Cailabs Opens US Office; Teledyne Acquires Xena Networks: Week in Brief: 10/6/23

Rennes, France, based laser communications company Cailabs expanded its operations by opening an office in Washington, D.C. The company has stated an interest in not only supporting the U.S. Department of Defense, but also the Space Development Agency in its laser communications roadmap.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Teledyne Technologies has entered into an agreement to acquire Xena Networks ApS, a Copenhagen-based provider of high-speed terabit ethernet validation, quality assurance, and production test solutions. The deal will allow Teledyne to leverage Xena’s test tools to strengthen its own network.

Process Instruments’ company building in Salt Lake City, Utah. Courtesy of Horiba Instruments Inc.

IRVINE, Calif — HORIBA Instruments Inc. has acquired Process Instruments Inc., a developer and manufacturer of Raman process spectroscopy for environmental and process markets. Using Process’ industrial process instrument business, Horiba plans to leverage refinery and petrochemistry solutions in the United States and HORIBA’s global sales network.

The University of Texas at Austin’s UT Tower. Courtesy of University of Texas at Austin.

AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin and quantum technologies company Infleqtion signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a new center of excellence for quantum manufacturing. Having just opened its flagship office in Austin, Infleqtion will work with the university’s Texas Institute for Electronics to collaborate with the faculty’s photonic and quantum experts. The envisioned center of excellence, qNexus, will scale the production of quantum-enabled devices.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Quantum computing company IonQ has expanded its relationship with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to deploy two barium-based trapped ion quantum computing systems for quantum networking research and application development. The deal comes one year after IonQ announced an agreement with AFRL to provide access to the company’s trapped ion systems. As part of the contract, IonQ will deliver and set up systems at AFRL’s location in Rome, N.Y.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Quantum computing systems company PsiQuantum partnered with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to leverage the existing infrastructure and cryogenic engineering expertise at SLAC to prove the viability of existing cryogenic cooling solutions to support building a large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer. This effort takes place under a cooperative R&D agreement with Stanford University, which operates SLAC for the Department of Energy.

Intel employees at the Fab 34 facility in Leixlip, Ireland. Courtesy of Intel.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Intel has begun high-volume manufacturing using Intel 4 technology in Leixlip, Ireland. Production at Intel Ireland’s Fab 34 will use extreme ultraviolet technology to produce an end-to-end semiconductor manufacturing value chain in Europe. Intel also plans to establish facilities in Germany and Poland.

PITTSBURGH — Coherent won ECOC’s 2023 award for most innovative product for its 200G four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) distributed-feedback laser and Mach-Zehnder modulator (DFB-MZ), combined monolithically in a PIC. The 200G PAM4 DFB-MZ was first demonstrated at OFC 2023 in March, and it was demonstrated again at ECOC 2023.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Custom PASIC chip designer OpenLight has entered into a partnership with end-to-end integrated photonics design services firm Spark Photonics. With this collaboration, Spark Photonics will now offer design and layout services using the OpenLight process design kit with the Luceda IPKISS design layout and simulation software suite. The expansion of design services increases the number of designs OpenLight can support at any one time on the Tower Semiconductor PH18DA process.

YOKNEAM, Israel — The ColorChip Group showcased its suite of 800G single-mode and multimode product lines based on DSP and 800 LPO based transceivers at ECOC 2023. ColorChip has also established a new sales organization in North America, led by CEO Yigal Ezra and vice president Bryan Hall, along with senior director of PLM Sharon Wang.

HERISAU, Switzerland — Metrohm, a developer of precision instruments for chemical analysis, launched the Metrohm Comprehensive Raman Library, a collection of over 16,200 substances for customers in diverse industries to broaden applications for hand-held and laboratory Raman. Built upon the foundations of the Illicit and Common Materials Library and the USP Certified Compounds Library, it will be available for Metrohm’s MIRA XTR DS and MIRA P instruments, in addition to B&W Tek TacticID and i-Raman instruments.