Coreco acquires Imaging Technology Inc.
Machine-vision-equipment supplier Coreco Inc. (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) will acquire Imaging Technology Inc. (ITI; Bedford, MA) from Fairey Group plc for $14.5 million. By June 30, 2000, Coreco will have purchased all of the shares of ITI. In addition to image-processing software, ITI makes frame grabbers and other machine-vision hardware and was the developer of the first personal-computer-based frame grabber. Although Coreco makes similar software and hardware, CEO Keith Reuben notes that the two companies' product lines overlap by a mere 5%. The acquisition will increase Coreco's presence in the USA, Europe, and Asia, Rueben says.
Intevac gets contract to develop integrated camera
Intevac (Santa Clara, CA) has been awarded a contract from the US Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) for the development and demonstration of a low-light-level surveillance and targeting camera system intended for use in range-gated active systems. The illumination source will be a pulsed laser emitting at 1.5 µm. The project is expected to cost approximately $11 million and will be funded by both Intevac and CECOM over a two-year period. At the heart of the camera is a thermally hardened transferred-electron photocathode tube supported by a CMOS chip. The complete system will identify objects at ranges of several kilometers or greater; its cost is intended to be low enough for civilian as well as military use.
Philips Flat Display Systems expands capacity
Philips Flat Display Systems (FDS; San Jose, CA), a business group of Royal Philips Electronics (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), is expanding its existing liquid-crystal-display manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China. The company also broke ground on a second manufacturing facility due to be completed by the end of 2001. The Shanghai facility will allow Philips FDS to boost the production of both passive and active-matrix displays by 40%. Displays will range in size from 1 to 8 in. and are intended for mobile communications as well as automotive and other uses.
Ritek licenses OLED technology from Kodak
Kodak has licensed its organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) technology to Ritek Corp. (Hsin Chu Industrial Park, Taiwan). Past licensees include eMagin Corp. (Hopewell Junction, NY), Sanyo Electric (Tokyo, Japan), and Pioneer Corp. (Tokyo, Japan). The license covers both monochrome and multicolor passive OLED displays. Ritek's interest lies in incorporating the devices into cell phones, toys, audio-video boards, and other small devices. The agreement also gives Ritek the opportunity to purchase Kodak's OLED materials for use in manufacturing the displays. Ritek currently manufactures storage media that include CDs and DVDs. The company began process development of OLED technology two years ago and brings experience in mass production to the OLED field.
Pacific Aerospace and Electronics to make displays for UPS Aviation Techologies
Pacific Aerospace and Electronics (Wenatchee, WA) has signed a $1.5 million manufacturing contract with UPS Aviation Technologies (Salem, OR), a subsidiary of United Parcel Service, to provide optically enhanced liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). The optical enhancement consists of an index-matched bonded-glass optical filter that makes possible LCDs that are readable in direct sunlight. The displays will be integrated by UPS Aviation Technologies into a guidance-and-control aviation display system. Pacific Aerospace and Electronics specializes in aircraft-navigation instruments.
Also in the news . . .
Scientific Imaging Technologies (Tigard, OR) is building a clean room to handle thinning of 6-in. wafers for CCDs. . . . Pixelworks (Tualatin, OR) will supply single-chip integrated circuits to Samsung Semiconductor (San Jose, CA) to control its flat-panel displays. . . . Universal Display Corp. (Ewing, NJ) was awarded a $1 million DARPA contract to develop flexible OLED displays.
John Wallace
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