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Aspheres Deal with
Bigger Deviations
Electronics Augments
Modern Process Control
Spectroscopy
All-Fiber Probes
New Promise for Medical
Imaging Applications
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Jul y 2012
t
TABLE OF CONTENTS
20 | TECH NEWS
Photonics Spectra editors curate the most significant photonics research
and technology headlines of the month and take you deeper inside
the news. Featured stories include:
Single nanomaterial yields a laser rainbow
Coupled lasers cancel each other out
Solar cell-like implant stimulates optic nerve
34 | FASTTRACK
Business and Markets
Software gives photonics designers more power
LME 2012 expands educational offerings
41 | GREENLIGHT
LED-like solar cell absorbs, emits light
10 | EDITORIAL
12 | LETTERS
82 | PEREGRINATIONS
Uncooled IR camera reveals mysteries of space
NEWS & ANALYSIS
70 | BRIGHT IDEAS
79 | HAPPENINGS
81 | ADVERTISER INDEX
DEPARTMENTS
THE COVER
Jean-Michel Pelaprat and Dr. Baishi Wang
of Vytran LLC discuss optical fiber probes
for medical imaging applications, begin-
ning on p. 42. A schematic of the filament
fusion process is illustrated. Design by
Senior Art Director Lisa N. Comstock.
20
82
Photonics Spectra July 2012 4
COLUMNS
712Contents_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:32 PM Page 4
PHOTONICS: The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant
energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The range of applications of photonics extends
from energy generation to detection to communications and information processing.
Vol ume 46 I ssue 7
www. phot oni cs. com
42 | ALL-FIBER PROBES HOLD PROMISE FOR MEDICAL IMAGING APPLICATIONS
by Jean-Michel Pelaprat and Dr. Baishi Wang, Vytran LLC
Designs made possible by filament fusion technology have found applications
in medical imaging such as 1- and 2-D optical coherence tomography.
46 | NANOSCALE BIOMATERIALS REQUIRE CLOSE OBSERVATION
by Lynn Savage, Features Editor
Deep-imaging microscopy could advance the use of polyurethane-based nanohybrids
in replacement bones and blood vessels.
52 | DPSS LASERS GIVE MEDICAL DEVICE MANUFACTURING AN EDGE
by Jim Bovatsek, Jrgen Niederhofer and Dr. Rajesh S. Patel, Spectra-Physics
As medical devices continue to shrink, these solid-state lasers offer a versatile
alternative to CO
2
and excimer.
55 | BEAM PROFILING HELPS MAKE MEDICAL DEVICES BETTER
by John McCauley, Ophir-Spiricon
The range of information provided by laser measurement products ensures
the consistency and precision of the machine or process.
58 | ELECTRONICS AUGMENTS MODERN PROCESS CONTROL SPECTROSCOPY
by Gert Noll, Tec5USA Inc., and Mathias Holzapfel, Tec5 AG
In process control, the detector array and readout electronics are key; ideally,
these are combined with a large signal-to-noise ratio and high dynamic range.
62 | ASPHERES DEAL WITH BIGGER DEVIATIONS
by Hank Hogan, Contributing Editor
As aspheres with deviations up to 800 m have become common and manufacturing
runs have become smaller, metrology tools and techniques have evolved to keep up.
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58
FEATURES
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Photonics Spectra July 2012
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e
EDITORIAL COMMENT
Keep conditions right
for invention
High achievement always takes place in the framework
of high expectation. Charles F. Kettering, inventor of the electric starter
C
ontemplating the many contributions of Elias Snitzer, whose pioneering work
in glass lasers helped bring about a communications revolution, made me wonder
about the atmosphere prevalent in his day that supported such discovery. Were
expectations high? Was there a sense of competition? Was invention rewarded and
protected?
Snitzer, who died May 21 at the age of 87, had a four-decades-long career as an engineer
and educator. Known as the father of the glass laser, he demonstrated the first Nd:glass
laser in 1961, hot on the heels of Theodore H. Maimans report of the first crystalline laser
based on ruby. His contributions made possible the fiber optics technology on which the
Internet and other communications systems operate.
Laser firsts dropped like boom-era babies in the years right after Charles Townes and
Arthur Schawlow published on the concept in 1958. No doubt excitement and healthy
competition, not to mention forward thinkers with markets in mind, fueled the many
advances made during that time.
Decades before Snitzer and his laser contemporaries found success, Charles Kettering was
changing the world through improved automobile operation and safety with his ground-
breaking work at Delco and GM Research. In roughly the same era in which Einstein de-
fined stimulated emission, laying the groundwork for the laser, Kettering was revolutioniz-
ing transportation. As with Kettering, Snitzer was inventive throughout his long career.
With degrees in electrical engineering from Tufts University and in physics from the
University of Chicago, Snitzer began his career at Honeywell Industrial Instruments Div.,
working on thermal detector technology. He taught at Lowell (Mass.) Technological Insti-
tute before joining American Optical, where he began his work in optical fibers and lasers.
At Polaroid Corp. in the 1980s, he and his team first demonstrated the double-clad fiber
laser, thereby facilitating optical pumping of fiber lasers and amplifiers. After Polaroid,
he worked at Rutgers University, where he continued to teach and to research fiber laser
amplifiers, glass and fiber Bragg gratings until his retirement in 2001, according to an
OSA release.
At the end of the day, patent laws mean nothing without curious and determined inventors
such as Kettering and Snitzer. Dr. Snitzer made a huge difference to our field, and his
work has contributed to and influenced our world in profound ways, said SPIE CEO
Eugene Arthurs in a statement following Snitzers death. His influence will no doubt be
felt for some time to come.
Charles Kettering reportedly said, My interest is in the future, because I am going to
spend the rest of my life there. I dont know how much Snitzer and the other laser
pioneers thought about the future and the influence of their work, but they certainly
watched both unfold around them. Perhaps we can best honor Snitzers memory by
maintaining optimal conditions for discovery and invention, and in so doing, continue
to ensure a tomorrow in which people will want to spend their lives.
Editorial Advisory Board
Dr. Robert R. Alfano
City College of New York
Walter Burgess
Power Technology Inc.
Dr. Michael J. Cumbo
IDEX Optics & Photonics
Dr. Timothy Day
Daylight Solutions
Dr. Donal Denvir
Andor Technology PLC
Patrick L. Edsell
Avanex Corp.
Dr. Stephen D. Fantone
Optikos Corp.
Randy Heyler
Ondax Inc.
Dr. Michael Houk
Bristol Instruments Inc.
Dr. Kenneth J. Kaufmann
Hamamatsu Corp.
Brian Lula
PI (Physik Instrumente) LP
Eliezer Manor
Shirat Enterprises Ltd., Israel
Shinji Niikura
Coherent Japan Inc.
Dr. Morio Onoe
professor emeritus, University of Tokyo
Dr. William Plummer
WTP Optics
Dr. Richard C. Powell
University of Arizona
Dr. Ryszard S. Romaniuk
Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Samuel P. Sadoulet
Edmund Optics
Dr. Steve Sheng
Telesis Technologies Inc.
William H. Shiner
IPG Photonics Corp.
John M. Stack
Zygo Corp.
Dr. Albert J.P. Theuwissen
Harvest Imaging/Delft University
of Technology, Belgium
Kyle Voosen
National Instruments Corp.
10 Photonics Spectra July 2012
karen.newman@photonics.com
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l
LETTERS
Something in the air
The recent article on airglow (The Night
Glows Brighter in the Near-IR, April
2012) contains misleading statements and
a generally sloppy treatment of radiomet-
ric units of measure. Some behind-the-
scenes math by the authors and more
scrupulous editing by Photonics Spectra
would have gone a long way to making
this article more correct and meaningful.
Instead, it reads like a marketing puff
piece. Ironically, the article tends to
downplay the signal-to-noise advantage
of InGaAs and visible-enhanced InGaAs
sensors for airglow-only imaging scenar-
ios as compared with silicon sensors used
in the same conditions. InGaAs and visi-
ble-enhanced InGaAs cameras are clearly
superior under certain conditions, but the
article simply asserts this with minimal
supporting data.
The article should have related the ob-
served airglow sterance values for airglow
to signal-to-noise ratios for the Xenics
InGaAs camera with a typical short-wave-
length infrared (SWIR) lens f/stop setting,
the appropriate pixel active area, read
noise and dark current, and a practical
frame rate (30 Hz comes to mind). The
same calculation also should have been
performed for a low-light silicon sensor,
such as an sCMOS or electron-multiplying
CCD camera, and, possibly, Gen 3 night-
vision goggles based on a microchannel
plate image intensifier. Without this expo-
sition, the reader is left wondering just
how useful the airglow is for night vision
and which technology has the advantage.
The answer is that InGaAs cameras are
very useful for this application, provided
they have low enough noise-equivalent
irradiance (NEI). This NEI requirement
generally translates to a need for a noise
level of less than 50 e
in hopes of imag-
ing with airglow at a reasonable signal-
to-noise ratio with low f number optics at
30-Hz frame rates. By comparison, experi-
ence tells us that the noise floor for silicon
cameras can be down around 1 to 2 e
per
pixel per frame at 30-Hz frame rates, but
that isnt enough to give good 30-Hz im-
agery from airglow alone there is simply
not enough no-moon airglow signal in the
visible band and near-IR band out to the
silicon cutoff around 1.1 m.
It is simply untrue that the spectral irra-
diance is several times stronger in the
900- to 1700-nm band relative to the visi-
ble band, as the second sentence of the
article asserts. The spectral radiant ster-
ance is much stronger in the InGaAs band
relative to the visible band. By careful
examination of curve 1 in Figure 1 in the
article, one can see that the spectral radi-
ant sterance at the peak of the curve is
actually about 40 times greater than the
spectral radiant sterance at 0.510 m,
where the scotopic (low light) response of
the eye peaks. No one would consider the
factor 40 equivalent to several. Even at
the peak of the no-moon airglow curve in
the visible band at 0.577 m (emission
resulting from monoatomic oxygen), the
peak SWIR signal at 1.6 m is still 18
times greater. It appears that the graph
in Figure 1 was misinterpreted as having
a linear Y-axis, rather than a log base
10 axis.
I am not even sure why the authors
chose the term spectral irradiance to
describe the airglow radiation in a given
waveband, since spectral irradiance is a
function of wavelength, and irradiance is
the radiant sterance integrated over the
effective solid angle. The irradiance on a
surface illuminated by airglow will vary
with the angle between the illuminated
surface and the sky zenith. Radiometric
units are being bandied about here with
no clarification or exposition.
Using the data from Figure 1, curve 1,
my calculations show that the effective
photon sterance for an InGaAs camera is
180 times the effective photon sterance for
low-light (scotopic) human vision. Again,
this ratio is quite a bit more than sev-
eral. That is the point of using SWIR
imagers to exploit the airglow radiation
there is 180 times more total usable signal
available to an InGaAs camera relative
to the total signal usable by the unaided
human eye and 22 times more signal
available relative to a monochrome silicon
sensor. My calculations also involved con-
volving both the photon spectral response
curve of a typical InGaAs sensor, a typical
silicon sensor and the low-light human
eye luminous response curve with the
spectral radiant sterance curve in Figure 1
converted to photon units. These convolu-
tions were then integrated over the appro-
priate passbands. Flirs VisGaAs detectors
give similar results to standard InGaAs
because almost all the airglow signal is
at 0.9 m and above.
The values I calculated are based on
curve 1, but the airglow intensity is vari-
able with cloud cover, solar activity and
latitude, and that all should have been
noted in the article. A survey of other air-
glow measurements yields various values
of photon sterance for an InGaAs camera
on the order of 10
10
photons per second
per square centimeter per steradian. This
is comparable to results using the Vatsia
curve 1 data. It would be useful to have
given a range of sterance values one can
expect based on airglow measurements in
the literature and, as mentioned earlier, to
have made some attempt to relate these
observed sterance values to signal-to-noise
ratios for the Xenics NV camera and other
competing low-light electro-optics tech-
nologies.
The careless treatment of radiometric
units of measure manifests itself in several
other places in the article. The Y-axis in
Figure 1 in the article has incorrect units,
Figure 1. Spectral photon sterance: Vatsias 1972 no-moon nightglow, curve 1.
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as it did in the original paper by Vatsia
et al. The units should be spectral radiant
sterance, not radiant sterance, because the
Vatsia group measured the radiation from
the sky with a Fourier transform spectrora-
diometer as a function of wavelength. The
four curves are thus plots of the measured
spectral radiant sterance for four different
moon illumination levels. The radiant ster-
ance (also called power radiance) is the
integral of the spectral radiant sterance
curve over a particular passband. It is the
in-band radiation available to be collected
at the optical aperture of a camera. The
number of photoelectrons generated by
this radiation depends on the absolute
spectral response or quantum efficiency
curve of the detector/lens combination,
which is then convolved with the spectral
radiant sterance curve as well as the pixel
active area, the lens f number and optics
transmission.
Those of us in the infrared camera field
who are doing modeling of airglow imag-
ing routinely convert historical measure-
ments such as Figure 1 into photons per
second units instead of their original
watts power units. We thus end up with
spectral photon sterance. Photon units are
a more logical set of units to use for these
airglow calculations because the detectors
cited in Figure 2 in the article are all pho-
ton detectors, not power detectors. Figure
2 in the article has the spectral responses
of the detectors in power units. If I had
written the article, I would have first con-
verted the curves in Figure 1 to photon
units and then presented the spectral re-
sponses in photon units in Figure 2. The
InGaAs spectral response curve is nearly
flat in photon units, making it reasonable
to describe it with a square band ap-
proximation; i.e., integrating the spectral
photon sterance from 900 to 1700 nm.
Another quibble with Figure 2 is that
it has an airglow curve, but the second
Y-axis is not labeled with radiometric
units. Im assuming the correct Y-axis
units for that curve are W/cm
2
/sr/m
because the peak value at 1.6 m is 100
times greater than the peak value in the
Vatsia data in Figure 1, curve 1. The factor
of 100 would come from the difference
between using 10 nm and 1 m in the unit
denominator. Labeling the second axis of
Figure 3 with the right units would have
been a good idea to avoid confusion with
the Y-axis units in Figure 1.
The article asserts that the radiation
densities of moonlight and airglow are
comparable. What is meant by radiation
density? Do the authors mean the spectral
radiant sterance? Moonlight and airglow
are indeed comparable in power units
(spectral radiant sterance), but not in pho-
ton units, which, again, are more appropri-
ate for calculations involving photon de-
tectors. The spectral photon sterance is
about 2.5 times greater at 1.6 m than at
0.51 m for curve 4 data in Figure 1 of
the article, which was generated by data
taken at 89 percent moon illumination.
But, again, what is important here is the
spectral photon sterance integrated over
wavelength in the appropriate passband,
weighted by detector spectral response
in photon units.
With an 89 percent moon, InGaAs and
VisGaAs detectors will have about five
times the usable signal that the human eye
has available. Under those same condi-
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LETTERS
tions, a typical monochrome silicon sensor
will have about the same usable signal as
an InGaAs camera. That should have been
explained in more depth. Another advan-
tage of airglow is that it comes from all
directions and reduces shadows in the
scene, making it harder for an observer
to miss a person or other item of interest.
Moonlight casts shadows that get very
long at a low elevation angle, which in-
creases scene clutter and tends to reduce
the ability to find items of interest in a
scene. Of course, if there is enough cloud
cover, both moonlight and airglow can be
reduced in intensity to the point where the
only viable imaging method is thermal.
Below is a plot of the data from curve 1
in photon units, with a linear scale on both
the X- and Y-axes. The bands for the three
types of sensors extend out to their respec-
tive 50 percent points. A graph like this
would have better served to illustrate the
huge advantage that an InGaAs or visible-
enhanced InGaAs sensor has over both
the unaided eye and low-light silicon sen-
sors in no-moon conditions because the
areas under the curves in each band are a
measure of the total available signal for
these three types of sensors (assuming
square-band response and the appropriate
50 percent cut points). The original Vatsia
graph is hard to interpret in this way be-
cause of the semilog axis and the power
units of measure. My graph also illustrates
that an extended InGaAs sensor that re-
sponds to radiation out to 1.9 m would
make use of SWIR airglow that conven-
tional InGaAs wont detect.
Dr. Austin Richards
Flir, Commercial Systems
Author response
We would like to thank Dr. Richards for
the detailed comments on our article. In
general, his letter is a good complement
and clarifies our text with more in-depth
information. It never was our intention
to fully elaborate on the different topics
Dr. Richards mentions in his letter. With
our introductory article, we intended to
give a broad audience an idea of what can
be achieved in the wavelength band out-
side of the visible region in the field of
night imaging. This explains why most
of the text gives qualitative arguments to
come to the (correct) conclusion, and not
so much a quantitative reasoning that
would not be compatible with the limited
length or scope of the article.
We believed that as Photonics Spectra
is not peer-reviewed, it was not immedi-
ately the proper medium in which to pub-
lish a complete, in-depth analysis of night-
glow and low-light-level imaging, but it
was perfect to show the possibilities and
potential of the InGaAs-based detector
systems Xenics currently produces. It is
worth mentioning that we have received
several other positive comments on this
article from readers, who found it a nice,
refreshing introduction to the topic.
