Fiberoptic Components Rebrands as Innofiber: Week in Brief: 12/09/22

Fiberoptic Components LLC, a supplier and manufacturer of fiber optic cables and engineered photonic solutions, rebranded as Innofiber — to reflect its commitment to innovation and expertise in fiber optic cable technology, the company said. The company launched an updated website and new corporate logo.

BEAUMONT, Texas — Infrared Cameras Holdings Inc. (ICI), a provider of intelligent thermal imaging platforms, will merge with SportsMap Tech Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company with close to $118 million held in trust. The companies signed a definitive agreement for a business combination that will result in ICI becoming a public company. Upon closing the transaction, the combined company will be renamed Infrared Cameras Holdings Inc., and it is expected to remain listed on the Nasdaq under a new ticker symbol.

BARCELONA, Spain — Quside, a company developing quantum security and computation technologies, secured a seven-digit investment from Trumpf Ventures, the investment branch of photonics technology company Trumpf, and Bullnet Capital, a deep-tech investment firm. Quside is expected to announce new partnerships, customers, and advisers in the coming weeks.

CHEMNITZ, Germany — Photonics technology company 3D Micromac AG entered into a joint-development partnership with SCHOTT to improve the processing performance of SCHOTT RealView high-refractive index wafers used in the manufacturing of waveguides for next-generation augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) headsets. The partnership builds on an existing multiyear relationship between the companies and will focus on two key areas: the development of a dedicated laser cutting process for SCHOTT RealView glass wafers that increases glass edge strength for improved production yields, and the development of a high-volume-manufacturing-capable laser micromachining tool that can achieve a throughput of nearly 600 AR eyepieces per hour.

Layout of SCHOTT RealView eyepieces on a high-refractive index wafer following laser cutting with a 3D Micromac laser micromachining system. Courtesy of 3D-Micromac.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) completed a fully networked demonstration using multiple laser communication terminals. The network included ground, mobile, and airborne terminals. During the demonstration, a live video and audio feed of operators at each terminal was shared in the networked communication display, and the team maintained laser com links at 1 Gbit/s and exchanged high-quality video and voice data.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Leonardo DRS received a $39.5 million contract award from the U.S. Army to provide advanced infrared sensors for next-generation sighting systems. Under the contract, DRS will develop and produce low-rate initial production of the 3DEN Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) Dewar Cooler Bench (DCB) long-range sensor. The sensors will replace the current Horizontal Technology Integration 2nd Generation Sensors for high-value platforms across the U.S. Army fleet, including the Abrams Main Battle Tank, and the Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle.

WETZLAR, Germany — Leica Microsystems entered into a partnership with Applied Scientific Instrumentation (ASI) to commercialize single-objective light-sheet microscopy. The advanced system, unveiled at Cell Bio 2022, combines gentle imaging, conventional sample preparation, and high-speed volumetric imaging to capture fast dynamics in three dimensions. The system is based on the oblique plane microscopy (OPM) and swept confocally aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) technologies developed by Chris Dunsby, Imperial College London, and Elizabeth Hillman, Columbia University, respectively, for which Leica previously obtained exclusive licenses. Leica Microsystems granted ASI a sublicense to these patents and is supporting the development of a commercial system.

Jon Daniels (left), senior engineer at Applied Scientific Instrumentation, and Florian Fahrbach, open innovation specialist at Leica Microsystems, at the Cell Bio 2022 launch of the open, customizable platform for single-objective light-sheet microscopy co-developed by ASI and Leica Microsystems. Courtesy of Leica Microsystems.

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — Ambient Photonics opened its first European office, located in Dusseldorf, Germany, to further support its consumer electronics and IoT customer base around the world. The European headquarters will provide local, hands-on service and engineering design support for consumer electronics and IoT manufacturers seeking to integrate Ambient’s high power density photovoltaic cells into device designs. The expansion follows last month’s groundbreaking for the company’s 43,000-sq-ft, low-light solar cell manufacturing facility in Scotts Valley and its recent $48.5 million funding round.

Ambient Photonics has expanded its global presence with the opening of its European headquarters, located in Dusseldorf, Germany. Courtesy of Business Wire.

ROANOKE, Va. — Luna Innovations Inc. extended its existing relationship with Northrop Grumman by securing a new multiyear, multimillion-dollar agreement. The agreement includes an initial receipt of a more than $3 million incremental, multi-unit purchase order for the OBR 6200 portable backscatter reflectometer.

BOULDER, Colo. — Engineers at Ball Aerospace, one of the industrial partners for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, installed and aligned the element wheel assembly into the telescope’s Wide Field Instrument. The assembly contains eight science filters, two dispersive elements — a grism and prism — and a “blank” element used for internal calibration. The grism and prism were fabricated and tested by Optimax, Jenoptik, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to ensure they meet Roman’s stringent requirements. Roman is expected to launch by May 2027.

The element wheel for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Courtesy of NASA.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — PsiQuantum reported its establishment of a technique to implement fault-tolerant quantum computations more efficiently. The company expects the technique will deliver approximately 50× greater run-time efficiency of compiled applications. This technique specifically targets algorithms for error-corrected quantum computers, as opposed to non-error-corrected NISQ systems. Active volume compilation reduces the time taken to run a given application, through more efficient use of the available hardware. This is achieved by using long-range connections between different regions in the quantum computer. This technique particularly favors photonic quantum computing, where long-range connections can be achieved using conventional optical fiber.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — IonQ announced the next stages of its partnership with Hyundai Motor Co. to develop next-generation automotive technology. The partners will develop IonQ’s quantum computing-enabled machine vision algorithms to better conduct object detection on three-dimensional data from autonomous vehicles. Additionally, the companies will use IonQ’s quantum computers to simulate electrochemical reactions of varying metal catalysts.

NESS ZIONA, Israel — Newsight Imaging Ltd. filed a registration statement on Form F-4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in relation to its previously announced merger with special purpose acquisition company Vision Sensing Acquisition Corp. (VSAC). According to the agreement announced Aug. 30, a newly organized, wholly owned subsidiary of Newsight will merge into VSAC resulting in VSAC becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Newsight. Newsight will then register as a publicly traded company.

PITTSBURGH — Coherent Corp. signed an MOU with two Korean institutions — the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) — to foster collaboration on advanced electronic and photonic devices, with a focus on the Korean market. The partnership will cover a range of innovations in devices, leveraging silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, and indium phosphide technology platforms. The collaboration will address applications in power electronics for electric vehicles, industrial applications, and optical and wireless networks.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Directed energy company Applied Energetics closed a private placement of three million shares of its common stock to a group of new and existing institutional and accredited investors. The shares were priced at $2.20 per share for gross proceeds of $6.6 million. Applied Energetics plans to use the proceeds from the private placement for the addition of strategic personnel, inventory purchases, capital equipment expenditures, and general corporate purposes.