Lasea receives €10M investment from private equity fund
The Liège-based specialist in precision laser solutions for industry Lasea has received a 10 million euro financial injection from the M80 PE fund, with the support of Noshaq and SRIW.
News
30 years of Nabtesco Precision Europe, 30 years of cycloidal gears
In 2022, the cycloidal gear specialist Nabtesco Precision Europe GmbH is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Today, the Düsseldorf-based company is considered a strong automation partner for robotics and mechanical engineering.
Terahertz imager looks through fog and dust
New device could help autonomous vehicle systems to navigate through hazardous conditions that reduce visibility.
Pushing the boundaries of additive manufacturing
As demonstrated by research at the Technical University of Munich, the combination of a programmable nLight fiber laser that can toggle between single-mode and ring mode in a matter of milliseconds plus a Raylase optical deflection unit with a zoom axis solves many of the known problems with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) in 3D printing – such as a lack of homogeneity in the melt pool and reduced production speed.
Zebra Technologies to acquire Matrox Imaging for 875 million U.S. dollars
Zebra Technologies wants to take over Matrox Imaging. This underlines the US company's claim to gain further market share in industrial machine vision.
UpNano strengthens position at US market
Based on strong interest from the US market and a solid finance position, UpNano, a commercial-stage technology company and expert in 2-photon polymerization (2PP) 3D-printing, announced it will extend operations to the United States, adding Erika Bechtold as vice president of US operations.
Perovskite tandem cells for mass production
German researchers show that standard silicon cells are also suitable as a basis for tandem cells with perovskite top cells.
Belden acquires Netmodule
Belden has taken over Netmodule AG and its employees. According to a company spokesman, Netmodule will be integrated into Belden's Industrial Automation division and is intended to expand competencies in the field of wireless technology.
Quantum computing: consortium receives 50 million euros in funding
A consortium led by quantum start-up Q.ant is set to receive some 50 million euros in research funding. Approximately 42 million euros of this will come from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), while the consortium partners will contribute around 8 million euros.
External light sources for co-packaged optical interconnects
Lumentum and Ayar Labs cooperate to power optical I/O solutions, further strengthening supply chain and ecosystem for applications in AI, data center, HPC, and telecommunications.
Edmund Optics: Optics design support in Mainz, Germany
Edmund Optics, manufacturer and supplier of products for image processing, now offers professional optics design support at its Mainz location.
Topological modes in a laser
Topological concepts could potentially be used to build particularly robust, strong lasers in which you can amplify light over a long path.
Investigate new platforms for quantum information
Ki3 Photonics and Quantum Bridge Technologies from Canada have recently been awarded a grant of 450,000 US dollars from the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research to explore highly-entangled states of light towards cutting-edge functionalities in telecommunications and computing.
Congatec and S.I.E. enter into a strategic value-added partnership
Congatec and System Industrie Electronic (S.I.E) enter into a strategic value-added partnership. The focus is on solution platforms for regulated industries such as healthcare and medical technology that require MDR-certified medical computers, and systems for critical infrastructure that require cybersecurity certification from federal agencies such as the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
IVAM: companies think sanctions against Russia are right
48 % of IVAM Microtechnology Network’s members have reported to be directly or indirectly affected by the war in Ukraine in a recent survey. For 3 % of the companies, the situation is even highly critical. 49 % of the respondents stated that their own company is not currently affected.
How to go from nano to macro in 3D printing
Nanoscribe extends 3D microfabrication to print macroscopic structures with the new Extra Large Features (XLF) Print Set which expands the functionality of an existing machine and turns it into a blazing-fast precision printer for millimeter- and centimeter-sized parts.
Photonic saliva test for COVID-19
A new device could offer a higher sensitivity than today’s COVID-19 rapid antigen tests while also being faster and more cost-effective than PCR tests.
Seeing through blood with a microscope
The new collaborative project ‘BetterView’ is working on a special surgical microscope in order to detect cholesteatomas – an aggressive form of chronic otitis media – and bacterial biofilms and to remove them safely.