We agree with Dr. Richards that it
would be interesting to write a more de-
tailed article on the subject, one that
would allow the interested reader to be-
come more acquainted with the underly-
ing physical mechanisms on different
system levels.
Jan Vermeiren, Xenics NV
Louvain, Belgium
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Photonics Medias industry-leading site features the latest industry news and events
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the player. For the latest edition,
visit: Photonics.com/LightMatters.
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Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus. Cui will present
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Check out a sample of the new digital
version of Photonics Spectra magazine
at www.photonics.com/DigitalSample.
Its a whole new world of information for
people in the global photonics industry.
Photonics Hotspots
A list of the most important spots for
photonics work both research and
manufacturing around the globe.
Photonics Honor Roll
A list of the biggest and brightest
photonics stars on the academic front.
Mergers & Acquisitions
A list of the companies that have
merged or that acquired other
companies from July 2011 to
June 2012.
Future Game-Changers
The people whose work will likely
change the photonics world and
our lives.
Reader Participation Poll
Results
The August issue of Photonics Spectra is our annual List Issue. Content will include:
Other featured content will include:
Where the Jobs Are
A longtime recruiter in the photonics industry looks at recent moves,
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Single nanomaterial yields a laser rainbow
PROVIDENCE, R.I. Nanocrystals that
produce red, green and blue laser light
from a single material could lead to digital
displays and other devices that employ a
variety of laser colors simultaneously.
Red, green and blue lasers have become
small and cheap enough to be integrated
into products ranging from Blu-Ray DVD
players to fancy pens, but each color is
made with different semiconductor materi-
als and by an elaborate crystal growth
process.
Now, a prototype technology developed
at Brown University and at QD Vision of
Lexington, Mass., can achieve all three
colors using materials consisting of col-
loidal quantum dots. The colloidal quan-
tum dots have an inner core of cadmium
and selenium alloy and are coated with
zinc, cadmium and sulfur alloy and propri-
etary organic molecular glue.
The method was described online
in Nature Nanotechnology (doi: 10.1038/
nnano.2012.61).
We are actively working with cadmium-
free colloidal quantum dots such as in-
dium phosphide, Brown senior research
assistant Cuong H. Dang told Photonics
Spectra. Benefits are obvious with non-
toxic materials.
To create a laser display with arbitrary
colors such as shades of pink or teal, three
separate material systems would need to
come together in the form of three distinct
lasers that would not have anything in
common, according to Arto Nurmikko,
professor of engineering at Brown. Instead,
a new class of materials called semicon-
ductor quantum dots was introduced.
QD Vision chemists synthesized the
nanocrystals using a wet chemistry pro-
cess that enables precise variation of size
by altering production time. To produce
different laser light colors, the only vari-
able that must change is size:
4.2-nm cores produce red light, 3.2-nm
ones emit green light, and 2.5-nm ones
shine blue. Other sizes would produce
other colors along the spectrum.
I dont see any problem to produce all
visible colors with our technology, Dang
said. But I did receive a request for the
infrared range: 1- to 2-m wavelength,
which we have not yet achieved.
The coated pyramids, with improved
quantum mechanical and electrical per-
formance, require 10 times less pulsed
energy, or 1000 times less power, to pro-
duce laser light than previous attempts.
A batch of colloidal quantum dots pre-
pared to the Brown-designed specifica-
tions yields a vial of viscous liquid that
somewhat resembles nail polish. This
liquid is used to coat a square of glass or
a variety of other shapes to make a laser.
When the liquid evaporates, several
densely packed solid, highly ordered lay-
ers of nanocrystals remain on the glass.
By sandwiching this glass between two
specially prepared mirrors, the researchers
created a vertical-cavity surface-emitting
laser (VCSEL) the first working VCSEL
with colloidal quantum dots.
The alloy in the nanocrystals outer
coating reduces an excited electronic state
requirement for lasing and protects the
nanocrystal from a kind of crosstalk that
makes it hard to produce laser light, Nur-
mikko said. Besides reducing crosstalk,
the nanocrystals structure and outer
cladding reduce the amount of energy
needed to pump the quantum dot laser.
The new approachs structure enables the
dots to act more quickly, releasing light
before heat is lost as a result of a phenom-
enon known as the Auger process.
The alloy for shell zinc cadmium sul-
fide was rooted from our experience with
II-VI semiconductor materials in bulk and
thin-film forms a while ago, Dang said.
There are a number of ligands involved
in optimizing the process. We tried both
aromatic and aliphatic ligands.
Next, the scientists hope to tackle their
systems heating problem and to enable
electrical injection as opposed to the cur-
rent optical injection to provide final prod-
ucts, Dang said.
We have managed to show that its
possible to create not only light, but laser
light, Nurmikko said in a university re-
lease. In principle, we now have some
benefits: using the same chemistry for all
colors, producing lasers in a very inexpen-
sive way, relatively speaking, and the abil-
ity to apply them to all kinds of surfaces,
regardless of shape. This makes possible
all kinds of device configurations for the
future.
NEWS
TECH
A closer look at the most significant photonics research and technology headlines of the month
Colloidal quantum dots nanocrystals can produce lasers of many colors. Cuong Dang manipulates
a green beam that pumps the nanocrystals with energy, in this case producing red laser light (at left).
Courtesy of Mike Cohea/Brown University.
712TechNews_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:56 PM Page 20
Coupled lasers cancel each other out
VIENNA The discovery that coupling
two microlasers shuts them both off in-
stead of emitting more light could prove
significant for technologies that combine
electronics and photonics.
The laser blackout effect, discovered
by scientists at the Vienna University of
Technology (TU Vienna), working with
colleagues at Princeton and Yale universi-
ties in the US and at ETH Zurich, uses
new methods developed at TU Vienna to
solve the complicated equations that de-
scribe the problem.
We were interested in what happens
when each of the lasers in the coupled pair
is pumped independently of the other
one, Matthias Liertzer of TU Vienna said
in an interview with Photonics Spectra.
Although such setups have already been
realized experimentally, we are not aware
of any thorough theoretical investigation
that has [been] performed with regard to
pumping the disks individually.
It was during these investigations that
we noticed the effect of the laser turning
off, although the overall pump strength in
the system is increased. Since this behav-
ior is quite counterintuitive, we first
checked whether there was no mistake in
our calculations, but soon realized that the
observed effect can be linked to the occur-
rence of an exceptional point in the un-
derlying lasing equations.
Exceptional points occur when two res-
onator modes trapping light for a compar-
atively long time amplify enough to be
brought above threshold and begin to lase.
Researchers have studied exceptional
points in lasers before; however, they
needed to change the shape of the laser in
order to observe the influence of such a
point, Liertzer said. This is experimen-
tally cumbersome and can only be per-
formed using mechanically deformable
laser cavities. We go beyond this limita-
tion by demonstrating that the effects of
an exceptional point can be seen by a suit-
able variation of the applied pump.
The team discovered that when one
laser is shining and the laser next to it is
turned on gradually, complex interactions
between the two can lead to a total shut-
down of light emission. Surprisingly,
pumping the second laser does not neces-
sarily increase the brightness of the cou-
pled system, and supplying more energy
can reduce the brightness until both lasers
become dark.
The interplay between the lasers is more
complicated than lightwaves interfering
with one another and canceling each other
out, the researchers say.
This effect is not just about wave inter-
ference, Liertzer said. It is a combina-
tion of interference and light amplifica-
tion, which can lead to seemingly
paradoxical effects.
Next, the scientists will collaborate with
colleagues from the Photonics Institute at
TU Vienna on an experimental realization
of the effect. After that, they plan to inves-
tigate whether exceptional points can be
found in more intricate structures such as
random lasers, Liertzer said.
He believes that their paper, which
was published in Physical Review Letters
(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.173901),
will bring together two active communi-
ties.
On the one hand, there is the commu-
nity of non-Hermitian physics, where ex-
ceptional points, gain/loss structures,
etcetera, are at the center of attention, he
said. On the other hand, there is the very
large laser community with over 50 years
of experience and a vast number of appli-
cations where lasers are employed. With
our paper, we bridge these two communi-
ties by showing how the interesting non-
Hermitian physics of exceptional points
carries over to lasers.
Two coupled microlasers with light beams. Courtesy of TU Vienna.
Solar cell-like implant stimulates optic nerve
STANFORD, Calif. A new retinal pros-
thesis that uses technology similar to that
found in solar cells could restore sight to
those who suffer from degenerative eye
diseases such as macular degeneration and
retinitis pigmentosa.
Researchers at Stanford University
School of Medicine have developed gog-
gles that interface with a tiny chip in the
retina and convert light into electrical sig-
nals, stimulating the optic nerve and al-
lowing patients to see once more.
While high-fidelity color vision is a
long way off, some patients with retinal
prostheses have so far been able to read
large fonts (with visual acuities on the
order of 20/1000) and complete daily tasks
in ways that they could not before treat-
ment, postdoctoral scholar Dr. James
Loudin told Photonics Spectra. The re-
search team hopes to achieve visual acuity
better than 20/200 and is focusing its ef-
forts on assessing the visual acuity and
contrast sensitivity in vivo, said Dr. Daniel
Palanker, an associate professor of oph-
thalmology at Stanford.
The goggles work similarly to solar
panels on the roof of a building, convert-
ing light into electric current. Instead of
the current flowing to household appli-
ances, however, it would flow into retinas,
Palanker said.
The devices are equipped with a camera
and a pocket computer that feed images
to a liquid crystal display, which is then
beamed to the implant using near-infrared
laser pulses. The light is received by a
photodetector silicon chip, which converts
it into an electrical current. The current
stimulates the optic nerve, sending the
image data to the brains vision centers.
The whole process is similar to how a dig-
ital camera takes a picture.
The chip is the size of a pencil point
and contains hundreds of light-sensitive
diodes. Using light to transmit the data
instead of wire, coils or antennae such as
other current implants keeps the chip from
becoming bulky and makes it easier for
implantation.
Several other retinal prostheses are in
the works, and at least two are in clinical
trials. Second Sight of Los Angeles devel-
oped a device that was approved in April
for use in Europe, and German prosthesis
maker Retina Implant AG recently an-
nounced the results from its clinical test-
ing in Europe.
Second Sight uses RF telemetry to
power and transmit data to an array of 60
electrodes over several square millimeters
in their Argus II device, Loudin said. We
have proven the functionality of single pix-
els as small as 70 m, with pixel densities
of up to 178 pixels per square millimeter.
The Retinal Implant AG device has simi-
larly high resolution but requires additional
implanted hardware to power it.
The advantages of Stanfords approach,
Loudin said, are its high pixel density,
easy scalability and lack of separate, bulky
power-receiving hardware, which makes
surgical implantation easier and thus re-
duces the risk of complications.
The researchers tested the effectiveness
of the implants in the retinas of both blind
and normal rats. The retinal ganglion cells
of treated normal rats were responsive to
stimulation by plain visible light as well as
to the near-infrared, which showed that the
implants were responsive to nonvisible
light. In the blind rats, the scientists ob-
served that visible wavelengths generated
very little ganglion response, whereas the
near-infrared caused spikes in the rats
neural activity similar to those in normal
rats. The blind rats, however, needed sig-
nificantly more infrared light to achieve
the same activity levels as in normal rats.
Although these technologies induce
color perception in patients, this percep-
tion is difficult to predict and control,
Loudin said. These electrically stimulated
percepts enable patients to see a variety of
22
t TECHNEWS
This pinpoint-size photovoltaic chip (upper right corner) is implanted under the retina in a blind rat to restore
sight. The center image shows how the chip comprises an array of photodiodes, which can be activated by
pulsed near-infrared light to stimulate neural signals in the eye that propagate to the brain. A higher-magnifi-
cation view (lower left corner) shows a single pixel of the implant, which has three diodes around the perimeter
and an electrode in the center. The diodes turn light into an electric current, which flows from the chip into the
inner layer of retinal cells. Courtesy of Daniel Palanker.
colors, including yellow, blue, red and white.
A device with precise, predictable spatial control of the color
of these percepts across many patients is many years off.
The scientists next will evaluate the in vivo perceptual resolu-
tion of these devices, and are working to understand how high
a resolution is possible with this approach. They are seeking a
sponsor to support human clinical trials, which they say will
depend on the availability of industrial partners and funding.
The research was published online in Nature Photonics (doi:
10.1038/nphoton.2012.104).
Laser creates cheaper free-form optics
AACHEN, Germany A new process for fabricating small
batches of nonspherical glass optical components will allow man-
ufacturers to produce high-quality, customizable optical compo-
nents of any geometry quickly and inexpensively.
Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology used
a computer-controlled CO
2
laser to heat a square-shaped piece
of fused silicon to its evaporation temperature (2230 C), carving
away at the silicon much as a sculptor would cut away sections
of marble to create a statue.
The laser uses custom inputs to control how much silicon it
removes and what shape it makes so that virtually any surface
form can be produced. Once the silicon is shaped, it is reheated
to near the evaporation point to reduce roughness; the material
stays polished while it cools. Further imperfections can be buffed
out afterward using the same ablative process.
As the laser process is controlled by computer data, the inputs
can easily be changed to create optical components to order. The
new process also is estimated to speed up manufacturing time by
a factor of 10, which could
drastically increase pro-
duction and drive down
the cost of manufacturing.
However, before it can be
applied in industry, the
technique must be opti-
mized by increasing the
precision of the laser abla-
tion and the quality of the
polishing process.
The researchers pre-
sented their process at
AKL, the International
Laser Technology Con-
gress, on the Fraunhofer
campus.
t TECHNEWS
High-speed laser ablation of fused silica. The
laser controls how much silicon it
removes and what shape it makes to
produce virtually any surface form.
Images Fraunhofer Institute
for Laser Technology ILT, Aachen.
The components take various forms after individual steps of the laser-based
fabrication process.
ATLANTA A new technique can pro-
duce single photons with specific proper-
ties more efficiently and about 1000 times
faster than the current methods, an impor-
tant advance for several research areas,
including quantum information processing
and quantum network development.
Alex Kuzmich, a professor at the Geor-
gia Institute of Technology, and his gradu-
ate research assistant Yaroslav Dudin dis-
covered that they could create a Rydberg
atom (a highly excited atom that is very
near its ionization point) by shining lasers
on a dense cloud of rubidium-87 atoms
that were laser-cooled and confined to an
optical lattice.
The lasers excite one of the rubidium
atoms to the Rydberg state. Because of an
interesting electromagnetic property of
these atoms, exciting one prevents others
in a 10- to 20-m radius from transition-
ing, an effect called the Rydberg blockade.
This ensures that, on average, only one
photon will be emitted.
The excited Rydberg atom needs space
around it and doesnt allow any other Ryd-
berg atoms to come nearby, Dudin said.
Our ensemble has a limited volume, so
we couldnt fit more than one of these
atoms into the space available.
Once they have an excited Rydberg
24
t TECHNEWS
Single entangled photon creation unlocked
Georgia Tech graduate student Yaroslav Dudin and professor Alex Kuzmich adjust optics as part of research
into the production of single photons for use in optical quantum information processing and the study of
certain physical systems. Courtesy of John Toon.
The latest research on optical engineering and applications,
solar energy, nanotechnology, and organic photonics
Location
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, California, USA
spie.org/aboutop
Conference dates
1216 August 2012
Exhibition dates
1416 August 2012

Conferences
- Nanoscience + Engineering
- Solar Energy + Technology
- Organic Photonics + Electronics
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2012
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1216 August 2012
712_SPIE_Opt&Pho_Pg25_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:08 PM Page 25
atom, the researchers use a laser field to convert the energy of the
atom into a quantum light field containing one photon.
The researchers hope to move on to building quantum logic
gates between light fields, a great step forward for quantum com-
puting and networking.
If this can be realized, such quantum gates would allow us to
deterministically create complex entangled states of atoms and
light, which would add valuable capabilities to the fields of quan-
tum networks and computing, Kuzmich said. Our work points
in this direction.
The research is also promising for many other areas of physics.
Our results also hold promise for studies of dynamics and dis-
order in many-body systems with tunable interactions, Kuzmich
said. In particular, translational symmetry breaking, phase transi-
tions and nonequilibrium many-body physics could be investi-
gated in the future using strongly coupled Rydberg excitations
of an atomic gas.
Kuzmich is also doing research on long-lived quantum memo-
ries as part of a US Air Force Office of Scientific Research Multi-
disciplinary University Research Initiative headed by Georgia
Tech.
The research, reported in Science Express (doi: 10.1126/sci
ence.1217901), was supported by the National Science Founda-
tion and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Release process holds promise
for GaN semiconductors
TOKYO Nitride semiconductors grow only on certain surfaces,
and their utility is limited by the substrate on which they are fab-
ricated. But a new release process not only makes the method
cheaper and easier, it also expands the potential uses of the mate-
rials.
Yasuyuki Kobayashi and colleagues at Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone Corp. (NTT) demonstrated the process with a tech-
nique called mechanical transfer using a release layer (MeTRe).
They grew a very thin hexagonal layer of boron nitride (h-BN)
between a sapphire substrate and a gallium nitride (GaN)-based
semiconductor. Sandwiched in the middle, the h-BN works as a
release layer, allowing the investigators to easily detach the semi-
conductor and transfer it to other substrates without using expen-
sive laser beam machining or chemical treatment.
