Daily News Briefs

Dalsa Corp. announced that its Application Specific Contracts group has received two custom camera contracts, totaling $2.5 million, to develop high-performance electronic cameras for semiconductor wafer inspection and remote sensing. For the first customer, a semiconductor capital equipment manufacturer, it will produce a custom image sensor and digital camera that will be used to inspect semiconductor wafers. The second contract, which will be completed within six months, is for a custom camera that will be "the eyes" of a sophisticated imaging system for remote sensing, which is often used for monitoring crops, comparing urban and rural land use, tracking icebergs, detecting oil spills and making maps and nautical charts. . . . DRS Technologies Inc. received the 2004 Herschel Award at the annual meeting of the Detector Specialty Group of the Military Sensing Symposia, held last month in Tucson, Ariz. The award, offered for the recognition of technological breakthroughs, was presented to the DRS Infrared Technologies unit in Dallas, Texas, for its mercury cadmium telluride electron avalanche photodiode technology used in advanced infrared imaging applications. . . . Tokyo Electron Ltd. announced it will begin shipments this summer 2004 of its Impressio flat panel display (FPD) plasma etch/ash system, which is capable of handling seventh-generation substrates (1,870 mm by 2,200 mm) needed to produce FPDs used in LCD notebook PCs and PC monitors and in glass substrates for larger LCD TVs.