Imec, Mitsui Chemicals to Partner; Raytheon Receives $10M DARPA Award: Week in Brief: 12/15/23

Imec and Mitsui Chemicals, a Japanese chemical company and EUV pellicle supplier, have entered into a strategic partnership on the commercialization of carbon-nanotube (CNT)-based pellicles for extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Under this partnership, Mitsui Chemicals will integrate imec’s CNT-based pellicle innovation into Mitsui Chemicals’ pellicle technology to achieve full production specifications, targeting its introduction in high-power EUV systems in the 2025-2026 timeframe.

From left: imec’s senior vice president of world wide strategic partnerships, Thomas Piliszczuk, and Mitsui's business sector president, Akio Hirhahra. Courtesy of imec.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Raytheon received a $10 million contract from DARPA to design and develop a wireless airborne relay system to deliver energy into contested environments for the persistent optical wireless energy relay program (POWER). Under the two-year contract, Raytheon will create an airborne relay design to enable “webs” capable of harvesting, transmitting, and redirecting optical beams that transmit energy from ground sources to high altitude for the precision, long-range operation of unmanned systems, sensors, and effectors.

VIENNA — University of Vienna Quantum Group spinoff VitreaLab is the recipient of an undisclosed investment from Dutch venture capital deep-tech fund PhotonVentures. The investment will be used on the development of compact AR glasses using VitreaLab’s quantum light chip technology.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Optical technology company Windstream Wholesale, with Nokia Corp., completed a successful trial of 800 gigabit Ethernet (GE) service transmission over a single 800-Gbit/s wavelength on an over 1386-km link across Windstream’s live network. The trial was conducted over Windstream’s intelligent converged optical network (ICON) backbone connecting Atlanta to Miami and ran across 16 spans and seven ROADM nodes in the Windstream ICON network. The test demonstrated the first turn-up of error-free performance at 800G over a long-haul link with 800GE service bandwidth.

An artist’s interpretation of the 3D stacked CMOS transistors. Courtesy of Intel.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Intel showcased its advancements in 3D stacked CMOS transistors combined with backside power and direct backside contacts. The company displayed the tech at the 2023 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. The research presented at the meeting showed the ability to vertically stack complementary field effect transistors at a scaled gate pitch down to 60 nm.

MONMOUTH, N.J. — Indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) imaging specialist Princeton Infrared Technologies Inc. was awarded an SBIR Phase II contract by the AFRL in the amount of $749,907 for the development of a small-pitch type 2 strained layer superlattice avalanche photodiode focal plane array multifunction ladar receiver to investigate its potential to fill capability gaps in the Department of the Air Force. This imager will be optimized for detection in the extended shortwave-infrared band, up to 2.1 µm.

CARDIFF, Wales — IQE plc, a supplier of compound semiconductor wafer products and advanced material solutions, extended its partnership with Cardiff University. The entities will continue to expand research on compound semiconductor technologies and skills provision at postgraduate and doctorial levels. The partnership will enable the development of a talent pipeline that will support future expansion of IQE’s South Wales manufacturing operations, the partners said.

NEWTON, Mass. — Bodkin Design & Engineering was awarded a $1.6 million SBIR contract by the U.S. Special Operations Command for the R&D of a longwave-infrared instrument. The developed device, the Spectral-Polarimetric Imager, detects the spectral-polarization patterns that spot disturbed earth, indicating the presence of landmines and buried explosives. Additional applications for this instrument include defeating camouflage and detecting toxic chemicals.

Defence Science and Technology Group optics capability leader Michael Harding inspecting the new facility’s equipment. Courtesy of the University of Southern Australia.

ADELAIDE, Australia — The University of Southern Australia has opened the Precision Engineering Centre, housing lab-on-a-chip technology, micro- and nano-machining equipment, advanced sensing, and state-of-the-art precision optics capabilities. The 10 million AUD ($6.7 million) facility stems from a decade-long collaboration between the SA Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility and the Research Engineering team at the Defence Science and Technology Group, and it has already created the largest diamond-turned mirror in Australia, according to an announcement from the university.

Fibertek’s uplink laser assembly team. Courtesy of Fibertek.

HERNDON, Va. — With Fibertek uplink laser assembly (ULA), NASA’s Psyche mission deep-space optical communications payload achieved a milestone in space communication as it successfully uplinked data from Earth to the Psyche spacecraft on route to the Psyche asteroid. The “first light” communication success was established from a range of 16 million km, which is 40× the distance to the moon. Throughout the mission, the ULA is set to uplink data to the satellite over distances ranging up to 340 million km with its ability to provide up to 7 kW of average laser power.