HALTON HILLS, Ontario, Oct. 20, 2023 — Intlvac Thin Film will expand its operations in a move that aims to meet demand for diamond-like carbon (DLC), according to the company. Intlvac will expand its team at its headquarters located outside Toronto. The company’s DLC systems are used for coating silicon and germanium optics for both mid- and longwave IR applications.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Precision Optical Technologies Inc. acquired fiber optic cabling components and systems manufacturer Opticonx. The deal, for which terms were not disclosed, aims to strengthen Precision’s position in the optical networking market and enhance its capabilities to serve a wider range of applications.
NEW YORK — Divergent Technologies Inc., creator of the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS), entered into an agreement to purchase all of Sigma Additive Solutions’ in-process quality-assurance technology suite assets. The assets include all associated software and intellectual property. Divergent said that its acquisition of the technology will potentially enhance the efficiency and quality control of DAPS, while strengthening the company’s IP coverage for in-process monitoring technology.
PARIS — Quantum computing technology developer PASQAL will collaborate with entities including Sorbonne Université and Pixel Photonics GmbH to help build the foundation for a photonic quantum computer powered by neutral atom technology. The collaboration targets the development of a quantum processor that will use light as the carrier of quantum information, using an approach known as continuous variable quantum computing. The project will be funded by the Pathfinder-2023 challenge grant of the European Innovation Council.
XPANCEO’s contact lenses will give the user AR capabilities. Courtesy of XPANCEO.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Deep-tech startup XPANCEO raised $40 million in seed funding to launch contact lenses with augmented reality (AR) vision features. The XPANCEO team, it said, has already created and tested three distinct prototypes to enable night vision, zoom, real-time health monitoring, and the ability to see video and graphic content in AR.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Fabless semiconductor startup Enosemi emerged from stealth and entered into a commercial agreement with Luminous Computing Inc. to license and sell the silicon photonics design IP originally developed by Luminous.
TOKYO — Global digital business and IT services provider NTT DATA will establish innovative optical and wireless network (IOWN) global promotion office locations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America from October 2023 to generate business cases using IOWN. NTT DATA plans to train 600 IOWN technology experts globally by the end of fiscal year 2025.
From left: Argonne researchers Xu Han, Rajkumar Kettimuthu, Md Shariful Islam, and Joaquin Chung. Courtesy of the Argonne National Laboratory.
LEMONT, Ill. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that three collaborative projects in quantum networking will receive a combined total of $24 million for up to three years. The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory will be participating in two of the projects and serve as the lead for one, called InterQnet. The InterQnet project will address multiple challenges with scaling quantum networks from the current metropolitan scale to much longer distances and more complex architectures. Anticipated funding for InterQnet is $9 million over three years.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — AFL, a subsidiary of Fujikura Ltd., will construct a manufacturing facility in Poland to meet bandwidth needs across the region. The facility is expected to open next year and will enable AFL to meet customer delivery expectations and more efficiently serve regional customers. The Poland facility will become AFL’s fourth European production center, joining existing optical cable factories in the U.K. and Germany and assembly/hardware manufacturing in the U.K.
NEPTUNE CITY, N.J. — KrellTech, a manufacturer of optical polishing and inspection equipment, formed the LightWorks Solutions Group to serve customer-driven photonic projects. LightWorks will leverage KrellTech’s optical polishing and fiber optic inspection equipment to provide design strategies for higher volume production and manufacturing.
From left: Director of SCOPE Christina Baer; Leica regional sales manager Ali Rajanek; and Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research chair Beth McCormick. Courtesy of SCOPE.
WORCESTER, Mass. — The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School Sanderson Center for Optical Experimentation (SCOPE) entered into a collaboration with Leica Microsystems to launch a Partner in Microscopy program that will promote access to imaging tools for the community, educators, and researchers in the Worcester area.