass.; E8 of Seattle, Wash.; and VertueLab of Portland, Ore. The funding allows the company to advance toward its goal of greenhouse gas emissions through faster deployment of solar power.

GARDNER, Mass. — Optical instrument designer and manufacturer Precision Optics acquired Lighthouse Imaging, a private equity held company based in Windham, Maine. Lighthouse Imaging’s management team, including CEO Tom Snyder, CCO Robert Austring, and CTO Benjamin Gray, will continue with the combined company.

DRESDEN, Germany — The European Union-funded project LAMpAS announced the successful development of a prototype in-line monitoring system for laser surface structuring. The advancement was produced by researchers of the Technische Universität. The system allows monitoring of the process stability involved in laser structuring for the design of a new range of functionalized surfaces, such as easy-to-clean finishes for home appliances. Using the system, the light that is reflected from the laser-treated area is examined via Fourier analysis, with a low-power laser diode to illuminate the processed surface and a camera to collect the pattern reflected from the surface. The recorded image is then analyzed by an algorithm, which is able to reveal changes in the shape and brightness of the reflected pattern. The prototype consists of a custom-designed hardware with easy-to-use software.

Nikolai Schröder with the prototype of the in-line monitoring system. Courtesy of LAMpAS.

AMSTERDAM — Nikon Europe B.V.’s first European Nikon Bioimaging Lab in the Leiden Bio Science Park opened Sept. 22.

HAIFA, Israel — The U.S. Army awarded Elbit Systems’ U.S. subsidiary Elbit Systems of America an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to provide integrated helmet and display sight systems equipment for the AH-64 Apache helicopter fleet. The contract has a maximum value of up to $76 million and will be performed over a five-year period. An initial delivery order of approximately $6 million has been issued under this contract and is to be executed over a two-year period.

LITTLETON, Colo. — Rare Element Resources finalized negotiations with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for an assistance agreement, to provide approximately $21.9 million in government funding for the engineering, construction, and operation of a rare earth separation and processing demonstration plant to be located in Wyo.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to complete the design of a next-generation, open standards-based signals intelligence (SIGINT) sensor for high-altitude intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms. Under the Air Force’s Global High-Altitude Open-System Sensor Technology (GHOST) program, the company will deliver a design of a prototype sensor — including airborne and ground components — with an open standards-based hardware and software architecture that can be scaled and configured to fly on multiple types of manned and unmanned Air Force aircraft.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Intevac was awarded a five-year, firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum value of $16.3 million for the continued production of night-vision cameras for the Apache helicopter’s modernized pilot night-vision sensor program for the U.S. Army. This contract, from the U.S. Army’s PM Apache Office, will provide cameras for new Apache airframe builds, foreign military sales orders, and spares. This contract enables the U.S. Army to procure additional units through August 2026.

NUREMBERG, Germany — Leoni, a provider of optical fibers, standardized cables, special cables, assembled systems, and services, sold its business group, Industrial Solutions, to BizLink, an international provider of high-quality solutions for cable connections and connectivity services. The sale includes around 20 international locations of the Leoni Industrial Solutions business in 10 countries with around 3000 employees. The activities of these locations are in the areas of health care, robotics, and automation.