II-VI, Coherent Merger Faces Delay: Week in Brief: 02/11/22

ROSH HAAYIN, Israel — In-fiber photonic processing startup Cognifiber secured $6 million in Series A funding. The technology could deliver a 100× improvement in speed while reducing power consumption by 80%. The round was led by Chartered Group, a private equity firm focused on disruptive technologies with a far-reaching presence in Europe and Asia.

MELVILLE, N.Y. — Nikon Instruments opened its Advanced Microscopy Center in Belmont, Calif., outside San Francisco. The center provides on-site demonstration capabilities for Nikon imaging systems and is expected to accommodate both in-person visits and virtual sessions. Teams can remotely test equipment with the help of Nikon specialists while viewing sample data and analysis results in real time. Nikon’s imaging systems include technologies such as large-field-of-view confocal imaging with photomanipulation, high-speed total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) imaging, NIS-Elements software with artificial intelligence-driven acquisition and analysis, and high-content screening.

PITTSBURGH — II-VI’s pending acquisition of laser developer and manufacturer Coherent has received the approval, or indication of imminent approval, of three out of four global antitrust regulatory authorities. Approval of the antitrust authorities are a condition of the transaction’s closing. The companies anticipate closing the acquisition by the middle of the second calendar quarter of 2022, upon receiving approval in China, the remaining jurisdiction. II-VI announced the update in releasing its quarterly earnings Feb. 9.

WILSONVILLE, Ore. — Teledyne FLIR was awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract from the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center worth up to $43.9 million to service electro-optical sensor systems used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The contract will provide replacement parts and technical support for several land- and sea-based systems used by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. Additionally, the Defense Logistics Agency recently awarded Teledyne FLIR two contracts with a combined value of $16.2 million to procure BRITE Star II multisensory imaging systems to support the U.S. Navy/Marine Corps H-1 program.

Teledyne FLIR was awarded a $43.9 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to service and support land- and sea-based imaging systems used by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, including the BRITE Star II, pictured here. Courtesy of Teledyne.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Celestial AI, an AI accelerator company with a proprietary hardware and software platform for machine learning chipsets, closed a $56 million Series A investment round, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, with participation from Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund; The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT; Tyche Partners, Merck’s corporate venture fund; M-Ventures; IMEC XPand; and Fitz Gate, a Princeton University affiliate venture capital investor. Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric technology platform enables optically addressable memory and compute (within chip and chip-to-chip) that decouples its technology from the limitations of electronics and slowdown of Moore’s law.

BOULDER, Colo. — Quantum technology company ColdQuanta was awarded a five-year subcontract in response to an Office of Naval Research Broad Area Announcement to develop portable atomic clocks. ColdQuanta will serve as a subcontractor to Vescent. Under the Compact Rubidium Optical Clock (CROC) program, ColdQuanta will provide the physics package with development inputs from the Atomic Devices and Instrumentation Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The program began in November and will span three phases through 2026.

ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. — The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Agile Combat Support Directorate reported that it is on to track to deliver the first of 13 vehicles that use directed energy to safely detonate and clear explosives. Known as the Recovery of Airbase Denied by Ordnance, the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle uses a 3-kW Zeus III laser and a robotic arm. It weighs approximately 18 tons and seats up to four crew members. The robotic arm will be used to move bombs and investigate craters or areas where an unexploded device may be located but not visible. The first vehicle is expected to be delivered by fall of 2022, with the last vehicle under the current contract to be delivered by April 2023.

A Recovery of Airbase Denied by Ordnance (RADBO) vehicle uses a laser to safely detonate and clear unexploded ordnance. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Agile Combat Support Directorate will field 13 RADBOs by April 2023. Courtesy of Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

FREMONT, Calif. — Optical networking accelerator forum OIF released a framework implementation agreement for co-packaging, identifying the critical co-packaged applications and their requirements, and charting a path for interoperability standards. The work, undertaken by the OIF’s Physical & Link Layer Working Group, studied the application spaces contributed by the end users and examined related topics including electrical and optical interfaces, thermal and mechanical considerations, reliability, safety, and environmental and management interfaces. The findings of the work are summarized in the Framework Document IA.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Fiber sensing company Prisma Photonics raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm INSIGHT Partners. The round had participation from Schneider Electric’s venture capital arm SE Ventures, and Future Energy Ventures, the venture capital investment and collaboration platform of E.ON. Prisma Photonics solutions cover multiple markets, which share the need to monitor and manage large-scale infrastructures such as power transmission grids, oil and gas pipelines, long-spanning railways, highways, subsea cables and pipes, and more. The round brings the total funding raised by Prisma Photonics to over $30 million.