European Semiconductor Metrology Hub Launches: Week in Brief: 07/21/23

Applied Materials and the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Fraunhofer IPMS) collaborated to create what will be Europe’s largest technology hub for semiconductor metrology and process analysis. The hub will be located at the Center Nanoelectronic Technologies of Fraunhofer IPMS in Dresden, situated in Silicon Saxony, Europe’s largest semiconductor cluster.

Applied Materials’ eBeam metrology equipment at cleanroom of Fraunhofer IPMS. Courtesy of Fraunhofer IPMS.

BILLERICA, Mass. — Teledyne FLIR Defense will produce Black Hornet 3 Personal Reconnaissance Systems for use in Ukraine as part of an order from Norway’s Ministry of Defense (MOD). The Norwegian MOD will procure an additional 1000 Black Hornet unmanned aerial systems, as well as spare parts, maintenance, and training for Ukrainian operators and instructors. Last August, Norway delivered nearly 300 Black Hornet systems to Ukrainian forces through the U.K.-led International Fund for Ukraine.

CHICAGO — The Duality quantum accelerator accepted its latest cohort of four startups, which are developing solutions for a secure quantum internet; enabling the manufacture of products in microgravity; and accelerating the adoption of quantum computing and photonics. The cohort comprises Icarus Quantum, Ingenii, Ki3 Photonics, and reOrbital.

LANDSHUT, Germany — Bayern Kapital sold its shares in EXTEND3D to Atlas Copco, a provider of industrial production solutions. EXTEND3D is a developer of mobile and dynamic augmented reality projection systems for industrial use. Bayern Kapital participated in the Munich company for the first time in 2012 in the first round of financing and continued to support EXTEND3D in subsequent financing rounds.

LONDON — H.E.L. Group, a developer and manufacturer of laboratory tools for process optimization, safety, and scale-up, signed an agreement with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur). The collaboration is part of a national initiative in sustainable energy led by IIT Kanpur to develop new testing laboratories to conduct research into battery storage, new chemistry development, and thermal characteristics.

PARIS — The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has been enhanced with the addition of an instrument combining the capabilities of the two flagship instruments already installed on the telescope. The newest instrument, HiRISE, will couple the SPHERE exoplanet imager and the CRIRES+ very high-resolution spectrograph. SPHERE is suited for direct imaging of exoplanets, and CRIRES+ is designed to separate and analyze the light emitted by exoplanets. Combining the two instruments via fiber optics, HiRISE will carry out in-depth studies of exoplanets that are already known. It successfully captured its first light from the VLT in Chile’s Atacama Desert July 9.

HiRISE project fiber injection module in the SPHERE instrument on the VLT. It picks up the signal from a known exoplanet imaged by SPHERE, and this light is then carried by a fiber bundle to an extraction module that sends it to CRIRES+. Courtesy of Arthur Vigan/LAM/CNRS.

ÉVRY-COURCOURONNES, France — SEDI-ATI Fiber Optics received an investment from Yotta Capital Partners, which becomes a majority shareholder. The optical fiber solutions developer intends to accelerate its development on the renewable energy markets, particularly nuclear and wind power; health; and data communication.

BOSTON — Photonic computing company Lightelligence partnered with ZeroPoint Technologies, a provider of ultrafast data-compression intellectual property, to increase the bandwidth and performance of optical compute express link (CXL) interconnect in data centers with data compression technology. Lightelligence will create an ultralow latency and energy-efficient CXL interconnect leveraging performance per watt of CXL data interconnect by up to 50%. It will explore reducing a data center’s total cost of ownership by providing a high-bandwidth, photonic-based interconnect at reduced power compared to existing copper wire-based interconnect.