SCHNEIDER Partners with Micro-LAM; Laser Light Companies Receive $100M in Debt Financing: Week in Brief: 11/17/23

US Capital Global has entered into a term sheet to provide credit facilities totaling a minimum of $100 million to Laser Light Companies, a global networking platform designer and builder. The financing will help Laser Light accelerate the beginning phases of the development of a converged on-demand all-optical network in partnership with Nokia Technologies.

Micro-LAM’s OPTIMUS G1 laser-assisted system. Courtesy of SCHNEIDER GmbH & Co. KG.

FRONHAUSEN, Germany — SCHNEIDER GmbH & Co. KG has entered into a partnership with Micro-LAM to enhance its single-point diamond-turning capabilities in glass optics manufacturing. Micro-LAM’s OPTIMUS G1 laser-assisted system is at the center of this partnership and will aid in increasing production speeds in SCHNEIDER’s ultraprecision center technology.

Adtran’s Meiningen, Germany, facility. Courtesy of Adtran.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Optical networking company Adtran is opening its Terafactory in Meiningen, Germany, to strengthen supply chain resilience and reduce dependence on overseas suppliers. As part of the BMBF-sponsored 6G-Terafactory project, Adtran will deploy an Open-RAN-based private mobile network across the campus, enabling automated processes and making the production of hardware, such as the company’s FSP 3000 open optical transport platform, more efficient. This comes after Adtran expanded its manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Ala.

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — Ambient Photonics and power and electronic devices company Nichigon Corp. have entered into a partnership with the goal of developing sustainable energy solutions for connected devices that eliminate the need for single-use batteries. The development will center around the combination of Ambient’s low-light solar PV cells with Nichicon’s SLB series of lithium titanate oxide batteries.

SAN FRANCISCO — Optogenetics company Ray Therapeutics has received a $4 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to support the development of RTx-021, an optogenetic therapy for the treatment of geographic atrophy, the advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. The treatment delivers light-sensing channel rhodopsin to retinal cells, to potentially restore vision. Visual optogenetics uses adeno-associated virus-based gene therapy to deliver a payload expressing an optogenetic protein to the retina using a simple office-based procedure.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — NUBURU Inc. has entered into a secured bridge loan agreement with a principal amount of $5.5 million. The bridge financing is intended to finance the company until it secures long-term credit financing, which is anticipated in the near term. NUBURU has also recently been awarded a purchase order for a BL-250 laser for computers, consumer electronics, and communication device manufacturing from a yet-unnamed electronics manufacturer. NUBURU also successfully completed an AFWERX Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contract awarded by the U.S. Air Force in 2022 for blue laser-based 3D-printing solutions with area printing technology.

A view of the imec.netzero software. Courtesy of imec.

LEUVEN, Belgium — Imec has launched a freely accessible version of its imec.netzero virtual fab, a tool that offers a quantified view of the environmental impact of IC manufacturing. Imec aims to support the semiconductor industry in reducing its environmental impact, beyond the semiconductor supply chain, and to provide insights for academics, policymakers, and designers.

MODIIN, Israel — Quantum communication and quantum key distribution solutions provider QuantLR has integrated its services with dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) and optical transport network (OTN) equipment provider PacketLight Networks to accomplish a quantum-safe encrypted network. The objective was to validate the compatibility of quantum communication systems with optical networking infrastructure.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Alluxa parent company EnPro Industries Inc. will change its corporate name to Enpro Inc., effective Dec. 1, 2023. The decision was made in recognition of the industrial technology company’s reshaped portfolio and updated business model.

PAEONIAN SPRINGS, Va. — Inertial Labs, an inertial measurement technology company, received an Small Business Innovation Research Phase III contract by the Army Applications Laboratory of Army Futures Command. The contract stipulates the development, design, and fabrication of the Cannon Artillery Pointing and Sighting System for potential use on the U.S. Army’s Paladin and the Extended Range Cannon Artillery vehicles. The goal of the project is to dramatically reduce weight on the target vehicle platforms by providing a digital replacement for the vehicle’s current panoramic telescope, which is used as a sighting system when the fire control system is inoperable.

PARIS — Quandela, a quantum photonics company, and Exaion, a deep-tech services and infrastructure provider, have partnered to develop three scalable quantum computers with an extended cloud service. They will also co-design an offering focused on HPC2/quantum hybridization through infrastructures with the intention of deploying real applications in key sectors such as energy, cybersecurity, automotive, aerospace, and finance. The partnership aims to contribute to the democratization of quantum computing in Europe and North America.