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Laser Industry News 2008 p3:

• Nobel Prize winner & laser physicist Steven Chu named Obama's energy secretary
  December 12, 2008--U.S. President-elect Barack Obama selected laser expert and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu as his Secretary of Energy. Chu is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is scheduled to deliver a plenary at this year's inaugural OPTOmism conference in May.
• GigOptix launches as public company
  December 11, 2008--GigOptix Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) has officially launched as a public entity. The move follows a year of momentous changes for the fabless manufacturer, which offers such high-speed devices as polymer electro-optic modulators, modulator drivers, laser drivers and transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs). GigOptix will hold an open house on February 27, 2009 to "share with our stockholders our business thoughts, directions," and establish a dialog regarding best practices.
• First diamond laser built using Raman technique portends future high-power laser sources
  December 11, 2008--A team of physicists at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) has created "the first diamond laser using a technique based on the Raman effect." The achievement demonstrates an effective method for generating powerful laser beams, and shows that chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamonds are of adequate size and quality to enable exploration of a new class of laser devices.
• Strategies in Light 2009: Lighting the Future with LEDs
  December 10, 2008--Strategies Unlimited and PennWell Corporation will host their 10th annual business-oriented conference and exhibition on high-brightness (HB) LEDs on February 18-20, 2009 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California.
• HP and ASU demonstrate flexible, unbreakable displays
  December 9, 2008--HP Labs (Palo Alto, CA) and the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University (ASU; Tempe, AZ) announced the first prototype of affordable, flexible electronic displays. The unbreakable displays were created by HP and the FDC using self-aligned imprint lithography (SAIL) technology invented at HP Labs--HP's central research arm. The roll-to-roll processed displays leapfrog conventional display processes by using up to 90% less materials by volume.
• New optical technique differentiates original CDs, DVDs from copies
  December 8, 2008--Scientists at the University of Granada's (UGR) Department of Optics have designed a new optical technique to differentiate between original and copied compact discs (CDs) and DVDs by using light diffraction. The researchers have applied for a patent on the work, which was recently published in the American Journal of Physics. The technique could aid in resolving illegal disc-copy issues.
• First Oerlikon-based thin-film solar mass-production facility opens
  December 5, 2008--Inventux Technologies AG (Berlin, Germany) has become the world's first manufacturer to implement Oerlikon Solar's micromorph technology for the mass-production of thin-film silicon solar modules. Oerlikon (Trubbach, Switzerland) and Inventux ramped up the Berlin facility in just seven months. Oerlikon's process will enable Inventux to produce up to 33 MWp of highly efficient, cost-effective thin-film silicon PV solar energy modules annually.
• Solar-powered obstruction light provides 32.5-candela LED beacon
  December 5, 2008--Carmanah Technologies' (Victoria, BC) new solar-powered A810 Obstruction Lighting System is suitable for marking towers and other fixed obstructions up to 150 feet (46 meters) in height. The stand-alone renewable energy system installs quickly to produce a bright, steady red signal. Designed for reliability and cost-effectiveness in harsh environments, the A810 offers features a high-flux 32.5-candela LED stand-alone light source.
• Military awards Kopin $3.1 million to develop highest-resolution microdisplays
  December 4, 2008--Kopin Corporation (Taunton, MA) announced that the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), and the U.S. Army have jointly awarded a 3-year, $3.1 million program to Kopin to develop the world's highest-resolution microdisplays for use in future vision systems, including integrated day-night weapon sights and solid-state image intensifiers.
• Extrasolar planet (ReMeFra-1) discovered by undergraduates
  December 4, 2008--Three undergraduate students from Leiden University (Leiden, The Netherlands) have discovered an extrasolar planet. The extraordinary find, which turned up during their research project, is a planet about five times as massive as Jupiter. This is also the first planet discovered orbiting a fast-rotating hot star.

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