Things were grim for Corning Inc. about a dozen years ago. The telecommunications industry was slumping. The Southern Tier employer posted a $5.5 billion loss, began letting go thousands of workers and its stock took a nose-dive, dropping from $113 to just $1.10. Corning’s multi-year investment in perfecting optical fiber, which accounted for about 70...Continue Reading

Sources at IBM say that product development kits based on the company’s work developing silicon photonics engines for high-speed data center and server connectivity are nearing the alpha stage and should reach full technology qualification next year. The company is now willing to engage potential partners interested in turning the technology into products. Speaking at...Continue Reading

 $150,000 grant will fund cutting-edge detection camera WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-25) announced today that  Rochester-based Sydor Instruments, LLC (Sydor) has been awarded a $150,000 STTR Phase One grant.  The grant will be used to fund development of a Spectro CCD X-Ray Camera for Energy Dispersive Spectrometers.  Sydor’s work to develop the camera will...Continue Reading

Tuesday,  March 25th at 7:00 PM Laboratory for Laser Energetics Dr. Mathias Kolle of MIT. Dr. Kolle will discuss Biological and Bio-inspired Photonic Materials. After Dr. Kolle’s talk, Erika Hanson from consulting firm Terrapin Bright Green[terrapinbrightgreen.com] will describe NYSERDA funding for biomimetic R&D. To learn about the biomimicry progam, visit NY-BIG.org[ny-big.org]. Pre-talk dinner: with guest...Continue Reading

Fuel gain exceeding unity in an inertially confined fusion implosion. From the Journal,  Nature Ignition is needed to make fusion energy a viable alternative energy source, but has yet to be achieved. A key step on the way to ignition is to have the energy generated through fusion reactions in an inertially confined fusion plasma...Continue Reading

All Three Units of 392 megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Now Delivering Solar Power to California’s Electric Grid At full capacity, the facility’s trio of 450-foot high towers produces a gross total of 392 megawatts (MW) of solar power, enough electricity to provide 140,000 California homes with clean energy and avoid 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide...Continue Reading

SPIE’s Photonics West, arguably the largest photonics conference in the world at 21,000 attendees this year, had representation among its exhibitors of  roughly 18% of the world’s optic and photonics market. That market, estimated at roughly $480 Billion by SPIE, is the foundation for technological advances in manufacturing, metrology, nanotechnology, semiconductors, biomedical instruments, consumer electronics,...Continue Reading

Top executives, representing different aspects of the marketplace, shared their insight and hard-fought lessons regarding trends and opportunities in optics and photonics. Optimax CEO, Rick Plympton shared 2013 experiences, including strong orders from laser systems, particularly HPL’s, and significant medical and semiconductor business. Plympton shared optimism about what he sees as necessary pruning (sequestration) of...Continue Reading

…agrees to purchase of 88 acres from the city of Buffalo New York State has agreed on terms to buy the 88 acres of city-owned land in South Buffalo that will house a new high-tech and clean-energy complex at RiverBend. The deal marks what officials call “swift progress” in advancing a monumental project that seeks...Continue Reading

Once again fielding an impressive roster of Optics, Photonics and Imaging (OPI) companies at the largest and most influential international laser and photonics conference of the year, New York Photonics will be representing New York State at Photonics West 2014. No state (or nation) at the annual conference matches that number of exhibitors.  New York...Continue Reading