GaN-based semiconductors have a wide range of applications
in high-power electronic devices and light sources, but their util-
ity is hampered by the thickness of the substrates on which they
are grown. The substrates are hard to separate from the GaN and
can be 100 times the size of the film. They also must be stable at
high temperatures because the GaN-based films growth tempera-
ture is 1000 C. Using the MeTRe fabrication process, GaN-
based thin-film devices can be separated easily from their sub-
strate and transferred onto other devices, and they can be grown
on nearly any single crystal substrate. Both of these qualities
greatly increase their utility.
Boron nitride also is difficult to grow on a single-crystal sap-
phire substrate because of a very different crystal structure. How-
ever, the researchers optimized its growth using metallorganic
chemical vapor deposition, which uses the constituent gases to
encourage single-crystal, thin-film growth on the substrates
surface. They also found that the GaN layers could be grown
t TECHNEWS
on top of the BN film if a buffer layer of
Al
1x
Ga
x
N, an aluminum/gallium nitride
alloy, was used.
The MeTRe method of semiconductor
fabrication is cheaper, faster and easier
than conventional methods; a worldwide
movement has been under way to develop
such an efficient technique. The process
also allows thin, flexible semiconductors
with a large surface area (up to 2 cm) to
be made. One key application of such a
semiconductor is in the development of
flexible solar panels that are sensitive to
UV wavelengths only and that can be put
in windows to filter out the harmful rays
while also collecting and storing solar
energy. This can be accomplished easily
by attaching GaN-based solar cells to pre-
existing silicon-based ones.
Other potential applications include thin
LEDs, highly functional hybrid CMOS
and flexible devices.
The research appeared in Nature (doi:
10.1038/nature10970).
27
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Comparison of the traditional methods of fabricating GaN semiconductors and the technique devised by Ya-
suyuki Kobayashi and colleagues. Courtesy of NTT Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group.
Students QDs win regional Cleantech Challenge
SALT LAKE CITY Students at the Uni-
versity of Utah recently won $100,000 and
first place in the regional CU Cleantech
New Venture Challenge for their quantum
dot technology.
Compared with other materials, quan-
tum dots require less energy for emitting
light. The color of light emitted depends
on the dots size. Large quantum dots
produce light toward the red side of the
spectrum, while smaller dots produce light
toward the blue side. These man-made
semiconductor nanocrystals hold potential
for a growing number of applications,
including televisions, solar panels and cell
phones.
Although the future of quantum dots
looks bright, the manufacturing process
remains one of the biggest challenges for
advancing them. Conventional processes
are expensive, require high temperatures
and produce low yields. Currently, a gram
of quantum dots costs $2500 to $10,000.
Now, researchers at the University of
Utah may have a solution to such high
manufacturing costs. Their company,
Navillum Nanotechnologies, is gaining
national attention with the help of MBA
students Ryan Tucker, Chris Lewis and
Ameya Chaudhari, whose process uses
lower temperatures and produces less
waste than the traditional method. The
students focused on applications related
to solar technology and energy efficiency
to win the regional title. They will use the
prize money to refine their manufacturing
process and increase its scale.
The win reflects on the organizations
we have at the University of Utah to sup-
port entrepreneurship, Tucker said. It
also helps me get excited that, even as
students, we can do great things.
The students started the project through
the Pierre and Claudette Lassonde New
Venture Development Center, which is
part of the David Eccles School of Busi-
ness. The Lassonde Center links faculty
inventors with graduate students who
write business plans for them. The univer-
sitys Energy Commercialization Center
also helped mentor the team.
Navillum Nanotechnologies competed
in the challenge against teams from nine
states. Other finalists were from the uni-
versities of Colorado at Boulder and Den-
ver, and from Maharishi University of
Management in Fairfield, Iowa. The Utah
team won for its superior technology and
business plan, said Steve Herschleb, an
MBA student in Boulder and program
manager of the competition.
It was the attractiveness of the technol-
ogy and the growth potential, Herschleb
said. Theres a little bit of risk; the mar-
ket hasnt fully embraced the technology.
But the applications, from a scientific
basis, are very promising, and the market
is expected to be enormous in the future.
Navillum also has received $155,000
in grants from the University of Utah, the
Utah Governors Office of Economic
Development and the Utah Science Tech-
nology and Research initiative.
The student team will advance to the
national championship, to be held in June
in Washington, D.C. The competitions are
financed by the US Department of Energy.
28
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TECHNEWS
MBA students from the David Eccles School of
Business at the University of Utah pose with the
$100,000 check they won at the CU Cleantech
New Venture Challenge for a quantum dot manu-
facturing process that uses lower temperatures and
produces less waste than previous methods. From
left, Ameya Chaudhari, Chris Lewis and Ryan
Tucker. Courtesy of University of Utah.
Four-wave mixing generates superluminal pulses
GAITHERSBURG, Md. A novel four-
wave mixing technique that restructures
parts of light pulses to travel faster than
the speed of light could improve the tim-
ing of communications signals and help
examine the propagation of quantum
correlations.
Einsteins theory of relativity states that
light passing within a vacuum represents
the universal speed of light. A short burst
of light emerges as a type of symmetric
curve. The curves leading edge cannot
surpass the speed of light, but the peak
of the pulse can be altered forward and
backward.
Recent experiments demonstrated that,
by increasing the leading edge of the pulse
and cutting the back end, uninformed
faster-than-light pulses with increased
noise are generated. However, four-wave
mixing produces less noisy, cleaner and
more rapid pulses by rearranging or
rephasing the pulse-generating lightwaves.
In the four-wave mixing technique
developed by scientists at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology,
laser light seed pulses up to 200 ns long
are introduced into a heated cell contain-
ing atomic rubidium vapor and a separate
pump beam at a different frequency
from the seed pulses. The seed pulse is
amplified by the vapor, shifting its peak
forward so that it becomes superluminal.
The photons from the inserted beam inter-
act with the vapor to generate a second
pulse, called the conjugate because of
its mathematical relationship to the seed.
The speed of the peak is based on the
conditions inside the laser and on how
it is tuned.
The experiment yielded pulse peaks that
arrived 50 ns faster than light traveling
through a vacuum.
The team now is looking to use the
method to study quantum discord, which
mathematically defines the quantum infor-
mation between two correlated systems
such as the conjugate and seed pulses. The
researchers hope to determine how useful
this light could be to transmit and process
quantum information.
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In four-wave mixing, researchers send seed pulses of laser light into a heated cell containing atomic rubidium
vapor along with a separate pump beam at a different frequency. The vapor amplifies the seed pulse and
shifts its peak forward, making it superluminal. At the same time, photons from the inserted beams interact with
the vapor to generate a second pulse, called the conjugate. Its peak, too, can travel faster or slower, depend-
ing on how the laser is tuned and on the conditions inside the gain medium. The chamber contains rubidium-
85 gas at ~116 C. Courtesy of NIST.
30
t TECHNEWS
narrow and parallel beam. Farther along
the instrument, a silicon prism was placed
at a height where it refracted half of the
gamma ray beam. The refraction of this
half-beam was then detected by a second
silicon crystal and compared with the
half consisting of unrefracted gamma
rays.
They discovered that the energy of the
gamma rays increased the falling refrac-
tion values, then suddenly increased to
larger positive refraction values, similar
to those of visible light. These were much
higher values than anyone expected.
The researchers now believe that by
replacing the silicon prisms with higher-
refracting materials such as gold, they
can increase refraction to a level where it
Gamma ray refraction could launch nuclear photonics
GRENOBLE, France An experiment in
which gamma rays were bent like ordinary
light overturns decades of theoretical pre-
dictions and opens the door to a new field
of research called nuclear photonics.
Gamma rays are essentially a highly en-
ergetic form of light. Able to penetrate al-
most any material, they now can bend and
focus, which could lead to powerful new
medical applications, including imaging
techniques and targeted cancer treatments.
Using a version of a common classroom
experiment with glass prisms, scientists
from Laue-Langevin Institute (ILL) and
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
refracted the rays at the highest energies
ever recorded.
In the same way that light beams can
be bent and split with glass prisms, the
researchers used a silicon prism to bend
gamma rays. They analyzed the gamma
rays produced using ILLs PN-3 facility
through two silicon crystals, the first
preselecting them as they came out of
the reactor and directing them into a very
At the high-resolution gamma ray facility GAMS at ILL, gamma rays now can bend and focus; this could
lead to new medical applications such as targeted cancer treatments and novel imaging techniques.
Image: ILL/Bernhard Lehn Fotodesign Studio@bernhardlehn.de.
Coming July 19, 2012
Advances in Biomedical Photonics
2 0 1 2 W E B I N A R S E R I E S
Expert Briefings
In-depth presentations and interactive
Q&A featuring top industry experts.
For more information, visit:
www.Photonics.com/Webinars
To become a sponsor, contact your sales
representative at (413) 499-0514, or email
advertising@photonics.com.
Hosted by Photonics Media
Lihong V. Wang, PhD, Gene K. Beare
Distinguished Professor, Optical Imaging Lab -
oratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering,
Washington University, St. Louis. Wang will speak
on "Photoacoustic Tomog raphy: Ultrasonically
Breaking Through the Optical Diffusion Limit."
SEPTEMBER Solar
NOVEMBER Space
Meng Cui, PhD, Lab Head at Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research
Campus. Cui will present Iterative Multiphoton
Adaptive Compensation Technique for Deep
Tissue Microscopy.
Sponsored by
712_WebinarAd_M&H_Pg31_Layout 1 6/25/12 5:03 PM Page 31
can realistically be manipulated for optical
techniques.
Twenty years ago, many people
doubted you could do optics with x-rays
no one even considered that it might be
possible for gamma rays, too, said Dr.
Michael Jentschel, an ILL research scien-
tist. This is a remarkable and completely
unexpected discovery, with significant
implications and practical applications.
These include isotope-specific microscopy
with benefits across the scientific disci-
plines, through to direct medical treatment
and even tools to address major national
security issues.
Potential applications include more
selective, less destructive medical imaging
techniques achieved by enriching a partic-
ular isotope in a cancer and monitoring
where it goes, improved production and
trialing of new, more targeted radioiso-
topes for cancer treatment, and remote
characterization of nuclear materials or
radioactive waste.
The work appeared in Physical Review
Letters (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.
184802).
32
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TECHNEWS
SAN DIEGO For the first time, a her-
alded single photon has been generated
from a silicon chip.
The discovery made by a consortium
of researchers from the University of Cali-
fornia, San Diego, the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) and
the Polytechnic Institute of Milan in Italy
overcomes an important barrier to gener-
ating single photons using a tiny, chip-
scale device constructed from silicon. It
could lead to applications in cryptography,
radiometry, imaging and telemetry, and
could pave the way for new devices for
quantum communication, ultralow-power
computing and other technologies, now
that all three basic components of a quan-
tum transceiver sources, controllable
circuits and detectors have been demon-
strated using silicon photonics.
Heralded photons are the second in a
pair of spontaneously generated photons:
When the first hits a detector and provides
timing information, it heralds the com-
panion photon, which is then in a quantum
mechanical single-photon state.
The researchers fabricated the 0.5
0.5-mm device using CMOS-compatible
processes on 200-mm silicon-on-insulator
wafers at an external collaborative re-
search foundry. The device operates at
room temperature and generates quantum
light in the near-1550-nm wavelength
range.
This is in the infrared range, and it is
technologically important because those
wavelengths are used in todays optical
fiber networks, said Shayan Mookherjea,
an associate professor of electrical and
computer engineering at UC San Diegos
Jacobs School of Engineering. Chip-scale
single-photon sources could be used in
quantum devices, networks and systems
to bring about enormous improvements
over their classical counterparts, in terms
of speed or security or computational
complexity.
In a recent demonstration, silicon wave-
guide circuits consisting of a network of
controllable couplers and interferometers
First heralded single photon generated from silicon
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showed quantum interference and entan-
glement manipulation using off-chip light
sources, and on-chip single-photon coun-
ters were formed using a superconducting
layer deposited as a cladding of a silicon
nanophotonic waveguide.
Silicon is not an efficient light emitter,
so creating a single-photon source using
silicon was challenging, said Junrong
Ong, a graduate student at UC San Diego.
Our demonstration of an on-chip, single-
photon source is a first step towards
achieving on a single silicon chip all the
three main components needed for fully
integrated quantum photonics.
While a variety of single-photon
sources have been developed, they often
involve nonstandard fabrication processes
or require cryogenic cooling, said Kartik
Srinivasan of NIST. The devices studied
by our team, in contrast, operate at room
temperature and are built using mature
fabrication techniques already applied in
the manufacturing of computer chips.
To generate single photons, the scien-
tists split pump photons into pairs at dif-
ferent wavelengths resulting from the
optical nonlinearity present in the device.
They next demonstrated the process of
heralded single-photon generation using
a novel silicon nanophotonic waveguide
consisting of a linear array of coupled
microresonators.
Our novel device not only provides
plug-and-play resonant enhancement of
desired processes, but it also suppresses
Dr. Shayan Mookherjea, associate professor in the
Micro-/Nanophotonics Lab at UC San Diego.
Courtesy of UC San Diego.
undesired processes by filtering out non-
resonant pump noise effects, Mookherjea
said.
The devices used in the project were
measured using telecommunications-band
single-photon counters developed by pro-
fessor Alberto Tosi and collaborators at
Polytechnic Institute. The scientists per-
formed a photon correlation measurement
in which the heralded light was split into
two separate paths and detected using sin-
gle-photon counters. They confirmed that,
when working with single photons, it
should not be possible to see heralded
photons on both detectors simultaneously,
known as anti-bunching.
The research was presented at CLEO:
2012, the Conference on Lasers and Elec-
tro-Optics, held in May in San Jose.
Ashley N. Paddock
ashley.paddock@photonics.com
Software gives photonics designers more power
GHENT, Belgium A new open source
software platform will offer greater power
and flexibility to designers of photonic
components and complex photonic inte-
grated circuits.
IPKISS, developed by Ghent University
and nanoelectronics research center Imec
of Louvain, is a generic and modular soft-
ware framework for the parametric design
of photonic integrated components and
circuits. It allows designers to quickly
define photonic components, directly sim-
ulate them in electromagnetic solvers and
integrate them into a circuit on a photo-
mask for fabrication. The platform also in-
tegrates with third-party simulators and
can be customized for other domains re-
lated to micro- and nanoelectronics, such
as microfluidics, plasmonics and micro-
electromechanical systems.
Internally, the component knows how
to generate its layout, its input and output
connections with other components, its
internal circuit representations and so on.
This ensures a separation between the
formal specification of a component or
circuit and different representations that
can be derived.
Components can be defined to accept
outside technology information provided
by the fab, effectively allowing a design
that could be fabricated in various loca-
tions. Design kits for Imecs silicon pho-
tonics technologies are available through
ePIXfab, a European foundry service for
silicon photonics prototyping, and through
Imec directly.
The IPKISS design approach results in
a productive design cycle with little mar-
gin for copy-and-paste errors, the develop-
ers say. This contrasts with a design work
flow that is static and cannot be influenced
by the user, or where the user is limited to
the functionality provided in a graphical
user interface.
The software is available by means of a
free GPLv2-licensed code base as well as
through custom developer and commercial
licenses. It was conceived in 2002 by the
universitys Photonic Research Group and
Imec as a programmable generator of
mask layouts written in Python, but it has
evolved significantly since its introduc-
tion. It was launched at SPIE Photonics
Europe 2012 during the exhibitor product
demonstrations.
TRACK
FAST
The IPKISS framework
is available under three
open source licenses:
For the community, a GPLv2-
licensed code base will allow
access to the framework at no
charge. The objective of this
license scheme is to encourage
people to develop the IPKISS
framework, so a thriving com-
munity can evolve around it.
For the developer, a custom
license with an annual fee allows
the licensee to develop plug-ins
and add-ons for distribution.
For software developers who wish
to incorporate IPKISS into a prod-
uct and bundle a modified ver-
sion of the code base with their
own additions, there is also a
custom commercial license;
this license and its cost will be
tailored to each individual case.
LME 2012 expands educational offerings
BY GEOFF GIORDANO
Editors note: This article was originally
published in the May/June issue of LIA
Today.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. LIA has unveiled
an expanded educational track for LME
2012, bringing more basic courses and
a pair of two-hour tutorials addressing
welding and joining and ultrafast laser
processes. The event will again offer
attendees guidance on creating effective,
efficient laser-based production systems
to increase profitability in a broad range
of applications, predominantly aerospace,
automotive and medical.
Three new courses addressing the fun-
damentals of laser additive manufacturing,
cutting and robotics have been added
along with the two tutorials. These will
appear alongside primer sessions on the
main types of lasers used for manufactur-
ing, creating laser systems and establish-
ing the return on investment.
In addition, a new two-day Laser Weld-
ing & Joining Workshop, chaired by LIA
past president and Schawlow award win-
ner Prof. Eckhard Beyer of Fraunhofer
IWS, will run concurrently with LME.
As many laser manufacturers and system
builders are engaged in the workshop, this
would be an ideal opportunity to get appli-
cation-related questions answered and get
new ideas on how to use lasers, Beyer
said. We are going to unite many people
from the laser community who are shaping
the way the world of lasers is today. This
will make it possible to address lasers
from the basics to high-end applications.
The workshop will feature 18 presenta-
tions, spread out over two days to allow
ample time for attendees to interact
directly with OEMs in the exhibit hall.
