Phast/LFW Innovation Award goes to Thorlabs
The Photonic Applications, Systems and Technologies (PhAST) Conference and Laser Focus World are pleased to announce that Thorlabs (Newton, NJ) is the recipient of this year’s PhAST/Laser Focus World Innovation Award-an awards program that honors ground-breaking products in photonics.
The award recognizes Thorlabs for its Adaptive Scanning Optical Microscope (ASOM) that integrates adaptive optical technology with microscopic imaging to provide micrometer resolution across a large and dynamically configurable field of view. Four companies received honorable mentions: Biophotonic Solutions (Okemos, MI), Discovery Semiconductors (Ewing, NJ), FASTLITE (Paris, France), and PolarOnyx (Sunnyvale, CA).
Societies work together to launch scitopia.org
The Optical Society of America (OSA; Washington, D.C.) has joined 12 of the world’s leading science, engineering, and technology societies to create direct access to their collective content through scitopia.org, a free vertical search portal that will enable users to explore the research most cited in scholarly work and patents in a single click.
Scitopia.org will aggregate the entire electronic libraries of the leading voices in major science, engineering, and technology disciplines. More than three million documents, including peer-reviewed journal content and conference proceedings spanning 150 years of science and technology, will be searched through this dedicated gateway. And because scitopia.org links directly to each society’s digital library, searching will access real-time information, providing the most current research.
Corning to invest in new R&D facility
The board of directors of Corning (Corning, NY) has approved a $300 million facility-improvement plan for the company’s Sullivan Park Research and Development campus. This plan is consistent with the company’s goals for growth from a broadened portfolio of research and development opportunities. “Corning’s deep knowledge in materials science and process engineering has been focused on high-technology system components for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications, and life sciences,” said Joseph A. Miller, executive vice president and CTO. “Reaching beyond these near-term growth areas, we have multiple emerging technologies that have the potential to provide Corning with its next wave of growth.”
Thorlabs partners in aspheres
Asphericon (Jena, Germany) and Thorlabs are cooperating in selling off-the-shelf aspheric optics. Thorlabs will list asphericon’s Standard Precision Aspheres (SPA) in its new catalog.
“We appreciate the excellent reputation of the popular Thorlabs’ catalog with its large variety of more than 10,000 articles, and we think that our SPA will make a good contribution to this portfolio of high-quality products for optics and photonics,” said Alexander Zschaebitz, managing director of asphericon.
Spectral gas-sensing instrument completed
Synodon (Edmonton, AB, Canada) completed manufacturing of the first field-deployable realSens instrument-an advanced natural-gas-pipeline leak-detection system based on correlation spectroscopy technologies developed under the Canadian Space Program and by Synodon scientists. Testing of the two main sections of the instrument, optical and cryogenic, has confirmed the performance is at or better than anticipated design parameters. The final instrument component still being manufactured is a set of highly sensitive, custom infrared detectors.
“This important achievement demonstrates Synodon’s ability to deliver on its milestones as it brings its realSens technology to commercialization,” said Adrian Banica, president and CEO. Synodon expects to begin field trials of the realSens technology this summer. The helicopter pod assembly required for field trials is in final design and manufacturing.
Also in the news . . .
SAES Getters (Milan, Italy) has sued Innovative Micro Technology (IMT; Santa Barbara, CA) for patent infringement, complaining that IMT infringes its patent for PageWafer getter deposition services for wafer-level packaging of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). . . . NuSil Technology (Carpinteria, CA), a manufacturer of silicone-based optical materials for healthcare, aerospace, electronics, and photonics, appointed Huntsman Quimica Brasil as its exclusive distributor in Brazil; Nusil was also granted a patent for silicone materials with a refractive index higher than 1.545. . . . ReVision Optics (Lake Forest, CA), a developer, manufacturer, and marketer of implantable products to correct and maintain vision, successfully raised $25 million in a Series D financing round. . . . Belarus and India will set up a laser-optical center in New Delhi, which will operate as a part of the defense industry system of India, according to a notice on the National Legal Internet Portal of the Republic of Belarus.