Laser Focus World kicked off 2022 with this new monthly article series covering the optics and photonics business news announcements that we receive. You can expect to see one on the first of every month, recapping the industries’ happenings of the previous month.
Business announcements were plentiful in February 2022 for the optics and photonics industry, spanning several application and product markets. So, let’s dive right in:
Agreements and partnerships
II‐VI Incorporated (Pittsburgh, PA) and Element Six (Oxford, UK), which both specialize in engineered materials, have formed a strategic collaboration that will expand II-VI’s diamond platform, accelerating the development of new disruptive applications by licensing Element Six’s single-crystal diamond technology.
Optical and digital imaging systems distributor JH Technologies (Fremont, CA) has formed a sales and marketing partnership with Ash Vision (Kildare, Ireland), a manufacturer of artificial intelligence (AI) inspection technology solutions. The partnership allows JH Technologies to market and distribute Ash Vision’s AI products in 13 states, including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana in the western U.S., and Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont in the eastern U.S.
Minnetronix Medical (St. Paul, MN), a medical device technology partner offering full lifecycle design and manufacturing services, and INO Innovation Center (Québec, QC, Canada), an advanced center of applied research and expertise in optics and photonics, have partnered to innovate and accelerate bringing optical medical devices to market.
Quanergy Systems (Sunnyvale, CA), which provides optical parametric oscillator (OPA)-based solid-state lidar sensors and smart 3D solutions for automotive and the Internet of Things (IoT), has closed its previously announced business combination with CITIC Capital Acquisition (New York, NY), a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). And, falling on the heels of this announcement, Quanergy secured orders for over 1000 sensors in Q4 2021, which have uses in a range of IoT applications.
Quantum Computing (QCI; Leesburg, VA), which brings together classical and quantum computing, has entered an exclusive partnership and marketing agreement with quantum photonic tech innovator QPhoton (Kearny, NJ). QCI will help commercialize QPhoton’s advanced photonic quantum technologies. The two companies will work together to merge QCI’s Qatalyst quantum software solution with QPhoton’s advanced photonic quantum technologies for its application to QCI-specific solutions.
Scanlab (Puchheim, Germany) and Pulsar Photonics (Herzogenrath, Germany) have launched a cooperation for development and distribution of more highly integrated laser scanning systems in 2022. Besides collaborating on the development of the Photonic Drill Engine for laser micro-drilling at a high throughput rate, Scanlab will now be able to supply a range of beam shaping systems and other customized solutions.
People moves and news
Fluorescence spectroscopy solutions provider Horiba Scientific (Piscataway, NJ) presented Dr. Ahmed Abdelfattah, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Brown University (Providence, RI), with the annual Young Fluorescence Investigator Award at the 2022 Biophysical Society event. He was selected by the Biological Fluorescence Subgroup of the Biophysical Society for his work in developing innovative fluorescent probes for imaging of neural activity.
MicroCare (New Britain, CT) has added Manuel Gonzalez as Eastern Mexico regional sales manager, a role in which he is responsible for the growth and development of products in the company’s electronics, medical, precision, and Sticklers fiber-optics cleaning business platforms. Emma Chen has also joined the company as regional sales manager for MicroCare Asia, where she will oversee growth and development of the company’s electronics and Sticklers fiber-optics cleaning businesses.
Wafer-scale micro-optics maker PowerPhotonic (Dalgety Bay, UK) has appointed Mark McElhinney as CEO, who previously served as president of Lasertel, a manufacturer of high-power laser diodes. McElhinney’s initial focus will be quickly establishing U.S. engineering and manufacturing operations that will directly serve the North American defense market.
Toptica eagleyard (Berlin, Germany), which manufactures semiconductor laser diodes, has named Sascha Tornow as its new head of quality. Tornow, who spent the past 10 years as manager of quality assurance at Melag Medizintechnik, returns to Toptica eagleyard, where he served as quality manager from 2006 through 2011.
Effective March 1st, Lutz Labisch becomes president and CEO of Trumpf North America (Farmington, CT), succeeding Peter Hoecklin. In the role, Labisch will be responsible for production, sales, and service of the company’s machine tool and laser technology product portfolio in North America and for the strategy and business operations at its subsidiaries in the United States (including Connecticut, California, Illinois, and Michigan). He will also oversee the company’s Mexico, Canada, and Brazil operations. (Read Laser Focus World editor in chief Peter Fretty’s recent interview with Labisch here.)
In other news
In 2021, adaptive optics and deformable mirrors maker ALPAO (Montbonnot-Saint-Martin, France) reported a 35% increase in orders. In 2022, the company will take on new challenges to gain new markets.
Advanced flow cytometry technology developer Kinetic River (Mountain View, CA) has completed a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The $1.5 million grant was awarded to the company by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), which fosters research focused on development of innovative biomedical platforms. The NIH award enables continued development of the company’s Arno technology for time-resolved cell analysis; one of the applications made possible by this approach is compensation-free flow cytometry.
Olympus (Waltham, MA) continues to demonstrate its commitment to advancing bioscience research with the opening of the new Olympus Discovery Center at the University of Montreal’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Brain and Learning (CIRCA). The new facility helps ensure researchers have access to the cutting-edge microscopy tools they require to progress their research.
This year’s Optatec, an international trade fair focused optical technologies, components, and systems, has been postponed by three weeks to instead take place October 18-22, 2022, at Messe Frankfurt (Germany). The postponement is part of a Europe-wide postponement of trade fairs in 2022.
Optical metrology and optical component manufacturer Zygo (Middlefield, CT) has opened a new office in Italy, which will be led by Marco Pagano (senior field engineer) and Luca Grisoni (sales manager). The new Italian office will help the company to service its growing customer base in continental Europe.
Would you like to be included in the March 2022 photonics business roundup? Contact me!
