Luna Innovations Acquires Tunable Laser Rights From Coherent

Luna Innovations Inc. of Roanoke, Va., has signed an agreement with laser maker Coherent Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., giving Luna the right to manufacture and sell the former Iolon Apollo line of swept tunable lasers. The Iolon laser is a miniaturized, external-cavity laser, designed for systems integration and applicable to a range of fiber-optic test and measurement, instrumentation and sensing applications. Under the agreement, Luna acquired manufacturing equipment and inventory previously used by Coherent to make the lasers, as well as non-exclusive licenses to Coherent's patents and other intellectual property rights related to the technology. Kent Murphy, Luna Innovations' chairman and CEO, said, "We entered into this agreement with Coherent to allow us to compete more effectively in Luna's existing fiber-optic test and measurement markets by providing our customers with fast, flexible and cost-effective test and measurement products. Acquiring this laser technology also allows us to aggressively pursue business opportunities in new markets such as industrial and medical sensing." Tunable laser technology products employ frequency-tuned lasers to measure various aspects of the transmission properties of telecommunications fiber-optic components and systems. Lasers are also used in fiber-optic sensing applications such as distributed strain and temperature mapping, and distributed measurement of shape. The former Iolon laser was also designed for high-volume manufacturing, which is critical to Luna's continued growth, the company said.