Tyndall, MIT Partner on Sustainable Chip Production Processes: Week in Brief: 5/3/24

Photonics.com
May 2024CORK, Ireland, May 3, 2024 — Researchers from the Tyndall National Institute’s photonics packaging and systems integration group have been awarded funding by the National Science Foundation to diversify and strengthen the supply chain for manufacturing and packaging of semiconductor devices. This is through the FUTUR-IC project led by MIT, which was created to bring together stakeholders from industry, academia, and government to co-optimize technology, ecology, and workforce across three dimensions. The Tyndall researchers will focus their efforts on technology and workforce vectors.

Lead researcher and Tyndall head of photonics packaging group Peter O’Brien giving a lecture at MIT. Courtesy of the Tyndall National Institute.

Lead researcher and head of Tyndall's photonics packaging group Peter O’Brien giving a lecture at MIT. Courtesy of the Tyndall National Institute.

PARIS — Mauna Kea, a medical device company, has executed an agreement to restructure €21.3 million ($22.8 million) in outstanding debt obligations related to the company’s finance contract with the European Investment Bank (EIB). Initially signed in June 2019, the finance contract enabled Mauna Kea to access two loan tranches of €11.5 million ($11.8 million) and €6 million ($6.4 million), respectively, set to mature in a single installment in July 2024 and July 2025. Under the newly agreed restructuring agreement, the EIB has consented to defer the final principal and interests for both tranches to July 2028 and July 2029, respectively.

TORONTO — POET Technologies has added two private placements of $10 million CAD ($7.3 million) each. The first was a non-brokered private placement of up to 3,258,390 units of the company at a price of $3.069 CAD ($2.24) per unit with a closing date on or about May 3. The second offering, announced the same day, placed 3,448,275 units of the company at a price of $2.90 CAD ($2.12) per unit, with a closing date on or about May 10.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — SkyWater Technology, a semiconductor engineering and fabrication foundry, and Lumotive, a developer of optical semiconductor technology for 3D sensing, have collaborated on the production implementation of Lumotive’s solid-state optical beamforming technology in SkyWater’s manufacturing environment. The product, Lumotive said, is the first programmable optical metasurface to be commercialized as a mass-producible chip. The chip is based on Lumotive's Light Control Metasurface (LCM) technology. Lumotive and Skywater previously collaborated on the development and release of a custom photonics process for Lumotive’s LM10 beam steering solution, also based on LCM.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Quantum Machines (QM), a provider of processor-based quantum controllers, has integrated its Observe camera interface with Hamamatsu's high-speed ORCA -Quest camera. The combination of the Observe and ORCA cameras provides quick camera readout capabilities for cold atom and trapped-ion qubits. The integration increases speed while maintaining flexibility and allows researchers to interface with personal computers for additional image processing capabilities.

MILPITAS, Calif. — Provider of smart turnkey sensing systems Opterro, Inc. has completed its acquisition of Redondo Optics, Inc., a research and engineering company specializing in optical and acousto-optic sensors, fiber optics, nanotechnology, and advanced optical materials. The acquisition further expands Opterro’s end-to-end sensing solutions available directly and through its global sales partners and distributors. Ed Mendoza, president and CEO of Redondo, will lead the company as a subsidiary of Opterro and will serve as a member of Opterro’s executive team.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Mobile Communications America, Inc. (MCA), a provider of wireless communication solutions, has acquired LightSpeed Technologies, Inc., a provider of broadband fixed networks, to be a part of its Data Division. The addition of LightSpeed strengthens MCA's footprint in the northeast region and nationally.

OSAKA, Japan — Adhesive manufacturing company Nitto Denko Corporation will acquire a partial stake in TruLife Optics, a U.K.-based holographic optical element developer and manufacturer for wearable AR devices. This partial acquisition of TruLife’s shares represents Nitto's entry into the AR glasses field considered a future growth market in the digital interface domain. This is the focus of a mid-term management plan Nitto has named “Nitto for Everyone 2025.”

BARRINGTON, N.J. — Edmund Optics, a manufacturer and solutions provider of optical technology, and Quartus Engineering, a provider of engineering services and product development as a service, have entered into a strategic partnership. The partnership will offer integrated and precision opto-mechanical solutions to advance customer’s technologies and to accelerate their time to market. The partnership will leverage the companies’ engineering and manufacturing capabilities to collaborate on the development of customer driven opto-mechanical designs and systems. The partnership will also focus on collaborative research and development efforts to solve optical challenges and create intellectual property that will lead to new products.

A laser glass component developed by SCHOTT for nuclear fusion. Courtesy of SCHOTT.

MAINZ, Germany — Glass components and advanced materials producer SCHOTT has received €1.3 million ($1.4 million) from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of a total €18 million ($19.3 million) funding package for the PriFUSIO research project, a consortium of 10 companies researching laser fusion. The funding will allow SCHOTT to develop laser glass components to enable nuclear fusion technology.

ST. LOUIS — Belden Inc., a provider of network infrastructure and digitization solutions, has entered into an agreement to acquire Precision Optical Technologies for approximately $290 million in cash. Belden intends to add the company to its Enterprise Solutions segment. Precision Optical Technologies is a supplier of value-added optical transceivers with proprietary software, firmware configurations, and related components. The acquisition strengthens Belden's portfolio through the addition of optical transceiver and fiber optic technology. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2024 and is subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

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