Tower Semiconductor, InnoLight Pair for Silicon Photonic Optical Transceivers: Week in Brief: 09/08/23

Tower Semiconductor and data center optics company InnoLight Technology will develop multigeneration high-speed optical transceivers based on Tower’s silicon photonics process platform. The partnership is expected to enable cutting-edge solutions to support the growing demands of AI, data centers, and next-generation telecom networks, according to the companies.

GLASGOW, Scotland — Sivers Semiconductors AB received an initial order from Vector Photonics for the evaluation of epitaxial material supporting a surface coupling laser project. The material will be manufactured on the Sivers InP100 platform at the Sivers Glasgow, Scotland, foundry. The order, which includes laser fabrication and life testing, will bring the Glasgow-based companies together for the first time.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Optical system engineering and integration company Precision OT rebranded as Precision Optical Technologies Inc. The company said that the name change comes as it evolves its services and solutions to reach beyond optical transceivers and encompass a full suite of optical networking solutions and network design services.

The Orange Quantum Systems team. Courtesy of Orange Quantum Systems.

DELFT, Netherlands — Orange Quantum Systems, a producer of products to test quantum chip performance, raised €1.5 million ($1.6 million) in a pre-seed funding round. Orange Quantum plans to build fast quantum chip testing equipment with the funding, it said.

LUND, Sweden — Swedish semiconductor developer AlixLabs secured SEK 40 million ($3.6 million) in funding. The company has developed an atomic layer etching pitch splitting technology that aims to enable the precise division of nanostructures while significantly reducing energy consumption and emissions.

REHOVOT, Israel — Digitized coating solutions provider flo signed an exclusive license agreement with Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. regarding the use of Weizmann advanced materials used for optical coatings to be applied via flo’s proprietary additive manufacturing technology. Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. is the commercial arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science and currently manages approximately 500 unique patent families.

CHICAGO — Private equity firm Pfingsten acquired Pacific Lasertec, a company with facilities in San Marcos, Calif., and Colorado Springs, Colo. Pacific Lasertec’s products support applications across medical diagnostics, semiconductor, scientific R&D, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences end markets.

TEL AVIV, Israel — PacketLight, a provider of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) and optical transport network (OTN) equipment, and ID Quantique, a developer of quantum-safe security solutions, will develop joint solutions to offer quantum-safe security to customers who transfer sensitive data and require ultrasecure encryption over their network. The integration of ID Quantique’s quantum key distribution (QKD) solutions with PacketLight’s DWDM and OTN encrypted transport delivers a secure quantum-safe encrypted network. ID Quantique’s QKD enhances PacketLight’s layer-1 encryption solutions, ensuring the impervious transmission of sensitive data that is immune to attempts at spying and hacking.

BERLIN — The independent research organization TNO, the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), and a consortium of European partners will cooperate in the LaiQa-project (Leap in Advancing of Critical Quantum Key Distribution-Space Components). The goal is to provide quantum internet from space, which has been slowed due to signal losses in fiber over distance. The project, led by the ICCS, is expected to start in the beginning of 2024 and run for three years.

The MiQro Innovation Collaborative Centre’s headquarters in Bromont, Quebec. Courtesy of INO.

QUEBEC CITY — INO and the MiQro Innovation Collaborative Centre (C2MI), Canada's largest R&D center for electronic systems, signed a collaboration agreement to enhance Quebec and Canadian semiconductor development and manufacturing. The two entities will share their expertise, infrastructure, and equipment to enhance the range of specialized semiconductors and integrated optical and photonic devices required by several disruptive technologies.

The demonstration of the deep-sensing and targeting (DSaT) platform was done aboard a CRJ-700 jet. Courtesy of Northrop Grumman Corp.

AURORA, Colo. — Northrop Grumman Corp. demonstrated its deep-sensing and targeting (DSaT) platform at the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Event hosted by the U.S. Army. DSaT is a multidomain deep-sensing architecture integrated into a civilian aircraft, providing intelligence collection that reaches beyond the visual line of sight of local sensors. During the demonstration, the DSaT gathered and fused multidomain data for rapid dissemination and collected and analyzed commercial satellite data onboard the aircraft.

Inside the OMEGA target chamber during an experiment. Courtesy of the University of Rochester.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The U.S. Department of Energy supplied researchers at the University of Rochester and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. ~$3 million to explore how machine learning and data science can help predict, design, and improve laser-fusion implosions for inertial fusion energy. The team will use the university’s OMEGA laser facility’s experimental database as training data as well as the simulation databases from its Laboratory for Laser Energetics radiation hydrodynamic codes.