Chairman of the European Executive Forum for Advanced Manufacturing introduced
The new Executive Forum for Advanced Manufacturing, EFAM, has a chair: Dr. Matthias Bölke, Vice President Strategy Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric, is taking over the leadership of the forum set up by the European industry association Orgalim with immediate effect.
PhotonFirst appoints Nick Singh CTO
The Dutch photonics scale-up has appointed Fiji-born, Toulouse-educated, and Bristol-based Nick Singh its chief technology officer to succeed founder and CTO Pim Kat who retired in December.
Escha and Duotec take over production in Hungary
Escha and Duotec take over production capacities in Central Europe. To this end, the companies will jointly acquire 49 percent of the shares in SVI Hungary Kft., in Ajka (West Hungary) from the SVI Group.
GOM becomes Carl Zeiss GOM Metrology
GOM GmbH has been operating under the name Carl Zeiss GOM Metrology GmbH since the end of February. This is intended to clarify the unity almost three years after the takeover by Zeiss.
Euresys: Revenue grew by 29 percent in fiscal 2021
Machine vision specialist Euresys has increased sales by 29 percent in fiscal year 2021, to 20.3 million euros. This corresponds to growth of 32 percent in Asia, 10 percent in the Americas and 32 percent in the EMEA region.
Nanoantennas for light controlled electrically
Researchers at Linköping University have developed optical nanoantennas that can be turned on/off and gradually tuned by applying electrical potentials.
Fraunhofer Center for Sensor Intelligence (ZSI) planned
A Fraunhofer Center for Sensor Intelligence is to be established at Saarland University in Saarbrücken. Saarland's Minister President Tobias Hans and the President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Prof. Reimund Neugebauer signed an agreement to this effect. A new building is planned, which will cost 35 million euros and, after a five-year construction period, will be operated as a cooperative project between the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT and the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing IZFP.
New type of an artificial retina
An array of photoreceptors detects the intensity of visible light via a change in electrical capacitance, mimicking the behavior of the eye’s rod retina cells.
A high-speed IR camera for monitoring laser surface structuring
In the frame of the EU-funded LAMpAS project, New Infrared Technologies (NIT) has developed an uncooled high-speed IR camera specifically adapted to the project’s requirements. The camera is able to detect in line the heat accumulated during laser surface structuring processes. It will be one of the two sensors/techniques integrated in the LAMpAS inline monitoring system.
More sensitive X-ray imaging
Researchers at MIT have shown how one could improve the efficiency of scintillators by changing the material’s surface to create certain nanoscale configurations.
A million times brighter than the sun
A new high-performance white-light laser is expected to speed up quality control in the semiconductor industry and provide closer monitoring of toxicity tests in microbiology. In one step, this laser enables the two-sided characterization of surfaces and can be integrated into production chains. The technology has been developed at the Fraunhofer Application Center for Optical Metrology and Surface Technologies (AZOM) and Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau (WHZ) as part of a PhD thesis.
Optical detection of COVID-19
The main advantage of this new optical technology over PCR lies in the speed of sample processing.
Trumpf acquires a majority stake in fiber-laser specialists AFS
Active Fiber Systems and Trumpf target synergy effects in research and to further expand their companies' market shares. Trumpf plans to retain and expand the location in Jena, Germany, and the independence of the research-oriented company even after the takeover as majority stakeholder.
Solar modules with a marble look
Perovskite solar modules with the new optics reached a very high efficiency of up to 14 percent.
McElhinney appointed as CEO of PowerPhotonic Inc
PowerPhotonic, a manufacturer of wafer scale micro-optics from Dalgety Bay, Scotland, has appointed Mark McElhinney as CEO of its US subsidiary. His initial focus will be quickly establishing US engineering and manufacturing operations that will directly serve the North American defense market.
Stemmer Imaging significantly exceeds pre-Corona sales
Stemmer Imaging's revenue and earnings in fiscal 2021 are significantly above Corona year 2020 and also above pre-Corona year 2019, the machine vision integrator reports, citing preliminary figures.
Sensopart expands management
Sensopart appointed Marius Westermann as Managing Director Marketing and Sales in October 2021. With his appointment, the management team grows to three members.
