Daily News Briefs

David Kirwan has been appointed senior vice president and CFO of Fischer Imaging Corp., effective Feb. 1. Kirwan will succeed Stephen Burke, who has resigned and will remain with the company in a transitional capacity until February. The company also announced that its controller, Todd Shadewald, has resigned. Kirwan joins Fischer Imaging from Broadband Services Inc., where he was senior vice president and general manager of US supply-chain management. He has held varied financial and operational positions in the US and Europe for companies such as Apple Computer and Storage Technology Corp. . . . Nanometrics Inc., a supplier of standalone and integrated advanced metrology systems, and Hitachi High-Technologies Corp. (HHT), based in Tokyo, have signed an agreement under which Nanometrics will supply HHT with metrology units for integration into its semiconductor products. Nanometrics' products will be standard options on various HHT semiconductor products. Nanometrics will also work with HHT to offer customer support. HHT makes inspection systems and other semiconductor production equipment, and analytical and clinical instruments such as electron microscopes. . . . Elbit Systems Ltd. announced it has received orders from the Israel Ministry of Defense to supply electronic and electro-optical systems for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Merkava Mark IV battle tank. The orders are valued at approximately $20 million.