Magnolia Solar Inc., a subsidiary of Magnolia Solar Corp., has demonstrated a flexible copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cell with 13 percent efficiency. The new cell, made using thin, flexible stainless steel and titanium substrates, was developed and produced by the US Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium on behalf of Magnolia Solar at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s Solar Energy Development Center in Halfmoon, N.Y. The efficiency of the CIGS cell rivals that of current photovoltaic technologies. California-based silicon photonics manufacturer Kotura Inc. has partnered with three businesses to commercialize a 100G optical engine for next-generation data centers and high-performance computing. Kotura will leverage a large Japanese semiconductor foundry’s capabilities for high-volume production of the optical engine – a low-power integrated 100-Gb/s chip solution for use in a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP) module. Kotura’s partnership with Mindspeed Technologies Inc. will enable it to meet the low power requirements of the WDM QSFP package; its collaboration with BinOptics Corp. will allow it to develop laser arrays, which can be passively flip-chip bonded onto Kotura’s optical engine to produce a high-volume, low-cost electronics-style assembly. Optical spectrometer manufacturer P&P Optica Inc. has been selected as one of eight Canadian companies to participate in the Canadian Technology Accelerator program in Boston. The program aims to “grow innovative Canadian life science companies in a global commercialization hub” while enabling new partnerships with companies based in the New England area. The three-month program was launched by Gerald Keddy, Canadian parliamentary secretary to the minister of international trade, to provide the companies with unique resources in the Boston area as well as mentoring by business leaders, trade commission advisers and venture capitalists. Corning Inc. of New York and Avago Technologies of California and Singapore have collaborated on the development of optical cabling connectivity targeting next-generation networks and data centers. Fiber optic components provider Avago has developed a series of pluggable transceivers and Atlas optical engines at 40G/100G and beyond, suitable for Ethernet, storage and high-performance computing applications. Enabled by proprietary ClearCurve OM4 optical fiber and Pretium Edge solutions, Corning’s new high-bandwidth optical solution is suitable for applications at 40G/100G and beyond. Optical communication components suppliers 3S Photonics of Nozay, France, and Finisar Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif., have teamed up to develop a packaging platform for 980-nm cooled-laser pump modules. 3S Photonics will be the exclusive supplier of the 980-nm laser chips used for the platform, and Finisar will implement a manufacturing line based on this platform in its newly expanded Wuxi, China, facility. Finisar will use the pump modules in its erbium-doped fiber amplifier and Line Card telecom products. In France, CEA-Leti and Menapic have announced a joint-development program to apply colored picosecond acoustics to materials analysis. Menapic’s colored picosecond acoustics (APiC) technology characterizes the mechanical properties of thin films. The program will extend the use of this technology in microelectronics and in thin-materials analysis.