Jefferson Lab to use silicon photomultipliers
SensL (Cork, Ireland, and Mountain View, CA), a provider of low-light solutions, signed a $200,000 contract with the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab; Newport News, VA) for the optimization of low-light detectors and the supply of prototypes for possible use in the lab’s GlueX experiment, a nuclear-physics experiment that aims to understand the nature of confinement in quantum chromodynamics by mapping the spectra of exotic mesons generated by the excitation of the gluonic field that binds quarks. SensL’s technology offers benefits over other detectors (such as photomultiplier tubes) due to its high uniformity, low operating voltage, robustness, scalable form factor, and immunity to high magnetic fields.
SID announces 2008 display industry awards
The Society for Information Display (SID; San Jose, CA) unveiled the recipients of its 2008 honors and awards for outstanding contributions to the display industry. Among the winners, SID Fellow Tatsuo Uchida, who currently serves as dean of the Graduate School of Engineering at Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan), won the Slottow-Owaki Prize—which debuted last year—for his contributions to the education of students and company researchers in the field of liquid-crystal displays. And, display-industry veteran Richard Williams received SID’s 2008 award for outstanding technical achievement, the Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize, for the pioneering discovery of a significant electro-optic effect in liquid-crystal materials and the recognition of its importance to flat-panel displays.
ITT wins Army SWIR/LWIR contract
Alion Science and Technology (White Plains, NY), on behalf of the U.S. Army RDECOM CERDEC Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, awarded the night-vision division of ITT a contract to develop next-generation night-vision technology. The contract funds engineering and initial prototypes of helmet-mounted systems that will combine image-intensified, short-wave infrared (SWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) imagery for display to the user.
LCD TV shipments to double
According to research firm iSuppli (El Segundo, CA), global shipments of liquid-crystal-display televisions (LCD-TVs) will nearly double from 2008 to 2012. Worldwide shipments will rise to 193.9 million units by 2012, increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 67% percent from 100.1 million units in 2008. “Consumers no longer want bulky, heavy CRT-TVs that have inferior resolution,” said Riddhi Patel, principal analyst for television systems at iSuppli. “Instead, they want space-efficient sets that can support the full-high-definition 1080p pixel format. LCD-TVs in the 42 in. size range in the first quarter of 2006 were priced at $2000 and above, but now can be purchased for less than $1000.”
Missile sensor isahead of schedule
Raytheon (El Segundo, CA) demonstrated an integrated infrared sensor ahead of schedule for the Risk Reduction Alternative Infrared Satellite Systems program, which aims to prove that wide-field-of-view IR sensors can maintain persistent full-Earth surveillance for missile warning in a relatively small, low-risk, and easily manufactured payload. Having completed the demonstration, Raytheon is now preparing to finish environmental testing.
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Also in the news . . .
The U.S. Display Consortium (USDC; San Jose, CA) announced a one-year, cost-shared development contract with Optomec (Albuquerque, NM) to further develop Optomec’s M3D Aerosol Jet System, enabling finer resolution line widths and more efficient production capabilities for printable electronics, displays, and photovoltaic cells. . . . Carl Zeiss, an international group of companies in the optical and optoelectronic industry, officially opened the Carl Zeiss Advanced Imaging Centre Singapore to offer customers the opportunity to view and experience the full range of Carl Zeiss’ micro and nano imaging solutions. . . The University of Delaware’s (Newark, DE) Institute of Energy Conversion (IEC) will receive $3.75 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Initiative over the next three years to continue leading-edge research on photovoltaic-based solar cells. . . . Northrop Grumman signed a definitive agreement to sell its Electro-Optical Systems business, which produces night vision and applied optics products, for $175 million to L-3 Communications (New York, NY), which offers imaging solutions for air, land, and sea applications.