Porotech to Unveil Dynamic Pixel Tuning for Micro-LEDs: Week in Brief: 05/06/22

VIGO Photonics opened its first office in the U.S., in St. Petersburg, Fla. The North American headquarters is headed by Scott Riggi and will serve as the primary interface for customers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The new office serves to strengthen the company’s global presence.

AUBURN, Mass. — The PI Group/Physik Instrumente launched an initiative that will see close to $60 million invested in measures to accelerate the company’s growth and strengthen its supply chain sustainability. The company is focusing on global growth markets including semiconductors, photonics, industrial automation, and life sciences.

CAMBRIDGE, England — Semiconductor materials technology developer Porotech will unveil its DynamicPixelTuning technology on its PoroGaN microdisplay platform at Display Week, taking place May 8-13. The technology enables full-color or tunable color displays using identical pixels from a single wafer — achieving color uniformity while eliminating complex fabrication processes. The advancement aims to accelerate the commercialization of displays, including micro-LEDs and LEDs, to deliver next-generation display products for AR/MR/VR applications, wearable devices, and more. The company’s PoroGaN platform is configurable to LED epiwafers for micro-LED and mini-LED chip processing. Other configurations include chip-on-wafer and tunable material platforms.

Porotech's display demonstrating its tunable color DynamicPixelTuning technology. Courtesy of Porotech.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Pharmaceutical compounding company Fagron has acquired HiperScan, a spinoff of Fraunhofer IPMS and a developer of NIR spectroscopy technology. HiperScan was established in 2006 by Alexander Wolter, with Fraunhofer acquiring a stake in the company in 2007. In addition to other shares, Fagron will take over all Fraunhofer shares.

MUNICH — TOPTICA unveiled a new brand design at LASER World of Photonics in Munich. The design reduces the logo to its essential components, four circle segments interpreting the main features of the previous logo, whose origins can be traced back 25 years in ophthalmology.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Defense awarded contracts to FLIR Systems Inc. (Teledyne FLIR) and DRS Network & Imaging Systems LLC (Leonardo DRS) for the Family of Weapons Sights-Individual (FWS-I), a thermal imaging system mounted on weapons to improve reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition. The DRS contract is worth approximately $579.3 million, and the FLIR contract is worth approximately $500.2 million. According to the U.S. Army’s Acquisition Support Center, FWS-I’s thermal sensor gives soldiers the ability to see through fog, dust, and smoke, giving an advantage both day and night.

MAINZ, Germany — SCHOTT will expand its production capacity of ready-to-use cartridges in St. Gallen, Switzerland. The expansion at the company’s site in St. Gallen is designed to include state-of-the-art cleanroom infrastructure, including washing line equipment supplied by machine vendor groninger, and is scheduled for completion in 2023. The capacity expansion is designed to break ground for a new era of manufacturing with a glass-to-glass contact-free process. This aims to eliminate possible scratches or other glass defects and contributes to the safe delivery of medications to patients.

NEUCHÂTEL, Switzerland — Nanotechnology company Infrascreen has secured $1.5 million in seed funding from Investbridge Capital and ACE & Co. Infrascreen uses nanotechnologies to produce smart materials for greenhouses to increase their energy efficiency, lower their carbon footprint, and grow higher-quality produce. The company intends to leverage the funding to create full-scale pilot products for commercial greenhouses.