Spire name change puts focus on photovoltaics
Bandwidth Semiconductor (Hudson, NH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Spire (Bedford, MA), is now Spire Semiconductor. Bandwidth provides Spire with crystalline silicon solar-cell process technology and has re-entered the gallium arsenide (GaAs) concentrator solar-cell market. “GaAs solar cell activities are growing at Spire Semiconductor and are supplementing revenue growth from its portfolio of defense, biomedical and consumer products,” said Roger Little, Spire’s chairman and CEO. “As Spire Semiconductor, this operation will be better integrated with Spire and share Spire’s vision as a world leader in the terrestrial solar-energy industry.”
Kollsman wins laser-spot imaging contract
A subsidiary of Elbit Systems of America (Fort Worth, TX), Kollsman (Merrimack, NH) was awarded a $26.5 million contract by the U.S. Marine Corps to provide 503 laser spot imagers with protective optic covers, plus appropriate cables, batteries, cases, manuals, and training materials. Laser spot imagers are used to identify a laser spot that has been placed on a target as a guidance aid, and allows the spot to be seen in day or night and in adverse weather. Work on the new delivery order is expected to be completed by May 2010.
ART increases molecular-imaging sales
A medical-device company featuring optical molecular-imaging products for the health care and pharmaceutical industries, ART Advanced Research Technologies (Montreal, QC, Canada) received two orders for the recently released preclinical optical molecular imager, Optix MX2. The units are expected to be shipped before the end of the year. This represents the first Optix units sold by ART under its new commercial strategy. “These orders of the Optix MX2 system demonstrate that we are on track to achieve revenue growth with our new commercialization strategy under the leadership of Dino DiCamillo, our new global sales and marketing executive for preclinical imaging,” said Sebastien Gignac, president and CEO of ART.
Zecotek APDs to be used in hadron calorimeter
Formerly Zecotek Medical Systems,Zecotek Photonics (Vancouver, BC, Canada) received an order for its proprietary micropixel avalanche photodiodes (MAPDs) from the Institute of High Energy Physics Research (INR; Moscow, Russia). The MAPDs will be a component in the hadron calorimeter, a device used in experiments at the European Centre for High Energy particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland.
The hadron calorimeter will be used for the detection of particles in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the energy range from 10 to 160 GeV per nucleon. Each calorimeter will contain of a large number of modules consisting of multiple layers of plastic scintillator material. Light produced by the particles in the scintillator is collected by a wavelength-shifting fiber and collected at a MAPD. INR’s first calorimeter will require over 1000 MAPDs which will be supplied through Zecotek Imaging Systems (Singapore), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zecotek Photonics.
Optech partners with Lunar X PRIZE team
Light detection and ranging (lidar) survey instrument provider Optech (Toronto, ON, Canada) has become a corporate partner with Odyssey Moon Limited, the first official team of the $30 million dollar Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. Odyssey Moon made its first public debut at the December Space Investment Summit in San Jose, CA, and unveiled its plans to make history with the first private robotic mission to the surface of the Moon in pursuit of the Google Lunar X PRIZE.
Optech’s technology was featured at the rollout of Odyssey Moon in a demonstration of a lunar rover prototype, the K-10, developed in collaboration with the NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group. Optech’s ILRIS-3D sensor is used by the rover to provide three-dimensional terrain visualization for navigation and science.
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Also in the news . . .
Photron (San Diego, CA), a high-speed imaging system and image-analysis software supplier, was awarded the “Crash Test Innovation of the Year” award from Automotive Testing Technology International (www.ukintpress.com) for its Fastcam MH4-a multihead, high-speed video system for automotive crash-test evaluation and defense applications. . . . Emcore (Albuquerque, NM), provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems, signed a memorandum of understanding with Canadian project developer Pod Generation Group for the supply of 60 MW of solar power systems scheduled for deployment in ON, Canada, over the next three years…. HJW GeoSpatial (Oakland, CA) was awarded a Photogrammetric Mapping and GIS Services contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District covering services related to photogrammetric mapping, aerial photography and light detection and ranging, remote sensing, aerial triangulation, and topographic mapping.