Boulder Nonlinear Systems Acquires Exclusive License of Holographic Optical Tweezers Patents

LAFAYETTE, Colorado | August 30, 2014

Worldwide Rights to the CUBE Sublicensed to Meadowlark Optics in Sale of Commercial Products Group

Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS) is pleased to announce that it has acquired an exclusive license to the patents on holographic optical tweezers (HOT) held by the University of Chicago. The 10 patents, which document inventions by HOT pioneer Professor David Grier, reinforce BNS’s intellectual property position in this area and give BNS exclusive rights to develop new capabilities and systems based on HOT technology.

BNS immediately capitalized on the rights acquired from the University of Chicago and sublicensed the world-wide rights to manufacture and sell the CUBE, a turnkey holographic optical trapping platform utilizing BNS high-performance spatial light modulators, to Meadowlark Optics, Inc. as part of the recent sale of the Commercial Products Group.

“Holographic optical tweezers is an extremely powerful and versatile technology for manipulation at the microscale,” says Steve Serati, President of Boulder Nonlinear Systems, “and this technology is enabled by high-performance spatial light modulators. By securing these rights, BNS has strengthened its position as a leader in the HOT industry and we are actively pursuing several exciting new applications for the HOT technique.”

BNS looks forward to fully utilizing the rights acquired from the University of Chicago to pursue new HOT applications through both new and existing research collaborations.