MERIGNAC, France, July 3, 2013 — Night-vision-sensor provider Photonis Technologies has formed a digital low-light imaging unit in Frisco, Texas.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, July 3, 2013 — Three students from St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics were crowned World Champions at the 37th annual Battle of the Brains competition hosted at ITMO and sponsored by IBM.

LEICESTER, England, July 3, 2013 — Criminals might want to think twice before touching anything, now that a new fluorescent tagging technique could yield higher-confidence identifications from latent fingerprints on metal surfaces.

FARMINGTON, Conn., July 2, 2013 — Dr. Lars Grünert has succeeded Rolf Biekert as president and CEO of Trumpf Inc., effective immediately, the industrial laser company announced yesterday. Biekert resigned from the company after more than 25 years of service to lead Maintecx, an...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, July 2, 2013 — Zecotek Photonics Inc. and Intellectual Ventures of Bellevue, Wash., have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop photonics intellectual property strategies.

OYAMA, Japan, July 2, 2013 — Lithography light source manufacturer Gigaphoton Inc. has announced that its extreme UV (EUV) laser-produced plasma (LPP) light source has achieved 2-h continuous operation.

TEMPE, Ariz., July 2, 2013 — A prototype of the largest flexible color OLED display — nearly twice the size of its predecessor announced last May — was manufactured using mixed-oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs).

JENA, Germany, July 2, 2013 — Fashion sometimes is about style over substance, but to make solar cells stylish, efficiency cannot be sacrificed for design flexibility.

Jul 1, 2013 — The global medical device market grew just 3 percent in 2012, reaching $331 billion dollars, according to health care market research firm Kalorama Information. The organization blames the reduced growth rate on a challenged health care market in...

Jul 1, 2013 — Inrad Optics Inc. of Northvale, N.J., has installed a plasma-assisted e-beam vacuum deposition system to advance its thin-film coating capabilities. The 96-in. chamber, which enhances thin-film quality by altering its mechanical and optical...

Jul 1, 2013 — IMRA America Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., has filed a patent infringement suit in Germany against two Germany-based subsidiaries of laser maker Coherent. The patent relates to using picosecond and femtosecond lasers to micromachine parts used for...

Jul 1, 2013 — Fabless optical communication components supplier VI Systems GmbH of Berlin was granted three US patents for proprietary technology related to energy-efficient and compact high-speed optical interconnects. The patents are titled...

Jul 1, 2013 — For its Aura noninvasive skin cancer detection device, Verisante Technology Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, received a bronze Edison Award in April. The Aura allows Raman-based disease detection to move into the doctor’s office...

Jul 1, 2013 — Germany-based Mercedes-Benz unveiled its Concept GLA compact SUV at the Shanghai auto show in April. The car’s front headlights each feature a laser beam that can project pictures or video from a smartphone, a hard drive or the Internet onto a...

Jul 1, 2013 — Lambda Research Corp. of Littleton, Mass., has selected Corine Cupillard to head its European sales team, which was expanded to support increased regional demand for the TracePro optical and illumination design software. Cupillard previously was a...

Jul 1, 2013 — Diode-based laser modules and LED systems maker ProPhotonix Ltd. of Salem, N.H., will now distribute Germany-based Osram Opto Semiconductors’ green and blue laser diodes. The product range includes single-mode green laser diodes with 50-mW...

Jul 1, 2013 — To advance its silicon photonics production, Mosis, an integrated circuit fabrication service in Marina del Rey, Calif., has partnered with research institutes imec of Louvain, Belgium, and Tyndall National Institute in Ireland and with the European...

URBANA, Ill. – A camera design inspired by the ocular systems found in insects, arachnids and crustaceans is being pushed beyond anything that exists in nature. In the May 2 issue of Nature (doi: 10.1038/nature12083), an interdisciplinary team led by John A....

ZURICH – Germanium, a semiconductor with far greater light conduction possibilities than silicon, is a step closer to providing a foundation for the light-based computers of tomorrow, thanks to a European team working to make the material laser-compatible....

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Spherical gradient in refractive index (S-GRIN) lenses are lightweight and easily deformable, but manufacturing them with high quality and consistency is challenging. Now, researchers at the University of Rochester are embedding OCT into the...

KESALSABA, Israel – As computers get faster and chips get denser, there is a need for smaller light-manipulating devices. But as devices get smaller, imperfections in the fabrication processes can make light move irregularly and unpredictably. To tackle this challenge,...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The future looks bright for alternative lighting, now that scientists have solved the mystery that causes LEDs to “droop” in efficiency at high currents. The phenomenon known as LED droop has intrigued researchers for years. In 2011,...

MILWAUKEE – The first practical application of “Anderson localization” – a Nobel Prize-winning phenomenon proposed in 1958 – has yielded a new method for transmitting light through optical fibers. Data transmission through conventional...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A nanoscale coupler that converts optical signals into surface plasmon polaritons can distinguish between different movements of polarized light and can precisely manipulate the signals in one direction or another without damaging them. The device...

WASHINGTON – Three super-Earth-sized planets in two newly discovered planetary systems are in a “habitable zone” – a distance from their stars suitable for supporting liquid water – and could potentially support life as we know it,...