Adhesives Research Inc., a maker of custom pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes, coatings, specialty films and laminates, has opened a Singapore technical center, including a research and development (R&D) lab, at the site of its relocated and expanded sales offices at Singapore Science Park 2. The offices will serve the electronics (hard disk drive, computer peripherals, wireless communication and semiconductor), medical (medical diagnostics and devices) and display (LCDs, plasma displays, LCOS, OLEDs) markets in Southeast Asia, China and the Pacific Rim area. The technical center will be staffed by associates from Adhesives Research's R&D center at its corporate headquarters in Glen Rock, Penn., and its European R&D center in Limerick, Ireland.   . . .    Vik Narasimhan has joined scientific instruments maker Thermo Electron Corp., of Waltham, Mass., as director of strategy and business development for its Life and Laboratory Sciences group.   . . .    Robotic Vision Systems Inc. said its Acuity CiMatrix Division has received a $300,000 order for Visionscape machine vision products from a diversified food company for use in a North American automation program to improve packaging uniformity. The machine vision products will be used to verify defect-free packaging in a high-speed environment.   . . .   Lumenis Ltd. and Syneron Medical Ltd. announced they have agreed to a settlement and license agreement to resolve litigation between them in Israeli and US courts. The agreement gives Syneron unlimited, nonexclusive worldwide licenses for Lumenis patents relating to the use of incoherent light in aesthetic and medical applications, including all of its intense pulsed light-related patents. Syneron will pay Lumenis royalties up to a predetermined cap with an up-front payment of $1.5 million. The agreement includes other confidential terms.