The workshop will start with short
courses presented by industrial research
experts to give a sound overview of laser
basics and current developments, Beyer
said. End users with long-standing expe-
rience will present their solutions to the
typical challenges of laser applications.
Some of those applications will include
power-train welding, remote welding, hy-
brid welding and micro applications, he
noted. Such applications are being refined
constantly as lasers continue to evolve.
We still see a big impact of the
LIAs Lasers for Manufacturing
Event will return Oct. 23-24
to the Renaissance Schaumburg
Convention Center Hotel.
712FastTrack_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:43 PM Page 34
712_SmithersApex_Pg35_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:10 PM Page 35
tremendous rise in beam quality and en-
ergy efficiency, Beyer said. Here the
application fields are expanded in many
ways: ultralow distortions or the realiza-
tion of new mixed-material joints like
copper-aluminum using precisely shaped
weld pools. Also, remote-beam applica-
tions are now standard; that was a field
restricted to expensive high-brightness
lasers just a few years ago.
Furthermore, laser size reduction is a
key development; many lasers are now
so small that machine integration is much
simpler and can be done in a way not pos-
sible before.
Focus on ultrafast lasers
Although this year it is a tutorial, next
year the program on ultrafast lasers could
grow into another two-day workshop, or-
ganizers said. For the inaugural session,
the educational track will feature technical
examples, a survey of Technology Readi-
ness Level (TRL) 1-9 materials and an
overview of markets and materials, said
LIA president Prof. Reinhart Poprawe of
Fraunhofer ILT. He added that the session
will be geared toward those involved with
optical systems and scanning technologies,
as well as toward users of precision ma-
chining applications with accuracy in the
range of 10 m and below.
The development of ultrafast lasers
with pulse durations of some 100 fs to
10 ps on an industrial scale with powers
up to the kilowatt class has led to a new
level of laser processing with ultimate
36
f
FASTTRACK
LME 2012 offers courses, tutorials, networking opportunities and more to give attendees guidance
on creating laser-based production systems for a broad range of applications including aerospace,
automotive and medical. Images courtesy of LIA.
The exhibition at LME 2012 will allow companies to connect with potential customers.
To learn more about LME,
or to register for the event,
visit www.laserevent.org.
processing quality, Poprawe said. Starting with physical basics
on ultrashort pulse interaction phenomena, the tutorial will give a
survey on different applications from electronics, energy topics
and tooling technology to large area processing for tribology
optimization and surface functionalization.
The tutorial is particularly suited for engineers and scientists
from machine suppliers and end users, Poprawe said. Also,
Manufacturers of ultrafast lasers and optical systems (scanning
technologies) will learn about the requirements on system
technology with respect to laser parameters and processing
parameters.
Ultrashort pulsed lasers are heading to the edge of mass in-
dustrialization and will undergo similar growth rates like other
lasers in the past, Poprawe added.
Applications for ultrafast lasers include the biomedical, auto-
motive and tool and molding industries; LED and OLED light-
guiding systems; photovoltaics and energy storage; and general
surface processing. The tutorial will help shed some light on the
current debate over what kind of pulse lengths are optimal for
what materials, how best to apply high-repetition lasers to work-
pieces, and how researchers and manufacturers can concentrate
on shortening manufacturing cycle times.
Safety education
In addition to spotlighting the bottom-line benefits of lasers,
the working systems at the event will put the need for laser safety
front and center.
LIA education director Gus Anibarro, also the events laser
safety officer, will give a one-hour presentation on assessing
beam and nonbeam hazards in the laser manufacturing environ-
ment and how to ensure the safety of operating personnel.
Anibarro will condense his extensive laser safety experience
into an information-packed session that highlights prevention
rudiments addressed more fully in LIAs two-, three- and five-day
laser safety courses. The crash course in proper laser use will
cover the classes of lasers, direct vs. reflected exposure, the need
to control laser-generated air contaminants, skin and eye hazards,
and how to choose eyewear of the proper optical density.
Networking made easy
Held in proximity to a large number of manufacturers and job
shops, LME has something for everyone, from those seeking to
refine current laser systems and applications to those assessing
new ways to employ lasers in production. While the educational
program provides tools to help assess the benefit of investing
in lasers, the exhibit floor provides a real-time marketplace to
discuss applications as well as primary and ancillary equipment
with top-tier suppliers.
To that end, LME will again feature the Laser Technology
Showcase, a stage at the front of the exhibit hall that will be
used for keynote educational presentations and shorter informa-
tional addresses by many companies in attendance. The show-
case format helped foster interaction between attendees seeking
solutions and a wide array of industry leaders able to lend their
expertise in person.
[At other shows] you get lost between the drill bits and the
cutting oil, said Mike Klos, general manager of Midwest opera-
tions for IPG Photonics in Novi, Mich., at last years event.
If youve ever looked at a laser application, this is the right
place to come. Everybodys here.
37
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FASTTRACK
BUSINESSBRIEFS
Idex Buys Precision Photonics Idex Corp.
of Lake Forest, Ill., has acquired optical compo-
nents maker Precision Photonics Corp. (PPC)
for $20 million in cash. PPC was founded in
Boulder, Colo., in 2000 by scientists-turned-
engineers from the neighboring NIST and JILA
research institutions. It specializes in optical
components and coatings for scientific research,
aerospace, telecommunications and electronics
manufacturing applications. PPC will operate
in Idexs Optics and Photonics platform within
the Health and Science Technologies segment,
joining Semrock and AT Films, which were ac-
quired in January 2011, and CVI Melles Griot,
which Idex bought in June 2011.
MetaStable Instruments Awarded Patent
MetaStable Instruments Inc. of St. Peters, Mo.,
has received US Patent No. 8,139,234 for a
technique that measures very low absorption
in certain thin-film optical coatings that are de-
posited in a vacuum chamber. The technique,
which helps coaters more quickly minimize the
absorption in high-power laser and ultrasensi-
tive optical applications, was developed under
a Missile Defense Agency Phase II Small Busi-
ness Innovation Research contract from the US
Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patter-
son Air Force Base. It was first demonstrated
at Deposition Research Laboratories Inc. of
St. Charles, Mo. MetaStable Instruments manu-
factures patented beam steerers.
WaveTec Vision Raises $16M WaveTec Vision
of Aliso Viejo, Calif., has closed a $16.5 million
financing round to commercialize its ORA
System diagnostic device for cataract surgery.
The round was led by new investor Burrill &
Co. WaveTec Visions previous investors also
participated in the round, including Versant
Ventures, Accuitive Medical Ventures, De Novo
Ventures and Gund Investment Corp. The ORA
System uses proprietary Optiwave technology
with a precise light source that enhances the
quality of the wavefront image to improve
measurement accuracy and ensure better
patient outcomes. Privately held WaveTec Vision
provides intraoperative wavefront measurement
technology for refractive cataract surgery.
Schott Meets Congress Schott North America
Inc. of Elmsford, N.Y., has met with US congres-
sional leaders to discuss the importance of the
optics industry to the country and ways in which
Congress can spur job creation in the industry
and support its critical high-technology manu-
facturing and growth. The visits are part of
Schotts involvement with SPIE in hosting the
annual Congressional Visits Day to raise
awareness of and support for science, engineer-
ing and technology at the federal level. Schott
Defense specifically met with congressional
leaders to advance investment in military glass
and optics technology.
UDC to Provide OLED Materials Universal
Display Corp. (UDC) of Ewing, N.J., will provide
its UniversalPHOLED phosphorescent organic
LED (OLED) materials to the Germany-based
Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems
IPMS, Center for Organic Materials and Elec-
tronic Devices Dresden (COMEDD) to drive
energy efficiency in its white OLED lighting
panels. In the two-year agreement, COMEDD
will develop and fabricate energy-efficient white
OLED panels for market development. The
UniversalPHOLED technology enables develop-
ment of low-power and eco-friendly displays
and white lighting.
Advanced Photonix Secures Contract Ad-
vanced Photonix Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., has
received a follow-on, 21-month, $1.5 million
contract from the US Air Force to provide tera-
hertz process control instrumentation to support
F-35 joint strike fighter production. The contract
is a commercialization pilot program award to
ensure the quality of specialty stealth coatings
applied by Northrop Grumman to a subsystem
on the F-35. Once completed, the system will
consist of the T-Ray 4000 control unit, which is
connected to a miniature terahertz transceiver
via a flexible umbilical up to 100 m in length
mounted onto an existing robot arm within a
paint booth.
JAI Acquires TVI Vision To strengthen its posi-
tion in the prism-based line-scan camera indus-
try, machine vision camera manufacturer JAI
Inc. of San Jose, Calif., has acquired TVI Vision
Oy of Helsinki. Terms of the agreement were
not disclosed. Under JAIs umbrella, TVI Vision,
a manufacturer of line-scan cameras for indus-
trial machine vision applications, will continue
to operate as an independent entity with its own
sales channel and production base in Helsinki.
The company will contribute to the JAI business
with a complete product portfolio, along with its
technology, customer bases and employees.
Fluoptics Opens US Office To market and sell
its offerings for preclinical in vivo fluorescence
imaging, Grenoble, France-based Fluoptics has
opened an office in Cambridge, Mass. The com-
pany develops solutions that combine a nonra-
dioactive fluorescent tracer targeting cancer
cells with its Fluobeam real-time optical imag-
ing system. The device, due to enter clinical
trials this year in Europe, is available to the
preclinical research market. We will now work
on accelerating the distribution of our preclini-
cal instruments in the US and Canada directly
or through key partnerships, said Odile Allard,
CEO of Fluoptics. The technology will illuminate
cancer cells in real time during surgery.
Company Licenses Face-Tracking Tech
Based in San Jose, Calif., DigitalOptics Corp.,
a wholly owned subsidiary of Tessera Technolo-
gies Inc., has licensed its Face Tracker technol-
ogy to South Korea-based Cammsys Co. Ltd.,
a camera module maker focused on the mobile
phone market. The technology enables cameras
to automatically adjust focus, color and expo-
sure settings, optimizing portraits even in chal-
lenging conditions. Using face-oriented algo-
rithms, the technology instantly detects faces in
a camera viewfinder and tracks them moving
through the image if the camera is rotated or
subjects shift their poses.
Ophir-Spiricon Receives Award Ophir-Spiri-
con of North Logan, Utah, was honored as the
outstanding technology business of the year by
f
FASTTRACK
the Cache Chamber of Commerce at its 2012
annual awards banquet at Utah State Univer-
sity. Ophir-Spiricon exemplifies the type of
company we want to encourage to stay, grow
and, in the future, locate in Cache Valley,
Utah, said Sandra Emile, CEO of the chamber.
They represent clean, innovative industry;
steady growth; and above-average paying jobs
with excellent employee benefits. They also be-
lieve in supporting the community. Ophir-Spiri-
con, a Newport Corp. brand, develops preci-
sion-based laser measurement equipment.
Clinical Trial Next for Laser Technique Carl
Zeiss Meditec AG of Dublin, Calif., and Jena,
Germany, has received conditional approval
from the FDA to initiate a clinical trial for its
ReLEx smile procedure to correct myopia. The
technique for refractive surgery combines fem-
tosecond laser technology and precise lenticule
extraction for minimally invasive laser vision
correction in a single system, the VisuMax fem-
tosecond laser. In lasik procedures, the excimer
laser vaporizes tissue, while the ReLEx smile
method generates a refractive lenticule in the
intact cornea with the femtosecond laser. The
surgeon then removes the lenticule through a
small incision without having to move the pa-
tient to an excimer laser.
Femtolaser Approved for Cataract Surgery
Illinois-based Abbotts iFS advanced femtosec-
ond laser has received FDA clearance for use in
corneal and cataract surgeries to create bow-
shaped or curved arcuate incisions. The fifth
generation of IntraLase technology, the iFS laser
creates lasik flaps and performs other corneal
incisions. The device allows surgeons to make
precise, bladeless arcuate incisions and to cus-
tomize each incision. The placement, length,
depth and radius of curvature can influence
the surgeons desired change to the cornea.
These parameters are often difficult to control
through traditional incisions using surgical
knives.
Schneider Kreuznach Expands into LEDs
With almost 100 years of optical design experi-
ence, Schneider Kreuznach of Bad Kreuznach,
Germany, has expanded into the LED market
with the development of a state-of-the-art light
engine. The new fiber light ultra-LED engine 6
was designed to couple light efficiently into a
fiber bundle. Fabricated around a high-bright-
ness LED source, the device delivers 1200-lm
flux for 6-mm-diameter active fibers, making it
suitable for medical applications where small-
diameter lightguides are commonly used.
Hamblin, Lavery Join Hologenix Board
Based in Santa Monica, Calif., Hologenix LLC,
maker of Celliant technology, has completed its
science advisory board with the appointments of
Drs. Michael R. Hamblin and Lawrence A. Lav-
ery. It also has established a research and de-
velopment laboratory. With more than 30 years
of experience, Hamblin is the principal investi-
gator at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine
at Massachusetts General Hospital in Cam-
bridge and an associate professor of dermatol-
ogy at Harvard Medical School. He is also a
member of the affiliated faculty of the Harvard-
MIT Div. of Health Science and Technology.
Lavery is a professor of surgery at the University
of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
SBIR Hall of Fame Inductee Sensors Unlim-
ited, part of Goodrich Corp.s ISR Systems busi-
ness, has been inducted into the Small Business
Administrations Small Business Innovation Re-
search (SBIR) Hall of Fame. A member of the
companys team accepted the award April 24
at the White House executive office building.
The awards are given to firms with a long
period of success in research, innovation and
commercialization. With SBIR funding, Sensors
Unlimited has developed shortwave-infrared
imager technology for military, industrial and
medical applications. Goodrich Corp. of Char-
lotte, N.C., supplies systems and services to
the aerospace and defense industries.
B&W Tek Receives Patent B&W Tek Inc. of
Newark, Del., has been awarded US Patent No.
8,135,249 for a fiber optic probe that mounts
directly above the objective lens of a microscope
to add spectroscopic function with minimal
39
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alteration to the optical path. The probe and
microscope can perform Raman and fluores-
cence analysis as well as microsampling using
easily reconfigurable excitation wavelengths.
This is the companys 18th patent since its
establishment in 1997. It produces optical spec-
troscopy, laser instrumentation and portable/
lab-grade Raman systems.
Cooke Corp. Becomes PCO-Tech To better
reflect its relationship with PCO AG of Kelheim,
Germany, Cooke Corp. of Romulus, Mich., has
changed its name to PCO-Tech Inc. The com-
pany will continue to operate under its current
structure. It also will continue to provide high-
speed imaging and lighting systems, CCD and
CMOS imaging systems, optical noncontact
measuring and monitoring instrumentation, and
NIST-traceable light-measurement instrumenta-
tion and services.
Flir Awarded $18M for Imaging Systems
The US Navy Expeditionary Combat Command
has awarded Flir Systems Inc. of Wilsonville,
Ore., a $17.9 million delivery order for its
SeaFlir maritime imaging systems for US Navy
patrol boats. The SeaFlir line is deployed for
search and rescue, interdiction, intelligence,
surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting
application missions. The systems are designed
for operation in the harshest maritime condi-
tions. Work for this contract will take place at
the companys Billerica, Mass., facility. Deliver-
ies are expected to begin in the third quarter
of this year. Flir supplies sensor systems that
enhance perception and awareness.
LIA, OSHA Renew Alliance The Occupational
Safety and Health Administration of Washington
and the Laser Institute of America of Orlando,
Fla., have renewed their partnership for two
more years to reduce and prevent worker expo-
sure to laser beam and nonbeam hazards in
industrial, research and medical workplaces.
The organizations will develop fact sheets with
questions that should be asked at facilities that
use lasers and will conduct laser safety seminars
for OSHA field staff. They also will share infor-
mation on laser regulations and standards, the
effects that lasers have on the eyes and skin,
laser control measures and laser safety program
administration.
ASE Optics Europe Opened In Barcelona,
Spain, ASE Optics Europe was launched to
strengthen the European presence of Rochester
Precision Optics (RPO) and its subsidiary ASE
Optics, both of West Henrietta, N.Y. The new
firms opening is in response to the growing
demand for optics and photonics as enabling
technologies in Europe. It will provide optical
engineering and design for companies specializ-
ing in biotechnology, medical devices, and in-
dustrial and automotive technology. The office
will offer ASE Optics Discovery Service 20
hours of engineering for a set price which
can determine feasibility, define a problem or
identify a solution to a well-defined problem.
Company Certified as DoD Supplier Zephyr
Photonics of Zephyr Cove, Nev., has received
accreditation as a Category 1A Trusted Source
by the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA),
the highest designation awarded by the US De-
partment of Defense (DoD). The certification
recognizes the company as a trusted supplier
of foundry microelectronics goods and services
to the DoD and other end users within the US
government. Achieving this status assures the
DoD and prospective defense customers that
the companys solutions meet the highest stan-
dards of control and security. Zephyr has served
the defense community for more than 25 years.
Spectranetics Device Wins Approval Spectra-
netics Corp. of Colorado Springs, Colo., has
received FDA approval for its GlideLight Laser
Sheath for cardiac lead removal. GlideLight re-
quires 55 percent less force to advance than the
companys SLS II laser sheath, which, in turn,
needs significantly less force to advance than
mechanical telescoping sheaths. Mechanical
force is a leading cause of complications during
lead extraction, and reduced force improves the
control for safely removing leads, said Dr.
