Luxell Technologies has sold a Black Layer license agreement to Lite Array. Under the terms of the agreement, Lite Array has acquired a production licence to integrate Luxell's proprietary contrast enhancement technology in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) flat panel display products based on small molecule organic electroluminescent diode (SMOLED) technology. Lite Array will pay Luxell technology transfer fees and on-going royalties based on display sales to their customers. No other terms of the agreement were disclosed.

Lite Array has a license from the Eastman Kodak Company to use its
proprietary SMOLED technology to produce passive mono-chromatic,
multi-colour and full colour matrix OLED displays. The company recently
announced plans to install an OLED pilot production line in its facilities
in China.
Luxell is currently in dispute with Cambridge Display Technology over
contract payments and "schedule setbacks" concerning the Black Layer
technology (Bulletin 455, October 18, 2002).

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates has been issued a US patent for
"Methods and Apparatus for Adjusting Beam Parallelism in Ion Implanters"
(No.6,437,350). The technology is the basis of the "Varian Positioning
System" (VPS), an ion beam incident angle control feature.

Nikon has filed a US patent infringement action against ASML, asserting
infringement of eight Nikon patents relating to primary structures in
stepper and scanner lithography machines. The Japanese company has already
filed complaints against ASML at the US International Trade Commission, in a
US district court, in Japan and South Korea.