- 23rd October 2006 -

Cascade design deal with oil giants

Scottish laser technology group CASCADE Technologies has signed a £4m deal to design and supply emissions monitoring systems for BP Marine. The latter has invested in Cascade Technologies to gain access to the Stirling company's quantum cascade laser (QCL) technology, a system for detecting drugs, explosives and hazardous compounds. The three-year deal with BP involves Cascade design QCL-based supply emissions monitoring systems for use in the marine industry.

Secondly, the DTI, under the UK Technology Programme, has awarded funding to a consortium comprising Shell Global Solutions, Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global of Glasgow, Scotland, Cascade Technologies Ltd of Stirling, Scotland, and the Universities of Sheffield and Glasgow towards the £2m project QCSense ('Novel quantum cascade lasers for ultrasensitive trace sensing of gases'), which was formed in late July.
Third, Cascade Technologies, which specializes in laser systems for chemical analysis, signed a licensing deal with Lucent Technologies. QCL, invented by Bell Labs a decade ago, has been adapted for commercial use by Irwin Norman at Strathclyde University.
Web: CST: http://www.compoundsemi.co.uk
Cascade: http://www.cascade-technologies.com
QCSense: http://userweb.elec.gla.ac.uk/i/ironside/QCSENSEPublic/