Accent Optical Technologies, a Bend, Ore., supplier of optoelectronics and silicon semiconductor process control systems, announced that a high-brightness light-emitting diode (LED) manufacturer in Japan has ordered three of its RPM4000 photoluminescence mapping systems, to be used in manufacturing high-brightness gallium nitride LED wafers. . . . K2 Optronics Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif., provider of lasers for the telecommunications, cable television, sensing and test and measurement industries, and Fabrinet, a Thailand-based maker of optical, mechanical and electronic components, modules and subassemblies, announced they have signed a strategic agreement under which Fabrinet will manufacture K2 Optronics' EC-48 external cavity lasers, which are 2.5 Gb/s, directly modulated dense wavelength division multiplexing lasers with up to 650 km reach. . . . Spire Corp., a Bedford, Mass., maker of manufacturing equipment and medical devices, announced it has received a US patent for a method to implant aluminum oxide in gallium arsenide and other III-V semiconductor wafers for isolation of integrated circuit lasers and optical waveguides (patent 6,635,559, issued Oct. 21, "Formation of Insulating Aluminum Oxide in Semiconductor Substrates").