Daily News Briefs

Adept Technology Inc., a Livermore, Calif., manufacturer of robotic systems, motion control and machine vision technology, has announced a distributor program for PLC (programmer logic controller)-based robotic products with Rockwell Automation, of Milwaukee, Wisc. Revere Electric Supply, an electronics distributor with locations in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, is the first signed distributor for Adept's new line of PLC-based robots, which are being shown at the Assembly Technology Expo this week in Chicago. The products combine high-performance robots with a PLC server that allows direct programming from Rockwell's Allen-Bradley PLCs through a DF-1 serial connection. . . . Biophan Technologies Inc. , a Rochester, N.Y., developer of biomedical technology, has added Frank Shellock to its scientific advisory board. Shellock, who has provided testing and consulting services to Biophan for five years, is an adjunct clinical professor of radiology and medicine at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles and is president of Magnetic Resonance Testing Services, both in Los Angeles. . . . The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MBC) announced today it has named Massachusetts Speaker of the House Thomas M. Finneran as its president, effective Oct. 4. Founded in 1985, the MBC is a nonprofit organization that provides services and support for more than 400 companies, academic institutions and service organizations in the Massachusetts biotechnology industry. . . . Nanometrics Inc., a Milpitas, Calif.-based supplier of metrology systems, announced that it will collaborate with Tokyo Electron Ltd. subsidiary Timbre Technologies Inc., in Santa Clara, to develop a hardware and software platform for scatterometry (optical digital profiling) technology used in semiconductor manufacturing. Optical digital profiling translates diffracted, broadband light into profiles of semiconductor device structures and their underlying films. Nanometrics makes process control metrology systems, integrated circuits and flat panel displays.