Bruce Wilkoff, director of cardiac pacing and
tachyarrhythmia devices at Cleveland Clinic,
and a nonpaid member of Spectranetics med-
ical advisory board.
40
f
FASTTRACK
GreenLight
LED-like solar cell absorbs,
emits light
A
new solar cell de-
signed to be more
like an LED, able to
emit light as well as absorb
it, could achieve efficiencies
close to 30 percent. Typical
solar cells theoretically can
harvest about 33.5 percent
of energy from sunlight, but
scientists have yet to reach
this efficiency.
Since 1961, scientists have
known that, under ideal con-
ditions, solar cells at most
will absorb and convert 33.5
percent of electrical energy
from incoming sunlight. Yet
for five decades, researchers
have been unsuccessful in
achieving this efficiency: As of 2010, the
highest anyone had reached was just more
than 26 percent.
Professor Eli Yablonovitch and col-
leagues at the University of California,
Berkeley, conducted research to under-
stand why such a significant gap remains
between the theoretical limit and the lesser
limit that researchers have achieved. What
they discovered was a relatively simple,
if perhaps counterintuitive, answer based
on a mathematical connection between
absorption and emission of light.
Fundamentally, its because theres
a thermodynamic link between absorp-
tion and emission, said Owen Miller,
a graduate student at UC Berkeley and
a member of Yablonovitchs group.
Designing solar cells to emit light, so
that photons do not become lost within
a cell, has the natural effect of increasing
the voltage produced.
If you have a solar cell that is a good
emitter of light, it also makes it produce
a higher voltage, Miller said, adding that
this would increase the amount of electri-
cal energy that can be harvested from the
cell for each unit of sunlight.
Photovoltaic manufacturer Alta De-
vices, co-founded by Yablonovitch, used
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(488nm 640nm tunable visible)
www.toptica.com/multicolor
Microscopes and cytometers depend on high-
end multi-color illumination systems. Reliability,
high intensity and compactness combined with
ease of use are a must for these instruments.
TOPTICAs multi-color solutions offer highest
power and unmatched stability, for example by
proprietary COOL
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this concept to create a prototype solar cell
made of gallium arsenide. The prototype
broke efficiency records, jumping from
26 to 28.3 percent. Designing the cell to
allow light to escape from it as easily as
possible was one reason for the increase.
What we demonstrated is that the bet-
ter a solar cell is at emitting photons, the
higher its voltage and the greater the effi-
ciency it can produce, Yablonovitch said.
The team presented its findings at
CLEO:2012, the Conference on Lasers
and Electro-Optics, in San Jose, Calif. l
A high-efficiency solar cell by Alta Devices. Courtesy of Alta Devices.
Erratum
The article Full spectrum boosts solar
cell power (GreenLight, May 2012,
p. 39) contained a factual error. Harry
Atwater of California Institute of
Technology and his colleague Albert
Polman of the FOM Institute for
Atomic and Molecular Physics in
Amsterdam did not claim to have
achieved solar-cell efficiency of 70
percent. The researchers say that such
goals are realistic and potentially
achievable, but that the milestone has
not yet been achieved.
712GreenLight_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:45 PM Page 41
All-Fiber Probes Hold Promise
for Medical Imaging Applications
O
ptical fiber components have been
widely used in optical communi-
cation, fiber laser systems, fiber
optic gyroscopes and fiber sensing appli-
cations. Recently, fiber optic probes have
been adopted for in vivo optical imaging
of internal tissues via optical coherent to-
mography (OCT), a technology used for
morphological imaging of biological sys-
tems such as the retina, vasculature and
gastrointestinal tract.
1
OCT interferomet -
rically measures the phase delay of an
injected light beam
2,3
onto a measured
surface. As a result, the cross-sectional
internal microstructure of architectural
morph ology can be visualized at high
resolution in micron scale.
The main advantages of using fiber
optic probes in OCT are: (1) high spatial
resolution at the micron level, wherein the
optical resolution is mainly determined by
the numerical aperture of the focusing ob-
jective; (2) cost-effectiveness, thanks to
high-volume manufacturing at low cost
via fiber fusion technology; and (3) tech-
nological flexibility with measurement
in either time or frequency domain or
via 1-D
1,4
or 2-D
5,6
methods.
Implementation and fabrication of these
probes require stable and well-controlled
fiber fusion and glass processing technolo-
gies. Automation is a must for consistent
and cost-effective mass production of
such devices. Furthermore, precision fiber
cleaving enables the accurate, clean and
cost-effective cuts required for creating
the fiber image guides used in different
varieties of endoscopes.
Fiber optic probes
For medical imaging applications, fiber
optic devices can be categorized as 1- or
2-D probes. Measurements usually are
made either coherently via an interferom -
eter to obtain the phase information or
incoherently to acquire the intensity infor-
mation. In OCT imaging, 1-D coherent
fiber optic probes deliver a focused beam
to the surface of an internal organ to make
a point-wise measurement of the phase or
time delay of the delivered beam relative
to its reference beam. Figure 1 is an illus-
tration of this type of probe for OCT im-
aging. To extract the 3-D morphological
information, the probe is rotated and
pulled back simultaneously; 3-D imag -
ing of the internal structure can then be
realized.
Figure 2 shows an example of this type
of optical probe. Typically, light at a
wavelength of approximately 1300 nm is
delivered from a superluminescent light-
emitting diode source through a single-
mode fiber. The beam is expanded via a
section of graded index (GRIN) fiber lens.
Optical fiber probes are still in the early stages of manufacturing, but filament fusion technology enables
many probe designs, from ball lenses to fiber lenses, among others. Cleaving fiber bundles with high quality
and good throughput facilitates their manufacturing and provides a cost-effective solution for device makers.
BY JEAN-MICHEL PELAPRAT
AND DR. BAISHI WANG, VYTRAN LLC
Figure 1. A window view of a 1-D fiber optic probe inside an artery. Images courtesy of Vytran LLC.
Figure 2. A schematic of a 1-D fiber optic probe.
712_Feat_Optics4HealthCare_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:39 PM Page 42
The beam is deflected by a mi-
croprism mounted at the end of
the fiber tip and is then deliv-
ered to the surface being ana-
lyzed. The beam reflected from
the surface is re-collected by
the probe and coupled back
into the fiber. This beam is
made to interfere with a refer-
ence beam so the phase or time
delay information can be ex-
tracted. Via this method, the
morphology of the internal
organ surface can be quantita-
tively measured. Spatial resolu-
tion of the measurement is de-
termined by the spot size of the
focused beam, usually around a
few microns. A variation of
this type of probe includes
using a different GRIN lens
and adding a spacer (usually coreless
fiber) between the GRIN lens and the opti-
cal fiber. Multiple GRIN lenses can be
used to achieve different optical properties
of the output beam.
Fabricating probes
The key optical properties of a fiber
optic probe similar to the one shown in
Figure 2 are focusing spot size and work-
ing distance, both of which are determined
by the numerical aperture and aberration
introduced by the focusing lens. In addi-
tion, any backreflection from the optical
interface must be suppressed to enhance
the signal-to-noise ratio. Mechanically,
the probe has to be rugged for long-term
stability and immune to vibration.
It is preferable to make this type of
probe all-fiber using high-quality fusion
splicing rather than the conventional free-
space optics approach. This provides some
distinct benefits: First, an all-fiber probe
does not require any alignment; it is also
more compact. Second, a fu-
sion-spliced fiber joint signifi-
cantly reduces the backreflec-
tion and improves the trans -
mission efficiency. As a result,
a better measurement signal-
to-noise ratio can be achieved.
Third, an all-fiber device is
more rugged and intrinsically
immune to ambient mechanical
vibration and temperature
change. Overall, it is more
reliable, consistent and cost-
effective.
Optically, the quality of the
focusing beam is crucial for
the imaging system to main-
tain high spatial resolution and
good measurement sensitivity.
For an all-fiber device, this
translates to a need for uni-
form heating around the fiber during the
fusion process to maintain good beam cir-
cularity. Also, the GRIN fiber length must
be precisely controlled to deliver the de-
sired optical properties of the exit focus-
ing beam.
When fabricating these fiber optic
probes, filament fusion technology (Fig -
ure 3), which is based on resistive heating,
provides several advantages. First, the fila-
ment has a circular shape, which main-
tains a uniform temperature circumferen-
Figure 3. A schematic of the filament fusion process.
Figure 4. Left: A schematic of several sections of fiber fused together. Right: A side view shows actual fused fibers
spliced using filament fusion and precise length control of the fibers.
Figure 5. Left: A fiber optic probe with a ball lens at the tip. Right: A complete all-fiber probe with capillary tube encapsulation.
tially and therefore leads to uniform heat-
ing around the fiber. Second, filament
fusion offers temperature control over a
wide range, which is important for pro-
cessing different types of fiber with vari-
ous optical characteristics or doping con-
centrations. Third, filament fusion is
highly consistent and repeatable. This
translates to a stable process and high
production consistency and yield. Fourth,
filament fusion produces a strong splice
between fibers with splice strength typi-
cally exceeding 200 kpsi. This ensures
long lifetime and robustness of the probe.
During the fusion process, control of
the GRIN fiber length is critical to achiev-
ing the desired optical characteristics of
the output beam. Position registry between
fiber splicing and cleaving is required to
precisely control the length of each spliced
fiber pair. Figure 4a schematically shows
several sections of fibers that are spliced
together; Figure 4b is the side-view image
of four sections of fibers with different
fiber lengths spliced together. The output
fiber is cleaved at an angle to suppress
backreflection.
Figures 5a and 5b show additional ex-
amples of fiber optic probes. The former
shows a fiber optic probe with a ball lens
tip; the latter, an encapsulated probe with
several fiber elements spliced together in-
side the capillary tube.
Image guides
In addition to using the 1-D pointwise
fiber probe for OCT, the fiber bundle, con-
sisting of several thousands of micron-
level fibers compactly arranged together,
is often used as an image guide for 2-D
coherent imaging.
6
Figure 6 is a schematic of such a fiber
imaging system based on a Michelson in-
terferometer configuration. The measure-
ment typically is made in time domain
using a broadband source or in frequency
domain using a tunable swept laser source
to extract the 2-D phase information.
One important aspect for producing this
type of system is how to process the end
face of the fiber bundle, which works as
a pathway to transmit thousands of light
beams through. High optical quality of the
bundle end face is critical to ensure good
visibility of the interference fringes and
therefore good performance of the system.
Polishing is typically used for producing a
high-quality flat surface on the bundle end
face. However, this is labor-intensive and
time-consuming, and polishing tends to
Fiber Optic Probes
Figure 7. A schematic of the tension-scribe fiber-cleaving method.
Figure 6. A 2-D coherent fiber bundle imaging setup based on Michelson interferometry.
have a rounding effect around the edge,
which could compromise surface flatness.
Alternatively, advanced fiber-cleaving
techniques, such as the tension-scribe
method, can be used to produce a mirror-
like flat end face on fibers with various
diameters. The tension-scribe fiber cleav-
ing method is schematically shown in Fig-
ure 7. During the cleaving process, a pre-
determined tension (based on the fibers
diameter) is applied to generate tensile
stress in a longitudinal direction. A blade
scribes the fiber vertically from the side to
create a crack. When a large enough crack
forms, the fiber can be cleaved to produce
a clean, high-quality fiber end face. Em-
bedded processes can precisely control the
cleaving process and make it fully auto-
matic. This method requires a special fiber
cleaver such as the LDC-400 Large Diam-
eter Cleaver from Vytran LLC.
The whole tension-scribe cleaving
process takes less than 30 seconds and
produces a surface with flatness generally
better than a polished surface. It can also
maintain a small cleave angle, which min-
imizes the deflection of the input and out-
put beams. Additionally, low cleave angle
is important for high-quality splicing if
the cleaved fibers are to be fusion spliced
together.
This method can be readily used for
cleaving image guides, whose size can be
more than 1 mm in diameter with several
thousands of fiber pixels. Figure 8 shows
an example of a cleaved bundle. The bun-
dle diameter is 670 m with 10,000 fiber
pixel count.
All-fiber based probes have demon-
strated technical superiority for both 1-
and 2-D optical imaging in OCT applica-
tions. Although fiber probes are still in the
early stage of manufacturing, market
demand will grow exponentially in the
years to come. Unique filament fusion
technology is enabling many probe de-
signs, from fiber lenses to ball lenses and
many others. The capability of cleaving
fiber image bundles with high quality and
good throughput facilitates their manufac-
turing and provides a cost-effective solu-
tion for device makers. Fully automated
fiber fusion systems based on filament fu-
sion and tension-scribe technology could
allow low-cost, high-volume manufactur-
ing of these fiber optic probes for medical
applications.
Meet the authors
Jean-Michel Pelaprat is CEO of Vytran LLC,
and Dr. Baishi Wang is its director of technol-
ogy; email: jmp@vytran.com.
References
1. G.J. Tearney et al (1996). Scanning single-
mode fiber optic catheter-endoscope for opti-
cal coherence tomography. Opt Lett, Vol. 21,
p. 543.
2. J.G. Fujimoto et al (1999). High resolution in
vivo intra-arterial imaging with optical co-
herence tomography. Heart, Vol. 82, p. 128.
3. Y.X Mao et al (2008). Fiber probes used in
optical coherent tomography. SPIE Proc
7099, Photonics North.
4. X. Li et al (2000). Imaging needle for optical
coherence tomography. Opt Lett, Vol. 25,
pp. 1520-1522.
5. T.Q. Xie et al (2006). GRIN lens rod based
probe for endoscopic spectral domain optical
coherence tomography. Opt Expr, Vol. 14,
p. 3238.
6. H.D. Ford and R.P Tatam (2009). Swept-
source OCT with coherent imaging fibre
bundles. 7503, 20th International Confer-
ence on Optical Fibre Sensors, Julian Jones
et al, eds.
45
Fermionics
4555 Runway St. Simi Valley, CA 93063
Tel (805) 582-0155 Fax (805) 582-1623
w w w . f e r m i o n i c s . c o m
Opto-Technology
Analog bandwidth to 8 GHz.
FC, SC, and ST receptacles.
Active diameter from 50 m to 5 mm.
Standard and custom ceramic
submounts.
TO-style packages available with flat
AR-coated windows, ball lens and
dome lens.
Standard axial pigtail packages and
miniature ceramic pigtail packages,
all available with low back-reflection
fiber.
Communications
Instrumention
Medical
Imaging / Sensing
Fiber Optic Probes
Figure 8. Images of a cleaved fiber bundle with 670-m diameter: (a) side view of a flat cleave angle;
(b) end view of the same cleaved bundle; (c) close-up view of the fiber bundles.
Nanoscale Biomaterials
Require Close Observation
BY LYNN SAVAGE,
FEATURES EDITOR
S
tudying useful materials is not limited
to macroscale structures such as sheet
metal, optical glass, wood or con-
crete. Some of the most exciting work
being done in materials research these days
is on a much tinier scale and has applica-
tions that can get well under your skin.
Polyurethane is already a useful and
ubiquitous material, found in common ob-
jects from skateboard wheels and Spandex
to wood sealer and foam insulation. It also
is found in many artificial body parts such
as replacement hip joints but while it is
strong and lightweight enough for these
applications, there is much room for im-
provement. Furthermore, interest in using
polyurethane for even finer structures,
such as artificial blood vessels and other
replacement tissues, is growing.
Improved polyurethane-based nanohy-
brids will be very useful for biomedical
applications, said Pralay Maiti, coordina-
tor of the School of Materials Science and
Technology at Banaras Hindu Universitys
Institute of Technology in Varanasi, India.
These amalgamated materials under de-
velopment which can be compared with
the doped crystals used in laser media and
in optical glass could be used to improve
the strength, durability and flexibility of
polyurethane-based biomaterials, and also
to add controlled drug delivery to the list
of tasks they can perform.
As with many polymers, polyurethane
molecules have the capacity to assemble
into long strands with no external influ-
ences. Such self-assembly results in some
synergistic effects, lending them strength
and toughness, Maiti said.
The formation of polymers through self-
assembly, however, is still full of mystery,
requiring careful analysis through multiple
techniques. Some polymers employ hydro-
gen bonds to form stacks of molecule-
thick sheets to become flat films useful for
biomaterial engineering. These can be
investigated using various techniques as
they go through several stages of forma-
tion. For example, when polymers begin
Replacement bones and blood vessels are just two types of artificial tissues
that require deep-imaging microscopy techniques to develop.
W
hen using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to characterize novel materials,
such as artificial biological tissues, there are a few logistical issues concerning
instrument setup and sample preparation.
Dido Yova of the National Technical University of Athens in Greece said that sample
preparation for AFM research is not complicated but noted that there are some crucially
important steps to take:
The type of sample and its size are very important. Sample dimensions must be realistic
because the majority of AFM stages put constraints on maximum sample size. For exam-
ple, a typical AFM stage can hold a sample measuring 50 50 20 mm, while the
maximum horizontal and vertical scan ranges are ~90 m and 1 to 20 m, respectively.
AFM probes must be able to access sample features directly; e.g., noteworthy features
located inside holes smaller than the AFM tip will not be reachable.
