MKS Receives Approval on Atotech Acquisition: Week in Brief: 07/29/22

SCHOTT AG subsidiary SCHOTT MINIFAB will open a manufacturing facility in Phoenix to provide design and manufacturing services for diagnostic and life sciences companies. SCHOTT MINIFAB (formerly Applied Microarrays Inc., which SCHOTT acquired in September 2021) produces high-quality glass and polymer substrates and integrated cartridges. This spring, SCHOTT inaugurated a flat glass plant in Turkey and a plant for prefillable polymer syringes in Germany.

DITZINGEN, Germany — TRUMPF and battery technology company Cellforce entered a strategic partnership to boost the performance of battery cells. Cellforce will use TRUMPF lasers to produce high-performance lithium-ion cells. TRUMPF already supplies laser systems to Cellforce for battery cell production, which will now be used in a pilot plant. Cellforce’s production facility is currently under construction and is expected to begin operations in 2024 with an initial capacity of at least 100 MWh per year, the equivalent to high-performance battery cells for around 1000 vehicles.

Cellforce COO Markus Gräf (left) and TRUMPF Lasertechnik CEO Christian Schmitz. Courtesy of TRUMPF.

ENSCHEDE, Netherlands — PHIX secured €3 million (~$3 million) in new capital for the short term and €20 million (~$20.3 million) for the long term from the National Growth Fund. The €3 million is split between €1.5 million in equity and €1.5 million in loans for new equipment. The company said it will occupy a building beginning in early 2023 to support further industrialization and scaling of photonic chip packaging at large volumes. The building will be renovated to house at least 600 sq m of production space and 600 sq m for auxiliary workspaces.

IRVINE, Calif. — Thermographic technology company MoviTHERM opened a nondestructive testing (NDT) lab to provide in-house studies to customers to determine the optimal testing modality for specific applications. NDT techniques available in the lab include lock-in, pulse, transient, and vibro thermography.

John Cabrer, senior systems engineer at MoviTHERM, conducts a feasibility study in the MoviTHERM NDT lab. Courtesy of MoviTHERM.

ANDOVER, Mass. — MKS Instruments and Atotech Ltd. received unconditional merger approval from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation for MKS’ pending acquisition of Atotech. The transaction has now received all required regulatory clearances. The acquisition is expected to close Aug. 17 subject to obtaining the required sanction and satisfaction of customary closing conditions. MKS announced the acquisition of the process chemical technology company in July 2021.

MUNICH — Optical technology company Instrument Systems acquired display measurement system manufacturer Kimsoptec. The acquisition is expected to support the Konica Minolta Sensing Group’s expansion into the sensing and display measurement markets in Asia.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Sidney Resource Corp. reached an agreement with the Colorado School of Mines to test its laser mining technology. The testing has been coordinated with the assistance of IPG Photonics and will use the 4-kW IPG Photonics laser housed at the school. Testing will evaluate the ability to cut, facture, and spall various samples of geologic materials. The patent-pending technology is designed for use in mining operations such as explosive installation preparation, rock bolting operations, and stope mining. Testing is expected to take place later this year.

VALENCIA, Spain — Photonic computing company iPronics raised €3.7 million (~$3.75 million) in a round led by Amadeus Capital Partners. The company is a spinoff of the Technical University of Valencia and the beneficiary of an EIC Transition Grant and is the developer of a general-purpose photonic processor that is reconfigurable by software. Reconfigurable PICs developed by the company enable common hardware to be programmed using software for multiple applications through a mesh of on-chip waveguides and tunable beam couplers.

LEMONT, Ill. — The Long Beamline Building (LBB) at Argonne National Laboratory has been completed. The LBB is an experiment hall and part of the $815 million upgrade to the Advanced Photon Source (APS). It will host the In Situ Nanoprobe, which will be used to develop battery and other energy storage technologies, better functional materials, and more powerful catalysts; and the High-Energy X-Ray Microscope, which will enable better examination of material durability. To allow installation and commissioning of various components essential to the upgrade, the APS will pause operations for one year, starting in April 2023.

FREISING, Germany — Medical technology company PreciPoint Group closed a €10 million ($10.19 million) series A financing round. The financing will be used to advance commercialization of the comapny’s in vitro diagnostic platform, entrance into the U.S. market, and technological development. The company is expected to launch its iO:M8 ROSE product later this year. The solution, for the digitization of intraoperative assessments during cancer surgeries, is an alternative to examinations that are traditionally bound to location and time using classic microscopy.

CARLSBAD, Calif. — Ra Medical Systems, which manufactures the DABRA excimer laser and catheters for the treatment of certain vascular diseases, entered into agreements to raise $6.2 million through previously issued warrants, and plans a strategic merger with Catheter Precision Inc. On June 18, Ra Medical signed a term sheet with Catheter Precision to acquire the company in a deal that would see Catheter Precision security holders own 83.3% of the equity and equity holders of Ra Medical own 16.7% of the equity of the combined company. Ra has not entered into a binding agreement with Catheter Precision as the parties complete reviews.

OXFORD, England — Rockley Photonics partnered with an unnamed top 10 global contract organization (CRO), the company said. Per the agreement, the CRO and Rockley will collaborate on strategic programs to integrate Rockley’s health-monitoring technologies into clinical research studies. The CRO is expected to use Rockley-powered remote monitoring wearables as a tool for researchers to better understand various factors affecting the health and well-being of trial participants.

Note: The headline of this article has been updated to indicate that MKS and Atotech received all required regulatory clearances for MKS' acquisition following receipt of unconditional merger approval from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation. The Royal Court of Jersey sanctioned the scheme of arrangement to implement MKS’ then-pending acquisition of Atotech after approval was obtained from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation.