NAcored in work originally undertaken at MIT's Lincoln Labs., TeraDiode, Inc. designs, develops, and manufactures direct-diode lasers. The firm's products are applied in materials processing, gauge thickness metal cutting, and penetration welding and remote welding; and defense applications, including infrared countermeasures, target designators, and directed energy weapons. The companys direct-diode lasers offer high spectral and spatial brightness for pumping fiber lasers, diode-pumped solid state lasers, and diode-pumped alkali lasers. In January 2017, it was announced that TeraDiode had been acquired by Panasonic Corporation and now operates as a wholly owned subsiduary of that firm. By integrating TDIs cutting-edge DDL technology and know-how with Panasonic's own further to develop DDL technology jointly, the effort was reported to be to strengthen the laser processing business as a new core business of Panasonic in the factory solutions field, thereby accelerating the growth of Panasonics B2B business.