Samples must be rigidly mounted to the substrate. If the material is not rigidly adhered,
the probe can move the sample material to the edge of the scan range and the image ap-
pears as though there is nothing on the surface. Furthermore, fragments from the material
surface can become attached to the AFM probe, resulting in imaging artifacts.
Samples must be clean. If the surface is dirty, such as with a thick contamination layer,
the AFM probe must penetrate the contamination layer to reach the surface, resulting in
distortions in the final image.
Samples and their substrates must be mounted tightly to the AFM stage. Loose fittings will
make the system more prone to vibrations that reduce the resolution of the microscope.
Getting the most mileage
out of atomic force microscopy
Transmission electron microscopy image of a poly-
urethane nanohybrid, showing the dispersion of
two-dimensional nanoclay within the polyurethane
matrix. Courtesy of the American Chemical Society.
Differential interference contrast microscopy reveals
the ability of cells to adhere to the nanohybrid sub-
strate. Courtesy of the American Chemical Society.
712_MaterialsFeat_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:38 PM Page 46
as molecular planes stacked together via
hydrogen bonds, researchers use small-
angle neutron scattering and x-ray diffrac-
tometry analysis. When one polymer
progresses to its next stage of formation,
atomic force microscopy becomes useful.
When polymers at this stage begin to
accumulate into tiny clusters discernible
as crystallites, they can be viewed by
optical microscopes.
Ultimately, improving polyurethane and
similar polymers by tuning them with
added materials will depend upon using
the right analytical tool.
Turning polyurethane into a biomate-
rial useful for becoming substitute veins,
arteries or other fine tissues will depend
on adding dopants that not only increase
strength and toughness, but also help the
material hold onto living cells. The poly-
mer is the scaffold upon which living
tissues are hosted. The added material that
Maitis group is focused on is a derivative
of montmorillonite, or magnesium alu-
minum silicate, which the researchers call
nanoclay.
The nanoclay substance is added prior
to the two-step process used to create
fresh batches of polyurethane. In the
first step, a prepolymer material plus
nanoclay is prepared. The second step,
which controls strength and durability,
is the extension of the linking polymeric
chain via materials such as hydroquinone
or biphenol.
The main purpose of chain extension
is the reaction of unreacted di-isocyanates
with diols, which results in the higher
molecular weight of the polyurethanes,
Maiti said. His group used a series of
chain extenders to test their effect on
the properties of the final polyurethane/
nanoclay development.
To examine the various versions of
clay-infused polyurethane, Maiti and his
colleagues turned to various microscopy
techniques. They used a polarizing optical
microscope made by Leitz (now part of
Leica Microsystems of Wetzlar, Germany)
to examine the sheets surface morphol-
ogy, capturing its finely segmented struc-
ture. An atomic force microscope made
by NT-MDT Co. of Moscow and set in
tapping mode determined the domain
structure of the sheets, indicating the size
of hard-segmented zones created with
the added nanoclay.
A scanning electron microscope from
Tokyo-based Hitachi High-Technologies
Corp. showed the surface morphology at
higher magnification than an optical mi-
croscope provides, Maiti said, and x-ray
and small-angle-neutron scattering tech-
niques helped reveal the intricacies of
layer spacing and of larger assemblies
made up of several molecular sheets,
respectively.
Lastly, the group used a transmission
electron microscope made by FEI Co. of
Hillsboro, Ore., to study the dispersion
of two-dimensional nanoclays within the
polyurethane molecular matrix.
The unique feature of this work is that
we could capture every possible step of
the self-assembly phenomena, starting
from molecular sheet (nanometer dimen-
sion) to bigger agglomerates (micron
scale) using those imaging and scattering
techniques, Maiti said.
Building collagen scaffolds
Another major target of biomaterial
engineers is collagen, the most abundant
protein found in people. Collagen is a
basic component of the extracellular
matrix the backing board that holds
cells together in a swatch of tissue and
it possesses unique properties, including
negligible cytotoxic response and ready
availability that make it widely used
as biomaterial.
The value of collagen as biomaterial
has led research on [its] use in scaffolds
for ligament repair, collagen grafts for
scar and burn repair, and the engineering
of osteochondral tissue, said Dido Yova,
director of the Biomedical Optics and
Applied Biophysics Laboratory at the
National Technical University of Athens
in Greece. As with polyurethane, collagen
is a candidate material for repairing or
replacing heart valves and bones.
To work well within the body, collagen,
polyurethane and similar materials must
be biocompatible and characterized from
Top left: Collagen fibers formed on mica surface. Top right: The atomically
flat surface of a freshly cleaved mica substrate. Bottom: The D band (67 and
100 nm) as it was imaged in collagen fibrils on mica. Courtesy of Dido Yova,
National Technical University of Athens.
Topographic images of polystyrene particle surfaces (PPS) used as potential AFM
substrate. On top are representations of the hexagonal packing of the particles.
Courtesy of Dido Yova.
controllable processing conditions. They
also must be robust and hydrophilic,
which helps them support cell attachment.
Yova and her colleagues are working to
form collagen-based biomaterials with an
eye toward controlling surface characteris-
tics, such as roughness and the size and
orientation of collagen fibers.
[Our] aim is to develop nanostructured
collagen films, while the surface retains the
bulk properties of collagen, she said. It is
very challenging to understand and control
the spatial organization of adsorbed protein
layers, like collagen, in the nanoscale.
Type I collagen, which is the most
common fiberlike form of the material,
consists of three amino acid chains that
form rod-shaped triple helixes, which self-
assemble into fibrils. Although it is largely
self-assembling, it still is sensitive to the
effects of cellular activities, particularly
in young or healing tissues, Yova said.
The complex structure of type I collagen
presents as different morphologies in dif-
ferent tissues, yielding different functions.
This complicates attempts to direct colla-
gen formation as well as the design and
creation of artificial structures.
To fully characterize the progression of
collagen fibril and thin films as they form,
Yova and her team chiefly use an atomic
force microscope (AFM) made by Veeco
(but manufactured since 2010 by Bruker
Corp. of Billerica, Mass.).
Using an AFM for delicate materials re-
search is common but presents its own set
of setup issues (see sidebar). Choosing the
appropriate substrate is important as well,
and this task greatly depends on the sam-
ples to be imaged. Rough surfaces are not
useful as a substrate material; therefore,
the most widely used materials are glass
and mica especially muscovite mica.
Mica is one of the smoothest substrates,
with a roughness of only ~0.1 nm, and the
use of freshly cleaved mica provides a clean
surface which does not demand a further
method for removing contamination, Yova
said. Mica is readily available and inexpen-
sive, as well as hydrophilic, which is desir-
able. By comparison, glass is more than
three times as rough (0.3 to 0.5 nm). Silicon
and highly ordered pyrolytic graphite
(HOPG) also can be used. HOPG is very
useful in some studies because it can be
reused numerous times, Yova said, but it is
hydrophobic and more costly than the other
choices. In recent experiments, Yovas group
also tested polystyrene beads as a possible
substrate material. Polystyrene is transpar-
ent, nontoxic, stable and inexpensive.
AFM is a very powerful technique
for studying biomaterials, since it provides
high-resolution imaging of structure,
combined with measurement of surface
properties, combined with measurement of
surface properties and surface-dependent
intermolecular interactions under different
conditions, Yova said.
Her team continues to test various
types of substrates and collagen deposi-
tion techniques to find the best ways to
establish novel biomaterials from the
nanoscale to the macroscale. Its ultimate
goal is to fully clarify the roles played
by various parameters and to determine
the best characteristics for collagen-
based biomaterials.
Thin collagen films will be used to in-
vestigate cell-biomaterial interactions so as
to correlate specific biomaterial nanocharac-
teristics with cells behavior, she said.
Biomaterials
See us at Intersolar, Booth #5441
and Optics & Photonics, Booth #1028
Left: A 3-D topographic image (20 20 m via tapping-mode AFM) presenting the aging of PPS after
six months, showing a crack 100 nm wide. Top right: The height profile of a single horizontal line from the
left previous image. Bottom right: A schematic of how the AFM measures the height of the surface crack.
Courtesy of Dido Yova.
712_MaterialsFeat_Layout 1 6/26/12 10:16 AM Page 48
A more useful plaque
Polyurethane is a practical and safe arti-
ficial substance, and collagen, a ubiquitous
protein in mammalian structures, but less
benign materials may also be directed
toward helpfulness. Amyloid plaques are
known for confounding neuronal signals
in the brains of patients with Huntingtons,
Parkinsons and Alzheimers diseases.
These plaques are composed of protein
fibers, but recent research indicates that
these fibers can be used to help shape
novel biomaterial formation.
Whether naturally occurring or specifi-
cally designed, amyloid fibers are good
candidates for making nanoscale biomate-
rials because they efficiently self-assemble
into well-defined structures and are rela-
tively inexpensive, said Juan Jos Valle-
Delgado of the Institute for Bioengineer-
ing of Catalonia near Barcelona, Spain.
Valle and his colleagues are using AFM
and a technique called single-molecule
force spectroscopy to suss out the best
way to use amyloid fibers, or fibrils, to
support new nanostructures.
AFMs combination of high sensitivity
and the ability to operate in liquid envi-
ronments was attractive to Valles team
for the characterization of the fibrils. The
researchers considered transmission elec-
tron microscopy (TEM) as well, but that
technique requires samples to be dried,
which could affect the way in which the
proteins change shape (conformation);
it also could affect the final structure of
the assembled fibril. Cryo-TEM can avoid
that uncertainty, Valle said, but many
images must be processed to obtain a
high-resolution computer reconstruction.
With AFM, he noted, the tip geometry is
an important factor that affects the resolu-
tion. Horizontal dimensions are usually over-
estimated in AFM images because of the tip
geometry, but vertical dimensions are very
precise, he added. In the case of soft sam-
ples, such as amyloid fibrils, scanning with
the tip must be done very carefully to pre-
vent damaging the sample, which is some-
times very tricky in liquid environments.
The investigators used a Veeco AFM to
study the self-assembly of amyloid fibrils
derived from the human peptide hormone
amylin. Unlike Yovas group, Valle and his
colleagues chose HOPG as the appropriate
substrate material. They cleaved the
Biomaterials
AFM images show self-assembled wild-type (C-WT) and reverse-sequence (C-RETRO) human amylin during
formation of fibrils. Fibrils growing on top of a dense pack of other protofibrils are indicated by arrows (c).
Courtesy of Soft Matter, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
HOPG slab prior to depositing the sample
to obtain the cleanest, smoothest surface
possible.
Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite is a
quite smooth substrate, Valle said. How-
ever, unlike hydrophilic mica, HOPG is a
hydrophobic substrate. The hydrophobic
nature of HOPG could favor the adsorp-
tion of hydrophobic peptide aggregates.
The group used the Veeco AFM to
characterize the surface of the massing
fibrils, but turned to a different instrument,
made by Asylum Research of Santa Bar-
bara, Calif., to analyze the force binding
the peptides together as they lay on a
hydrophilic mica substrate. Force spec-
troscopy or single-molecule force
spectroscopy are names used in the AFM
community for a technique that measures
the binding forces between molecules of
interest for example, between an anti-
body and an antigen or to analyze the
mechanical properties of polymeric bio-
molecules such as proteins when they are
stretched.
Any AFM model can obtain both im-
ages and force measurements, but there is
a subtle difference between the two instru-
ments, Valle said.
The Asylum Research AFM was pre-
ferred for force measurements because
it is better designed to avoid drift when
moving over the substrate to collect force
curves [at] different points, he said.
Both techniques showed the researchers
that amyloid fibrils could be used as tem-
plates for nanoscale wires, with potential
application as guides for nerve cell growth
or as scaffolds for bone reconstruction.
Future work by biomaterial researchers
likely will be found in a wide range of re-
placement parts in everyones body.
Biomaterials
Lynn Savage
lynn.savage@photonics.com
AFM images show real-time deposition of RETRO protofibrils. Courtesy of Soft Matter, a journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
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712_Zygo_Pg51_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:10 PM Page 51
DPSS Lasers Give Medical
Device Manufacturing an Edge
M
edical device manufacturing is
becoming more challenging every
day as more functionality and
features are added to the injectors, pumps,
implants and other devices used to keep
people healthy. There is a growing need
for smaller devices with precise, high-
quality, tiny features, and techniques
beyond those found in traditional manu-
facturing are required to meet the chal-
lenge. Laser processing has been filling
the need for quite some time; today, lasers
are routinely used for marking, cutting
and drilling of various materials during
manufacturing of medical devices.
With almost anything related to human
health, there are stringent requirements for
materials and methods, and this is no less
true for medical device manufacturing.
The materials tend to be of high strength,
purity and chemical resistance, often mak-
ing them difficult to fabricate and process.
They also run the gamut of material types
corrosion-resistant and high-strength
metals such as stainless steel and titanium;
high-strength ceramics such as zirconia
and alumina; and an entire class of med-
ical-grade polymers composed of various
TPUs (thermoplastic polyurethanes), poly-
carbonates and fluoropolymers such as
PTFE (Teflon). Not only must the materi-
als be extremely pure, but manufacturing
processes such as drilling and cutting must
be as clean as possible leaving behind
minimal debris and residue to minimize
the need for costly and time-consuming
postprocessing.
The laser marketplace for medical de-
vice manufacturing continues to be domi-
nated by the high-average-power CO
2
and
the high-pulse-energy excimer. However,
as devices (and, therefore, features) con-
tinually shrink and become increasingly
specialized which leads to lower produc-
tion volumes these lasers are proving to
be unsuitable in some cases. Furthermore,
with the high cost of ownership often
associated with such lasers, medical
device manufacturers are eager to find
alternatives.
The performance of Q-switched diode-
pumped solid-state lasers spans a large
and growing range of powers, wave-
lengths and pulse durations, which is
helpful in addressing the myriad materials
used in medical devices. In addition, as
this laser technology continues to advance,
products are seeing significant improve-
ment in the areas of packaging, upfront
and ownership cost, ease of use, and
perhaps most important of all reliability.
One example of a Q-switched DPSS
laser system is the Spectra-Physics Ex-
plorer line, which includes 1064-, 532-
and 355-/349-nm wavelengths at average
power levels from 50 mW to 5 W all
within a narrow range of nanosecond
pulse durations (~5 to 20) and in a com-
pact design. Versions are optimized for
(1) a low pulse repetition frequency (PRF)
and high-pulse energy regime for the most
difficult-to-machine materials which is
used in the first example below of catheter
laser drilling and (2) at lower pulse
energies but higher PRFs, enabling fast
execution of less energy-intensive pro -
cesses which is used in the second
example be low of laser marking medical
devices.
Laser drilling for catheters
A common medical device manufactur-
ing process that uses lasers is catheter
hole-drilling and skiving, in which open-
ings in catheter tubes are machined. These
openings are used for venting, drug deliv-
ery and electrical wire conduit. Key re-
quirements include little or no residual de-
bris and very smooth edges to the features
after laser processing is completed. Often-
times, the tubing material is a polymer
that may be difficult to machine cleanly.
With a wide range of wavelengths, short pulse durations,
high average powers and high pulse energies, compact and
cost-effective diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers have
a promising future in medical device manufacturing.
BY JIM BOVATSEK, JRGEN NIEDERHOFER AND
DR. RAJESH S. PATEL, SPECTRA-PHYSICS
Figure 1. The power, pulse energy and pulse duration of a typical Explorer 349 laser system. Q-switched
diode-pumped solid-state lasers have a large and growing range of powers, wavelengths and pulse durations
to address the various materials used in medical devices. Images courtesy of Spectra-Physics.
712_Feat_SpectraPhysics_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:41 PM Page 52
Materials such as silicone, Teflon, PEEK
(polyetheretherketones) and TPUs such as
Tecothane are commonly used. Required
hole sizes range from 0.001 to 0.010 in.
(25 to 250 m), and tubing wall thick-
nesses are of similar dimension. For high-
est quality, lasers with UV wavelengths
and short pulse durations are used.
Recently, Innovative Laser Technolo-
gies Inc. (ILT) of Minneapolis was con-
tracted by one of its medical device cus-
tomers to build a tool for machining such
openings in polymer tubing. The system
incorporated a 349-nm UV laser along
with X-Y-Z motion, galvo-based beam
delivery and automated machine vision
for locating part features prior to drilling.
ILT had stringent requirements for pro-
cessing quality, but the throughput target
was achieved; the compact, capable sys-
tem impressed team members, ILT project
manager Jim Jacklen said. Another great
feature was the quick warm-up time. This
allowed part processing to begin as soon
as the system power-up was completed.
The short pulse widths and high pulse
energy of this type of laser are well suited
to cleanly machine these more difficult
materials; at 500-Hz operation, it will de-
liver ~150 J of pulse energy with a 4-ns
pulse duration (Figure 1). This translates
into a high peak power (the ratio of the
pulse energy to the pulse duration) of >35
kW. This is important because, for a fixed
optical spot size, peak power and pulse
energy can be primary determinants for
whether or not a laser ablates a particular
material. With the UV wavelength of 349
nm, many polymers will strongly absorb
the laser light and will therefore be cleanly
ablated by the laser.
Even if the absorption is somewhat
weak, however, a combined high energy
and short pulse width means that material
processing can still proceed without
resorting to extremely tight focusing,
which can be difficult to accomplish with
common scanning galvanometer-based
systems.
Laser simplicity and size also are im-
portant considerations for this application.
