News Briefs (April 5, 2006)

Optical components and mounts manufacturer CVI Technical Optics of Albuquerque, N.M., announced it has installed a 12-in. (305 mm) Zygo interferometer in its Isle of Man manufacturing facility, a move the company said will significantly upgrade its metrology capabilities by ensuring precision specifications over large clear apertures, including flatness before and after coating. CVI said it has been fabricating and coating large format windows up to 520 mm in diameter for years, but new requirements are increasingly meaning customers can no longer accept "stitched" data provided by typical 6-in. beam-expanded interferometers, which are prone to significant errors for optics larger than 12 in. . . . Israel-based Elbit Vision Systems Ltd., a provider of automatic optical inspection and quality monitoring systems, announced the appointment of Frank Marangell as president of its wholly owned US subsidiaries EVS-US Inc. and ScanMaster Systems Inc. For the past 18 years, Marangell has held managerial positions in capital equipment sales, including vice president of sales for Orbotech's PCB div. based in the US and Europe. . . . LED manufacturers Toyoda Gosei Co. Ltd. of Japan and Philips Lumileds Lighting Co., a San Jose, Calif.-based subsidiary of Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands, have agreed to share each other's LED-related patents to advance the market for LED products. Philips Lumileds holds patents for high-brightness red LEDs and high-power blue LEDs; Toyoda Gosei holds a number of blue LED patents. By allowing both companies freedom from patent concerns in their research efforts, Philips Lumileds and Toyoda Gosei said they expect to make new developments in LED technology, including improved LED luminosity.