Daily News Briefs

James Robinson, director of the infrared (IR) research and development laboratory at the DRS Infrared Technologies unit in Dallas, Texas, received the 2005 Levinstein Award for his contributions to IR device technology. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the Military Sensing Symposia (MSS) Specialty Group for Detectors, held last month in Charleston, S.C. Robinson's achievements have led to significant advances in IR detector technology and to the selection of DRS for two recent Herschel Awards, also presented by the MSS. In 2004, it received a Herschel Award in recognition of its mercury cadmium telluride electron avalanche photodiode technology, used in advanced IR imaging applications for the Department of Defense; it received the 2002 Herschel Award for its vertically integrated photodiode and high-density vertically integrated photodiode IR detector technology. Both technologies are being incorporated into applications for improved target identification at longer ranges. . . . Gamma Scientific, a San Diego manufacturer of precision light-measurement instruments, announced it has opened an office near Boston to support its East Coast and European operations. The new office is at 48 Glen St., Malden, MA 02148; contact: Todd Heimer; phone:(781) 322-5598; e-mail: theimer@gamma-sci.com. Gamma Scientific's products include photometers and radiometers, spectroradiometers, digital light sources and laser-power meters. . . . Jmar Technologies Inc. has been issued a patent (US 6,845,145 B2) for advanced x-ray lithography stepper technology that it says will enable a faster, more cost-effective means of producing zone plate optics for its compact x-ray microscope and x-ray nanoprobe product lines. The zone plate optical elements used in Jmar's new product lines require concentric ring spacing in the sub-100-nanometer range and are currently written using electron beam lithography systems -- a time-consuming and costly method, since the thousands of concentric rings comprising the zone plate are written one ring at a time. Using the x-ray lithography stepper technology described in the new patent, Jmar plans to write these concentric rings concurrently for more efficient production.