ILT has been providing laser tools to the
medical device industry for many years
and is uniquely positioned to provide
timely customized solutions. In this case,
however, the end customers time line
was too aggressive for a new tool design,
necessitating instead that the laser be
retrofitted into a larger, more typical work-
station for medical device manufacturing.
In order to meet a compressed project
lead time, an existing system design was
chosen that had been used with a different
type of laser ablation process, Jacklen
said. That type of laser was significantly
larger than the one selected, so the system
could have had an even smaller footprint,
he added.
The tool and the laser are suitable for
machining a variety of features in a vari-
ety of medical materials. In particular,
the optical delivery system was designed
with high-quality structuring of polymer
tubing in mind. One such polymer is
PEEK, a medical polymer with good me-
chanical strength and chemical resistance
over wide-ranging temperatures. With
proper process optimization, the laser
machined clean holes in PEEK material
with 0.003-in. (~80-m) wall thickness
(Figure 2).
The ablation of the polymer also had no
apparent swelling or burring of the mate-
rial at the edges of the holes, and very lit-
tle residual debris was observed. Com-
pressed air was applied during the process,
but no cleaning or other postprocessing
was performed on the features. Drilling
time for each hole was ~100 ms.
Marking applications
Marking of medical devices is another
large application space for lasers. Consid-
ering the wide range of materials and
marking dimensions, a variety of DPSS
laser systems can be of use for this appli-
cation. In addition, many of these lasers
are offered in high-PRF/low-pulse-energy
configurations, allowing lower-energy
pulses to arrive at rates of tens of thou-
sands to more than 100,000/s for high-
speed and gentle marking.
Of critical importance for this applica-
tion is that the marking process remove as
little material as possible because this will
leave behind the lowest amount of debris
contaminants. This implies that shorter-
pulse-duration lasers are a good fit because
Figure 2. Laser-drilled openings in smooth (left) and textured (right) surface PEEK polymer. With proper process
optimization, the laser machined clean holes in the medical polymer.
Figure 3. Low- (left) and high- (right) magnification photos of 2-D data-matrix marking in medical polymer.
This mark was generated with the Explorer 349 laser with a single-pulse-per-dot process.
there is shallower heating in the bulk of the
material and, therefore, a lower likelihood
of uncontrollable large-volume material
removal. This prerequisite also means that
a laser pulsing with lower energy but at a
higher PRF will be advantageous from a
process throughput point of view.
A common marking technique is a two-
dimensional data matrix. For materials
with strong absorption and a relatively low
threshold for ablation, each dot in the data
matrix can be realized with a single pulse.
In Figure 3, the 2-D data matrix was gen-
erated on a medical polymer with a single-
pulse-per-dot process. The relatively high
pulse energy can be used to make fairly
large matrix dots with just a single pulse
in this case, 65 m in diameter.
Marking time for this type and size of
feature is directly related to the lasers
PRF and the speed of the beam scanning
equipment, and is typically in the range of
tens to hundreds of milliseconds per ma-
trix. It is important to note that, with such
a single-pulse marking process applied
over a small area (micromarking), a high
laser PRF does not necessarily result in a
faster process because the equipment for
scanning the beam commonly cannot sup-
port more than a few kilohertz of laser
pulsing frequency.
Larger medical implants, including
those used for orthopedics, are fabricated
with much harder materials, such as hard
ceramics. Alumina (aluminum oxide, or
Al
2
O
3
) has been used for decades in ortho-
pedic implants such as hip replacements.
In addition, thinner coatings of alumina
can be applied to softer materials to impart
higher strength to the components.
To create a 2-D data-matrix mark in
alumina ceramic, a raster scan process
was used in which each marked pixel in
the matrix was composed of a group of
closely spaced horizontal lines (Figure 4).
This material was marked with 1.5 W
of power from a 532-nm laser system.
The dimension of each filled pixel in the
matrix is ~250 m and was generated with
~30-m raster spacing. Besides the data
matrix marking, the photo also demon-
strates the ability for gray-scale marking.
In this case, variable contrast is achieved
by changing the pulse energy (but with
a fixed average power) and the beam
scanning speed.
Medical device market outlook
Medical manufacturing is a growing
industry that shows no signs of slowing.
Physicians and other health professionals
are increasingly teaming up with scientists
and engineers to develop new technologies
for enhancing and extending human life.
Recent market research indicates world-
wide sales of medical devices at $300 bil-
lion in 2011.
1
The US has the largest med-
ical devices market, with estimated sales
of roughly $105 billion in 2011.
2
The aging population and the increases
in cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obe-
sity and hypertension are the driving fac-
tors for the bigger medical device market
in the US. Segments of the medical device
industry include instruments used in cardi-
ology, oncology, neurology, orthopedic,
aesthetic and health care information sys-
tems. The drug delivery and implantable
devices account for a large share of the
market for medical devices.
All indicators suggest that medical
device manufacturing will continue to
be strong for lasers for years to come.
Although excimer and CO
2
lasers are
a large majority of the market today, the
trend toward smaller, more complex and
more highly specialized medical devices is
driving the need for simpler, high-perfor-
mance laser solutions.
Meet the authors
Jim Bovatsek is applications laboratory man-
ager at Spectra-Physics in Santa Clara, Calif.;
email: jim.bovatsek@spectra-physics.com. Dr.
Rajesh S. Patel is director of strategic market-
ing at the same branch; email: raj.patel@spec
tra-physics.com. Jrgen Niederhofer is general
manager at Spectra-Physics in Stahnsdorf, Ger-
many; email: jurgen.niederhofer@spectra-
physics.com.
References
1. Zacks Investment Research, www.zacks.com/
stock/news/50398/Medical+Devices+Indus
try+Outlook+%96+April+2011.
2. Espicom Business Intelligence, www.espi
com.com/Prodcat2.nsf/Product_ID_Lookup/
00000110?OpenDocument.
54
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PICOE/ecIron/cs, lnc.
143 Sparks Ave, Pelham, NY 10803-1837
FAX 914-738-8225
DPSS Lasers
Figure 4. Fine-grain alumina ceramic marked with
a 532-nm Explorer laser system. A raster scan
process created a 2-D data-matrix mark in which
each marked pixel comprised a group of closely
spaced horizontal lines.
Beam Profiling Helps
Make Medical Devices Better
BY JOHN MCCAULEY, OPHIR-SPIRICON
A
pplying beam profiling data isnt
as difficult as new users might
think. But the best answers often
come from those who have applied beam
profiling practices in their own day-to-day
operations. So, to help me answer these
questions and address the stigmas related
to the applications of beam profiling, I
traveled to beautiful Lake Geneva, Wis.,
to see the engineers at Medicoil, a division
of R&L Spring Co., a supplier of precision
springs and wire forms to a wide range of
OEMs. Medicoil is a highly specialized
manufacturer of microprecision coiled and
formed wire products for the medical
device industry.
On a typical day, Medicoil manufactur-
ing engineer Ben Zimmerman ensures that
production is running smoothly. He takes
the lead on any new projects that come
through the door, working with customers
throughout a products life cycle, from
R&D to production, to make sure it is
manufactured correctly. Lead production
technician Joel Bryant works on the floor
with R&D and production laser opera-
tions, and with the maintenance of the
lasers that they use.
Historically, Medicoil has been in-
volved in manufacturing springs, coils and
windings, primarily for the medical device
community. As time has gone on, the com-
pany has gotten more involved with pro-
viding assembled medical components.
Its early use of lasers included glove box
spot-welding laser systems, which are sin-
gle-pulse Nd:YAG lasers that use conven-
tional optics and are housed in a small
single-user workstation.
Today, Medicoil employs glove box and
computer numerical control welding ma-
chines. Its laser processes include the use
of pulsed Nd:YAG lasers for micro spot
welding; however, cutting, drilling and
other laser processes are in the near future.
In addition, the company eventually will
design and apply its own automated work-
stations for its laser processes. Depending
on the process specification, each part will
be run through a setup and validation pro-
cedure to ensure that all settings and
ranges are documented and controlled.
Medicoil also is working toward Inter-
national Organization for Standardization
(ISO) and American Welding Society
(AWS) standards compliance. These
standards are not currently required, but
Bryant and Zimmerman both realize that
as laser processing grows as a niche, the
medical community will be faced with ad-
ditional compliance standards from the
Food and Drug Administration and ISO.
We took the step forward [implementing
a laser validation program] before the cus-
tomers were requiring it, as we want to
know where our processes are, Zimmer-
man said.
Medicoil has been conducting laser
power measurements for some time now
but Bryant said the company had not been
using power meters to their full potential.
We did a check every morning, wrote
down what the power was, and that was
about it, he said. We didnt really moni-
tor that because we didnt know what to
do with it.
Eventually realizing that these lasers
had far greater potential than their current
usage, they decided to educate themselves
The amount of time and energy needed to invest in the setup and use
of an untried, but useful, piece of equipment can be daunting. But once
some of the basics are explained, the initial effort seems far more
palatable. Here is a look at how one company implemented beam
profiling to improve its manufacturing processes.
A camera-based beam-profiling system, a thermopile energy sensor and a photodiode sensor
for capturing temporal pulse shapes. Images courtesy of The Ophir Photonics Group and Medicoil.
Beam Profiling Medicoil Feat_Layout 1 6/26/12 10:58 AM Page 55
on other laser manufacturing applications
and on how best to develop measurement
practices and processes to help in meeting
forthcoming industry standards.
Hands-on measurement
Representatives from Medicoil attended
one of a series of laser beam processing
courses conducted by Simon Engel, presi-
dent of HDE Technologies Inc. Engel is
an independent consultant who conducts
courses on laser beam diagnostics as well
as laser systems and process validation,
among other topics.
That class was a huge eye-opener,
Bryant said. Before, we just plinked
along with our little welders and our
power meters, and we thought everything
was good. Then we went to Simon Engels
class on beam diagnostics and beam pro-
filing and realized that there is so much
more out there, not only in terms of what
lasers can do, but also what we should be
checking on the lasers.
A simple power check is a small frac-
tion of what you need to be looking at
with your laser beam to validate your
process and your equipment. We came
back from that class armed with a lot of
knowledge but also afraid, thinking, We
dont do any of that! We had better start!
Thats what broke us into laser manufac-
turing on a larger scale.
Working closely with production,
Bryant was now armed with knowledge
about how to set up the laser and monitor
its current process and performance. Zim-
merman took the knowledge and applied
it as someone working more closely with
customers, ensuring that the lasers would
be doing exactly what the company said
they would be doing and providing
proof.
Learning on the fly
Zimmerman and Bryant still needed to
discuss which laser measurement products
could best help them achieve these aggres-
sive new goals. An on-site demonstration
of different beam profiling systems helped
them to determine the best solution for
their laser processes and workstations.
They then acquired a spatial beam profiler
and a temporal pulse measurement system,
which they use in conjunction with a laser
power and energy measurement system.
It turns out that, as soon as they pur-
chased the equipment, a door opened for
them when a client asked for laser valida-
tion what a happy coincidence that they
had been working on their laser validation
program; otherwise, they would have
missed that opportunity.
Laser end users must understand the im-
portance of gathering, documenting and
analyzing all obtainable information about
their laser systems. During discussions
and on-site demonstrations, it is some-
times difficult to help potential customers
make the connection. Sometimes they say,
That sure is a pretty picture of my beam.
Now what am I supposed to do with this?
or That looks like its pretty difficult and
cumbersome to use. Im not sure I want
to get into any science experiments, or
Arent those beam profilers expensive?
The laser jocks at Medicoil have made
that connection. You can take the infor-
mation that youre getting off these [laser
measurement] products, Zimmerman
said, and you can establish a validated
process so that every time youre going to
run a certain part, or every time you need
to do a new setup, or every time you get
a new machine, youll be confident in
knowing that the machine or process is
running at the appropriate parameters.
Every time you run or use the laser,
youre sure that its set up the exact
same way.
Now some places it might not be as
stringent as in the medical device field, but
for us, it is definitely a huge priority. The
more proactive you are, the better. Take
this data, and set things up so that every
time you can say that process is validated.
That covers your company so your cus-
tomers know, We are here. We know that
we are validated. We can prove that our
process is the same every single time.
Ease of use
Zimmerman explained the ease of use
of a beam profiling system: At first it
may seem big, a lot of things going on. It
may seem out of this world to be measur-
ing laser beams. But, really, when it comes
down to it, once you take the steps, its
actually pretty easy.
They plan to apply their relatively new
knowledge and laser measurement prod-
ucts to their laser validation program.
Beam Profiling
Analyzing a laser beam
Beam profiling involves using a device such as
a camera or scanning slit to image all or part of a
laser beam, then analyzing the image using specialized
software. The data obtained from a beam profile
can be used in several ways.
A laser user adjusts the Z height of the laser to image the focused spot.
Weve been very happy with it, he said.
We just started doing our first process
validation, and were excited to actually
use it for its intended purpose. This will be
a major stepping-stone for our company,
and hopefully it really gets us out there,
showing that we are compliant.
It seems that beam profilers are still
viewed by a lot of industrial laser users as
high-level scientific equipment, more lux-
uries than necessities, difficult to set up
and operate and worse expensive.
These arguments may have been valid in
the past, but today, because of advances in
laser measurement technology and be-
cause of input from customers, providers
of laser measurement solutions can confi-
dently say that there are now products that
are simple, easy to set up and use, and
nowhere near as expensive as expected.
Anyone who works with lasers knows
that no two lasers are created equal. Even
with todays high-quality industrial lasers,
simply plugging in a duplicate set of
process parameters even into a duplicate
laser system in a duplicate workstation
from the same laser manufacturer or sys-
tem integrator does not mean that those
two lasers are going to perform the exact
same way every time. The only way to
know for sure that your lasers are per-
forming consistently from system to
system and from day to day is through a
comprehensive laser systems and process
validation program using the latest laser
beam measurement solutions.
Meet the author
John McCauley is Midwest regional sales
manager at The Ophir Photonics Group in Indi-
anapolis; email: john.mccauley@us.ophiropt.
com. For information about the laser system
and process validation classes discussed in this
article, contact Simon Engel of HDE Technolo-
gies Inc.; email: simonlaser@yahoo.com.
Beam Profiling
Beam profiling software shows a focused laser beam (left), an out-of-focus beam (center), and a focused beam, the energy in that pulse, and its temporal shape (right).
Electronics Augments Modern
Process Control Spectroscopy
BY GERT NOLL, TEC5USA INC.,
AND MATHIAS HOLZAPFEL, TEC5 AG
W
hen spectrometers were touchy
instruments confined to labora-
tories, the features that mat-
tered were the spectral range and resolu-
tion that the device could obtain without
sacrificing sensitivity. Timing did not mat-
ter because the single-element detectors
showed momentary values only. The over-
all readout times were measured in min-
utes rather than seconds or even less.
The grating or prism moved slowly to
scan a wavelength range, and users hoped
the spectrum did not change drastically
over time so that the final signal repre-
sented the same status as the initial values.
With the advent of detector arrays,
the whole picture changed: There was
no worry about slow-moving dispersive
elements anymore; a spectrum could be
captured in milliseconds.
As long as the spectrometer readout is
not electronically linked to any process,
the timing is in the hands of the operator,
to hit the key when the time is ripe. Sub-
second exposure times opened the door
to a whole new world: the spectral moni-
toring of fast processes. Faster measure-
ment allows acquisition of more samples,
so it provides more accurate in-line infor-
mation. Processes such as film coatings
could be controlled with much greater
precision, showing how important time
and timing are.
Part 1: Detector-Array Electronics
Modern process-control demands
The most important feature of a spec-
trometer is that it covers the spectral
region of interest. Often, the demand for
Good wavelength accuracy and
high sensitivity are key optical
features of a spectrometer
system, although resolution is
a matter of mechanical design.
However, in process control, the
detector array and the related
readout electronics are often
more crucial for a successful
application, and a large signal-
to-noise ratio and a high
dynamic range are sought-after
features. Moreover, monitoring
fast processes, such as a pulsed
solar simulator, requires
operating electronics with
precise timing.
Figure 1. Time distribution of a pulsed solar simulator. Courtesy of Tec5USA Inc.
Tech 5 Spectroscopy Feat_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:39 PM Page 58
resolution is mixed up with the demand
for accuracy. For example, if measuring
the slope of a transmission filter deter-
mines the cutoff wavelength, there is little
to discriminate between two wavelengths
but it is important that the slope is al-
ways measured at exactly the same wave-
length. Resolution often must be sacrificed
over sensitivity, because a fast measure-
ment can be accurate with respect to
intensity only if enough light is hitting
the detector, and the shorter measurement
times allow less light to hit the detector.
A larger bandwidth per pixel, however,
leads to more light per pixel. Thus, the
signal measured by each pixel is higher,
but the consequence is lower spectral reso-
lution. Therefore, a high sensitivity is the
first demand for fast measurements.
Without the millisecond readout of an
array, no fast processes can be observed or
controlled. Therefore, the second demand
is to measure quickly, which almost seems
to be a trivial statement.
To achieve a large dynamic range
the capability to measure small and large
signals the detector needs a high-well
capacity, and the electronics and the ana-
log-to-digital converter that match it. The
combination of detector and electronics
also needs a good readout quality with
low noise. At 16-bit conversion, a readout
noise of 1.5 counts rms results in a dy-
namic range of more than 40,000 (highest
divided by lowest signal measurable).
