Photonics News: Week in Brief: 01/07/22

VELDHOVEN, Netherlands — ASML Holding experienced a fire inside part of its factory in Berlin during the night of Jan. 2. The fire, in the company’s Berliner Glas facility, was extinguished; there were no injuries during the incident. The company is conducting an investigation to assess the damage and will release details in the coming days. ASML acquired Berliner Glas in 2020.

SHEFFIELD, England — The University of Sheffield will lead a £1.9 million ($2.57 million) project in collaboration with Harvard, MIT, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Bath, to advance microdisplay and visible light communication technology. The project is funded by an EPSRC Centre to Centre Research Collaboration grant, and is also supported by companies including Microsoft, Sony, and Plessey.

PITTSBURGH — Kurt J. Lesker Co. (KJLC) acquired substantially all of the assets of KDF Electronics & Vacuum Services Inc. KDF Electronics & Vacuum Services Inc. has been renamed KDF Technologies LLC. KDF will continue to operate independently of KJLC while leveraging some shared services. KJLC manufactures thin-film deposition vacuum systems for metals, semiconductors, OLEDs/PLEDs, and optical materials.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Solid-state lidar and perception software company Innoviz Technologies is collaborating with Twinner, a Germany-based vehicle scanner provider for remarketing and inspection purposes, to enhance the capabilities of its car scanner. Twinner is testing InnovizOne lidar with its Digital Twinn platform to provide a high-quality 360° view of the vehicle to better assess, inspect, and evaluate a vehicle’s condition.

GOLETA, Calif. — Kyocera SLD Laser has reported a LiFi system able to deliver a data rate of 90 Gbit/s, which is 100× faster than 5G. The technology, called DataLight, is eye-safe, unaffected by ambient lighting, secure, efficient, and RF-free, said James Raring, CEO of Kyocera SLD Laser.

SHANGHAI, China — Lidar company Hesai is partnering with Lumentum, a provider of VCSEL arrays, to develop hybrid solid-state directional lidar solutions for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). The collaboration will specifically yield a 200-m, long-range VCSEL-based hybrid solid-state lidar solution that Lumentum said will be the first available to industry. High-volume shipments of the AT128, Hesai’s hybrid solid-state directional lidar, into multiple existing ADAS OEM design-wins, are expected to begin this year.

FREIBURG IM BREISGAU, Germany — Fraunhofer released the results of its lighthouse project QUILT: Quantum Methods for Advanced Imaging Solutions. Teams from six Fraunhofer institutes spent four years working with external organizations to achieve the pioneering work, which has resulted in the submission and granting of seven patents, scientific publications, and demonstrators for quantum-based imaging, spectroscopy, and optical tomography. The work supports developments in and beyond the fields of metrology, interferometry, materials science, and sensing and detection.

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands — Location data and technology platform HERE Technologies released its global library of 3D lidar data on the HERE platform. The data contains millions of kilometers of roadways and their surroundings in high fidelity across more than 50 countries and territories.

CLEVELAND — Altra Industrial Motion Corp., a manufacturer and supplier of motion control, power transmission, and automation products, acquired Nook Industries, a linear motion products and solutions company. The Nook business will be integrated into Altra’s Thomson operating company in its automation and specialty segment.