Today, 64 companies and (knowledge) organisations from the Dutch chip industry present their innovation program to the Dutch Minister Beljaarts of Economic Affairs. The sector aims to further strengthen the strong position that the Netherlands holds globally in semiconductors. After all, international developments in the semiconductor industry are advancing rapidly.

Delivery of first Laser Projection System to European Southern Observatory Technology developer and producer Demcon shipped the first Laser Projection System together with TNO last week. Its destination is the European Southern Observatory (ESO), where TNO and ESO will test the system. In total, Demcon company Focal and TNO will build nine systems for ESO’s Very Large Telescope and Extremely Large Telescope in Chile. The systems project ‘laser guide stars’ into the atmosphere to help the large telescopes better focus on distant astronomical objects. This gives astronomers sharper images of the universe. They hope to make new discoveries, for example about the evolution of the universe after the Big Bang and the formation of stars and galaxies.