The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a paper outlining its vision and strategy for a National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC), a component of the R&D program established by the CHIPS and Science Act. The paper, “A Vision and Strategy for the National Semiconductor Technology Center,” lays out how the NSTC will accelerate the U.S.’s ability to develop the chips and technologies of the future to safeguard America’s global innovation leadership. The vision and strategy paper describes the center’s mission, core programs, and other features. Hamamatsu Photonics will construct a factory building at its Miyakoda Factory site located in Hamamatsu. The manufacturing space will increase the production capacity to respond to expanded market needs for semiconductor lasers essential to lidar applications. Courtesy of Hamamatsu Photonics. HAMAMATSU, Japan — Hamamatsu Photonics will construct a factory building at its Miyakoda Factory site. The manufacturing space will increase the production capacity to respond to expanded market needs for semiconductor lasers used in lidar applications. The groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for May 10 this year. The building is expected to be completed by July 2024. ALHAMBRA, Calif. — EMCORE Corp., a provider of inertial navigation solutions to the aerospace and defense industry, established a restructuring program that includes the shutdown of its broadband business segment and the discontinuance of its defense optoelectronics product lines. The restructuring program is designed to reduce annual costs and expenses by approximately $12 million. The company expects restructuring actions to be substantially completed by Sept. 30. LORTON, Va. — QinetiQ, a defense company providing robotics, sensing, and autonomous systems, was awarded a $12 million contract to provide support for the U.S. Army C5ISR Center Research and Technology Integration Directorate. Under the contract, QinetiQ will provide research, technology, and integration support to identify, prototype, and test potential technical approaches to address Army challenges, including technical support for areas including electro-optic infrared modeling, tactical lasers, displays, optics, signal and image processing, and counter-explosive hazards. ALLEN, Texas — Imaging and additive manufacturing technology company Visitech AS will build a factory near Dallas to produce its full line of projectors and subsystems for 3D printing and direct imaging applications in 2024. Visitech acquired Dallas DLP design house Keynote Photonics in 2022 and formed Visitech Americas, a subsidiary for sales, marketing, engineering, and product services in support of the growing additive manufacturing market in the Americas. SYDNEY — Laser fusion energy company HB11 Energy signed a bilateral agreement with the University of Salamanca and the Spanish Pulsed Lasers Centre (CLPU) to accelerate laser fusion energy development in Australia and Spain. The agreement will give HB11 Energy access to Spain’s most powerful petawatt-class laser, operated by CLPU, which uses technology similar to the Livermore National Ignition Facility where net energy gain was recently achieved. The Australian government, through the Australian Research Council (ARC), also awarded a 560,000 AUD ($370,440) ARC linkage grant toward a 1.76 million AUD project for the development of HB11 Energy’s home-grown hydrogen boron laser fusion, hosted by the University of New South Wales and involving collaborators at Macquarie University, University of Bordeaux, and CLPU. LEESBURG, Va. — Photonic computing company Quantum Computing Inc. signed a memorandum of understanding with AI firm millionways to demonstrate the power of artificial intelligence (AI) when combined with Quantum Computing Inc.’s Reservoir Quantum Computing (RQC). The goal of the partnership is to explore and determine the business value of the combination of millionways’ AI algorithms and QCI’s existing RQC systems using audio files to produce an emotional scoring capability. If successful, the companies will develop a joint marketing and business development plan to pursue commercial opportunities.