Headwall Acquires Holographix, perClass BV

Headwall Photonics has acquired Holographix LLC, a manufacturer of custom diffraction gratings, microlens arrays, diffusers, waveguides, and other custom replicated optics. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Headwall’s holographic master gratings are core to both our OEM and hyperspectral imaging businesses,” said Don Battistoni, president of Headwall. Battistoni said that Holographix’s diffractive gratings can be different than Headwall’s core holographic master grating technology, which will enable the company to provide higher levels of integration.

“The inherent scalability of the Holographix replication process means we can now address applications with an order or orders of magnitude greater volume, which simply is not possible in our current fab,” Battistoni said.

Headwall acquired software company perClass BV July 7. The perClass acquisition targets Headwall’s hyperspectral imaging business, which, Battistoni said, has historically been deployed for research applications.

“The convergence of detector technology, enhanced computing power, and embedded machine learning/AI has opened the door to adoption in challenging machine vision applications for hyperspectral globally,” Battistoni said. Though Headwall has used perClass software on it MV.X platform, added integration between Headwall hardware and perClass software will allow Headwall to increase deployment speeds of its hyperspectral solutions for industrial markets.

Headwall Photonics made its second acquisition in less than a week, acquiring optics manufacturer Holographix. Terms of the deal were not announced. Courtesy of Headwall Photonics.

Headwall’s Hyperspec MV.X, integrates with various spectral sensors and enables intuitive spectral imaging analysis for machine vision applications.

In Holographix, Headwall adds the optical replication capability that provides the scalability the company needs to meet rising customer demand while opening doors to adjacent markets for its core grating technology, Battistoni said. Holographix focuses on micro- and nanostructure replication of high-performance, custom photonic solutions for the life sciences, semiconductor, aerospace and defense, and metrology markets.

Headwall and Holographix are located outside Boston.