Osram licenses LED patents to Vishay
Osram (Munich, Germany) and Vishay Semiconductor (Malvern, PA) have entered into a patent license agreement that gives Vishay the right to manufacture and sell light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for white light with conversion technology and surface-mount LEDs for high-current applications (power SMT LEDs), for which Osram holds patents. Typical applications include automotive interior lighting.
The white LED technology developed by the Osram Opto Semiconductors subsidiary and being licensed by Vishay enables white LEDs to be produced with blue-emitting indium gallium nitride chips by using a suitable phosphor converter. Osram Opto Semiconductors holds a large number of patents relating to white LEDs and has previously signed licensing agreements with Nichia, Rohm, Everlight, Lite-On, and Samsung Electro Mechanics.
Coreco expands presence in Asia
Machine-vision manufacturer Coreco Imaging (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) has opened its first office outside North America. Located in Tokyo's commercially up-and-coming Shinagawa District, the new office will enable Coreco to better serve the Asian marketplace and will help position the company as a worldwide provider of computer-vision products and support.
"The opening of this new office in Tokyo is one of several steps being taken to expand Coreco Imaging's global presence," said Keith Reuben, president and CEO of Coreco Imaging. "Asia and Europe are the focus of our expansion efforts this year. Asia is particularly important to our long-term business strategy, as this region is primed for growth in the semiconductor and electronics industries."
Jai PulNix forms smart-camera unit
Jai PulNix (Sunnyvale, CA), a global supplier of industrial-grade cameras, has formed a new business unit to focus on the rapidly growing "smart-camera" market. To lead this new business group, Jai PulNix has hired Mike Kelley, a 25-year veteran of the machine-vision industry. According to Kelley, what will initially differentiate the company's products is a hardware-based neural-networking processor contained entirely inside the camera. The Zero Instruction Set Computer technology and chips were developed by IBM in cooperation with Silicon Recognition.
DARPA funds near-IR brain-monitor project
TechEn (Boston, MA) has received funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the development of a real-time, wireless brain-monitoring device, which utilizes near-IR spectroscopy technology. TechEn is an electronic design center that operates as a third-party developer for Analog Devices, ATMEL, TI, and Microchip. The Continuous Brain Monitoring device measures the change in blood oxygen, allowing researchers to monitor brain activity noninvasively and continuously. This technology offers significant potential for improved understanding of brain functions and medical disorders, ranging from stroke rehabilitation to depression. TechEn is collaborating with David Boas, assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School (Cambridge, MA), on the project.
Also in the news . . .
FLIR Systems (Portland, OR) won a $7 million contract for the delivery of its Star SAFIRE III thermal imaging systems to the Royal Australian Air Force for use on its AP-3C Maritime Patrol Operations aircraft. FLIR Systems also received an order for its ThermoVision Sentry IR camera systems from Northrop Grumman Corporation valued at approximately $7.2 million. . . . Power/mation (St. Paul, MN), a distributor of high-tech industrial automation solutions, formed three new vendor partnerships with SICK and Moxa Technologies in its Iowa, Nebraska, and Illinois sales regions and Cognex in its Iowa and Nebraska sales regions. In addition, the company announced it will expand its operations in these regions by the end of this year. . . . ipd (Billerica, MA), the intelligent products division of Coreco Imaging, has named Barr-Thorp Electric Company as its distributor in Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. . . . Imaging Diagnostic Systems (Fort Lauderdale, FL) was granted Canadian patent 2,373,299, "Laser imaging apparatus using biomedical markers that bind to cancer cells," for a period of 20 years from the date of filing until April 1, 2019. This patent, the Canadian equivalent of U.S. Patent 5,952,664, broadly covers the optical imaging of fluorescent compounds. . . . Textron Systems (Wilmington, MA) won a $49.9 million, five-year contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to continue developing a high-resolution active imaging system that can be installed in a ball turret in a warplane so it can precisely direct and fire a laser. The Air Force and Textron have been using a small plane mounting a laser that shoots down to prove the concept in aseries of flights over Maui.