Some spectrometer systems give the
impression that although spectrometers
can be read out in milliseconds, exact
timing at what precise time a spectrome-
ter is read does not really matter. Solar
simulator monitoring shows that timing
does matter and that it is crucial to the
quality of a measurement.
Background: Timing, accuracy
To measure light intensity accurately,
the time period over which the light is
collected must be precisely controlled.
The readout time directly influences the
amount of measured signal: If the readout
time is 1 percent too long, then 1 percent
too much light is detected.
One timing aspect in a process environ-
ment is the reaction time from synchro-
nization to external events. Typically,
these events send a trigger signal, and
the measurement system must react on
this event within a specified time.
This reaction time depends only on
the electronics and its implemented work
mode. In nontriggered environments, the
electronics operates the detector array
in a free-running mode, where the sensor
is read out in time intervals based on the
integration time. To view a spectrum, an
operator can send a software request. If
the electronics is reading out the sensor
at the time of the request, then it finishes
the data acquisition before it records the
next spectrum.
In a standard triggered mode, the soft-
ware request is replaced by the trigger
event. As with the free-running mode, it
could take up to one integration period
until the spectrum of the sample requested
by the trigger event can be recorded. The
delay is that long if the detector array
electronics is busy with a readout cycle.
Such a delay may be several milliseconds,
which is not acceptable in many situa-
tions. For example, a sample on a con-
veyor belt might have passed already, or
the state of a technical process may have
altered within this delay time. Further-
more, a jitter would appear if the samples
were not passing by regularly or if the
monitored event had no exact time refer-
ence to the recording period. In such a
Figure 2. Comparison of spectrometer electronics quality: same event recorded with the same detector array
and parameters but different electronics. Courtesy of Tec5USA Inc.
Figure 3. Comparison of the spectral outputs of a solar simulator based on flashlamps and the standardized
emission spectrum of the sun as found on Earth. Courtesy of Tec5USA Inc.
case, a different detector-array work mode
is required. Rather than wait for the next
integration cycle, the electronics interrupts
the acquisition immediately after receiving
the trigger signal and starts a new scan.
This minimizes the delay to a few micro
seconds.
Another issue can be the readout rate.
On the millisecond timescale, the spectral
acquisition of silicon detector arrays is
not a simultaneous process. Often, the
pixels of a detector array are read out one
after the other so that each pixel represents
a slightly different time period. The last
pixel contains information from a com-
plete scan time a couple of milliseconds
later. This effect can be minimized only
by a high readout frequency (clock rate)
of the detector chip, a generally important
design goal.
A 1-MHz clock frequency is about the
highest frequency suitable for high accu-
racy, and the overall readout time is about
1 s (t
readout
= N
pixel
/f
clk
). For silicon PDAs
and CCDs, the readout time normally rep-
resents the shortest exposure or integration
time. To achieve an accuracy of 0.1 per-
cent (about 10 bits), the timing accuracy
must be 1 ms/1000, or about 1 s. How-
ever, to reach 16-bit accuracy, the timing
must be precise to 15 ns. Therefore, a
good analog-to-digital converter must be
accompanied by an exact timer for the in-
tegration time control. The downside to a
higher frequency is a lower quality of the
signal readout. The engineering goal is to
find the most suitable compromise.
Part 2: Solar Simulator Monitoring
Pulsed events
A typical modern application is the
monitoring of solar simulators, often
called flashers. The flashers emit milli-
second light pulses that spectrally mimic
the light generated by the sun. The simu-
lated sun helps to characterize solar cells
in a neutral, reproducible way. This appli-
cation is very demanding because of the
required precise triggering and fast data
acquisition. The emitted spectra vary not
only from flash to flash, but also over
the duration of each flash. Thus, a fast
readout is essential: More spectra can be
taken across the time axis of a flash if the
acquisition times are short, representing
a high time resolution.
Figure 1 (page 58) shows a typical
time distribution of a solar simulator
pulse. The efficiency of solar cells or
modules is measured during the equilib-
rium phase of this light pulse, because that
is when the emitted light spectrum is sta-
ble. During the rising and falling edge, the
flash spectrum is rapidly changing. Thus,
it is important to measure the spectrum at
a precise time after the flash has started.
Measuring at the right time on the
equilibrium phase needs a precise trigger
event. To achieve independency of the
Process Monitoring
Figure 5. Flasher in a solar test handling system.
Courtesy of ASYS Solar.
Figure 4. Detailed view of solar cell test station. Courtesy of ASYS Solar.
Figure 6. A system with spectrometer, trigger electronics and the (outside) detector surface to tap
the flash for trigger-signal generation. Courtesy of Tec5USA Inc.
flasher electronics, it is best to use the
flash itself. This requires the implementa-
tion of a separate single-element photo-
diode detector to detect the light.
Because the spectrometer is still sensi-
tive during the idle phase, a signal from
ambient light and dark current accumu-
lates on the detector over time. This signal
would affect the flash spectrum, so the
spectrometer detector is first cleaned by a
readout of the array without recording the
spectrum. This cleaning requires a special
detector-array work mode. (Modern elec-
tronics allows implementation of new
work modes by uploading firmware.)
Timing of wide-range systems
Recording the full flash spectrum over
a wide spectral range requires multiple
spectrometer units, each equipped with a
different sensor technology for the various
spectral ranges. Silicon-based detector
chips are sensitive from the ultraviolet up
to about 1 m, while InGaAs detectors
detect light above 1 m. Combining the
two detectors is a challenging application
that requires exact timing information for
both sensor arrays involved.
Unfortunately, both detector types have
different readout principles: Although a
Si-based detector is sensitive all the time,
an InGaAs detector is sensitive only dur-
ing the exposure phase. The latter is not
sensitive during the readout phase, which
lasts about 1 ms, if readout frequency is
high. This supports the request for a high
readout frequency.
If both sensors have to collect light over
the same equilibrium-phase period, they
both must be triggered at different time
positions. To compensate for the blind
phase, the near-IR spectrometer unit must
be triggered about 1 ms, or exactly the
readout time of the used chip, which is
earlier than the Si detector should be trig-
gered. Also, the cleaning timing differs
with various sensor technologies.
To prepare the flash emission determi-
nation described above, a so-called burst
mode acquires spectra across the complete
flash time period as quickly as possible.
A burst is a defined number of spectra
recorded one after the other without any
additional delay. These spectra provide
information of the various time zones of
the flash: Plotting a single wavelength
over time reveals the envelope of the
flash intensity over the time axis.
A good signal-to-noise ratio is required
for a high-accuracy measurement. Acquir-
ing as many spectra as possible during
the whole equilibrium phase is highly
recommended so that the signal quality
can be improved by averaging. However,
the acquisition window should exclude the
rising or falling edge of the pulse to avoid
a deformation of the spectral information.
To monitor fast processes, detector
arrays must be operated at fast readout
rates; short integration times require
timing accuracy in the nanosecond range.
A flasher monitor needs a delay function-
ality to confine the spectral measurement
to the equilibrium phase only, and timing
must be carefully controlled to account
for different cleaning and delay times
for the sensor technologies involved. Vari-
ous work modes must be implemented to
match the performance of the spectrometer
system precisely to the multifold task.
Meet the author
Dr. Gert Noll is general manager at Tec5USA
Inc. in Plainview, N.Y.; email: gert.noll@
tec5usa.com; Mathias Holzapfel is product
manager at TEC5 AG in Oberursel, Germany;
email: m.holzapfel@tec5.com.
61
Sales (877) 396-7846 FAX (585) 265-1033 www.optimaxsi.com/Aspheres
Visit us at SPIE Optics + Photonics, Booth #535
Process Monitoring
Deal with Bigger Deviations
BY HANK HOGAN
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
A
spheres are increasingly used for
a variety of applications because
they offer more performance than
spherical lenses. Also, the asphere boom
has been fueled by the availability of pre-
cision computer-controlled machining and
surfacing tools.
More and more vendors have the capa-
bility to manufacture aspheres than they
had in the past, said John F. Filhaber,
director of special programs at the Middle-
field, Conn.-based Zygo Corp. The com-
pany supplies optical metrology instru-
ments, precision optics, and associated
design and manufacturing services.
Once upon a time, surfaces rarely de-
parted from the spherical, and if they did,
it was by a few hundred microns at most.
Today, 800-m deviations are becoming
common and even larger numbers loom.
One measurement option is to use some
version of a laser interferometer, with a
wavefront from an asphere interfering
with that of a reference. The resulting
fringes illuminate how the actual surface
differs from the reference. If the difference
is large, the density of fringes will be high
and the fringes perhaps unresolvable.
A Fizeau interferometer overcomes this
by scanning the reference wavefront along
the surface and collecting data only where
the local fringe density is low. Conse-
quently, such instruments are accurate and
quick, and they can measure deviations
>800 m with a high data density. For
instance, Zygos laser-based Verifire
Asphere typically requires only minutes
to capture and process the data from up
to 700,000 points with a surface measure-
ment repeatability of less than 10 nm,
Filhaber said.
Another asphere metrology technique is
profilometry, in which a probe traces out
the surface profile. Advantages include the
ability to handle a variety of slopes and
shapes. Disadvantages involve speed and
data density, which are related because
more data can be extracted at the cost of a
longer scan time. Another drawback is that
the Z-resolution will not be as fine as it
would be with an interferometer.
Shape and resolution
For its part, optics manufacturer Opti-
max Systems Inc. of Ontario, N.Y., uses
both interferometry- and profilometry-
based methods, said engineer Brandon
Light. The choice between the two comes
down to asphere shape and the required
resolution, as well as to the cost and time
needed to do the test.
The latter can involve much more than
what the test itself requires. For instance,
computer-generated holograms can enable
interferometry of very complex aspheres,
with deviations in the hundreds of mi-
crons. In this case, the reference wavefront
is generated from a carefully constructed
hologram. The technique is part-specific,
and the hologram can take months to fab-
ricate. It also can cost tens of thousands
of dollars.
Interferometry in general has benefited
from technological advances, Light said.
One of the big revolutions was the rise
New tools and the integration of measurement capabilities into design software are helping to solve
problems and scientists in academic and government laboratories are researching tomorrows solutions.
Data from asphere metrology systems show 3-D information (top) on form deviation from design parameters
and a base radius. Below are 2-D slices, such as might be provided by a stylus moving across the surface.
Courtesy of Zygo.
Aspheres
712AsphericOptics_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:14 PM Page 62
in a much more densely pitched focal
plane array.
For example, he noted that 640 480
arrays have been replaced by ones measur-
ing 1000 pixels on a side, leading to a
more than threefold pixel-count increase.
This greater density enables finer fringes
to be resolved, increasing the amount of
deviation from the spherical that can be
handled. Further advances in this area
could provide still more improvement.
There are other innovations that could
have a significant impact. In particular, de-
sign software is beginning to incorporate
provisions for metrology capabilities.
This will constrain what can be designed
to what can be built and measured,
Light said.
QED Technologies International Inc. of
Rochester, N.Y., extends the capabilities of
interferometers through a divide-and-con-
quer approach. Its instruments segment an
asphere into subapertures. These cover the
entire surface, with enough overlap so that
errors resulting from the interferometer,
alignment or other sources can be cor-
rected out or, at least, quantified.
In theory, any shape can be measured
by dividing the surface into small enough
subapertures. Measurement time consider-
ations limit what can be done in practical
terms, as does the computing power re-
quired to align the various subapertures
together.
In its original stitching interferometer,
QED Technologies used a spherical wave-
front for its source, which has implications
for the size of subapertures. They must be
small enough to keep the fringe density
manageable. However, the latest iteration
of the technology changed that and
thereby increased the instruments asphere
measurement capability, said Andrew
Kulawiec, company president.
We introduced what we called the
Variable Optical Null device, or VON,
which is basically an optical null lens that
is configurable to nearly match the shape
of each subaperture in the asphere, he
said.
The company recently announced its
own interferometer, which is optimized for
stitching. This enables measurements with
higher fringe densities and greater con-
trast.
QED Technologies also is working to
get metrology and other constraints into
design software. This is being done
through the use of polynomials that better
describe an aspheres shape. Investigations
Top, a stitching interferometer can measure a steeply curved asphere surface precisely by segmenting it
into subapertures. Courtesy of Optimax Systems.
Bottom, using a variable optical null enhances interferometric metrology by allowing a reference wavefront
to more closely match a surface. Courtesy of QED Technologies.
have shown that this approach can lead to
better overall system performance and
looser assembly tolerances, Kulawiec said.
An example of an advance in profilom-
etry comes courtesy of OptiPro Systems
LLC of Ontario, N.Y. Originally devel-
oped to meet a US Navy requirement to
measure very steep surfaces, the com-
panys UltraSurf is a noncontact profil-
ometer with five axes of motion, which
allow it to make 3-D measurements by
tracing over an asphere. This is done while
maintaining the probe perpendicular to the
surface.
That last item is important because it
enables an optical probe using low-coher-
ence interferometry to measure near and
far sides as well as thickness of a compo-
nent simultaneously. The material must be
transparent to the wavelength used and of
uniform thickness. Also, keeping the probe
at right angles to the surface means that
almost any shape can be measured.
This optically based profilometer has an
advantage over interferometers. It works
with a bright probe that sits near the
asphere and doesnt illuminate the entire
surface at once.
You can measure parts in a ground
state or a polished state, said Edward
Fess, an OptiPro senior research engineer.
Its a focused spot, so theres enough
light intensity so that it can get reflections
back even from a ground surface.
The scan of a surface is done at 100-nm
accuracy, which is close to that from an
interferometer. Scans take from 30 s to 30
min, depending upon the density of col-
lected data points. Measurements must be
spaced closely enough to capture periodic
surface fluctuations that arise from grind-
ing and polishing, which generally means
points spaced from 100 m to as much as
5 mm apart, Fess said.
Looking ahead
As for the future of asphere metrology,
one place to keep an eye on is the Univer-
sity of Arizona in Tucson. There, a group
led by James H. Burge, a professor of
optical sciences and astronomy, pushes
measurement technology to the limit. It
has to so as to build the big mirrors and
other optics that power advanced tele-
scopes.
Burge has worked with interferometers
and profilometers, often pioneering tech-
Asphere Metrology
Method Cost of Test Setup
1
Setup Time
2
Test Time
3
Tolerance Limit Maximum Departure Comments
Surface Contact Measurement
Coordinate Measuring Low Minutes ~10 Min 5 m mm No required symmetry;
Machine requires datum and fixturing
Profilometry Low Minutes ~5 Min 0.5 m 25 mm Most common method;
provides only 2-D data
Surface Testing in Reflection
Spherical Wavefronts Low Minutes ~10 Min 0.1 Fringes 10 m Zernike subtraction;
fringe density limited
Computer-Generated High Months ~20 Min 0.25 Fringes mm No required symmetry;
Hologram part-specific
Spherical Null Reflection High Weeks ~10 Min 0.1 Fringes 100 m Part-specific
Parabola/Ellipse Average Hours ~30 Min 0.1 Fringes mm 1 k 0
Subaperture Stitching Average Minutes ~30 Min 0.1 Fringes 650 m Absolute test
Annular Ring Stitching Average Minutes ~15 Min 0.1 Fringes 800 m Discontinuous at sagittal
zero curvature
Lens Testing in Transmission
Transmitted Average Hours ~10 Min 0.1 Fringes 50 m Must be well-behaved
Wavefront Error aspheric lens
Computer-Generated High Months ~20 Min 0.25 Fringes mm No required symmetry;
Hologram part-specific
Spherical Null Transmitted High Weeks ~10 Min 0.1 Fringes ~100 m Part-specific
Wavefront Error
1
Relative cost of tooling and labor for each test
2
Includes time to obtain needed components and alignment of system
3
Includes time for alignment of unit under test, data collection and analysis
Comparing Asphere Metrology Methods
The method works by modulating what
is on the screen, such as by shifting shapes
around or altering their color. The test
must be carefully designed and the detec-
tor properly calibrated. The payoff is a
flexible approach that can be used to test
an optical component, achieving the same
accuracy as computer-generated hologram
interferometry at a cost of a few thousand
dollars. The technique can even measure
the performance of an entire optical sys-
tem by placing the screen at one end and
the detector at the other.
Finally, at the National Institute for
Standards and Technology in Gaithers-
burg, Md., physicist Ulf Griesmann and
others are working on the metrology of
precision surfaces, such as those found in
high-performance optics, disk drives and
artificial joints. Recently, they have been
delving into holograms for interferometric
asphere metrology to understand what the
limitations are. They also want to develop
methods that will improve hologram man-
ufacturing and complex surface metrology.
One challenge is micron or smaller place-
ment errors across distances of tens of
millimeters.
Successful technology development will
be transferred to industry, and asphere
metrology will benefit. But Griesmann
doubts that whatever is devised will lead
to a single measurement technique.
In metrology, he said, theres never a
one-size-fits-all solution.
hank.hogan@photonics.com
Asphere Metrology
Five axes of motion allow this profilometer to
measure almost any asphere shape. Courtesy of
OptiPro.
The XCaliber interferometer enables NIST researchers to do surface metrology of precision optics,
including aspheres. Courtesy of NIST.
niques. One example is the swing arm op-
tical coordinate measuring machine, a pro-
filometer with a distance-measuring inter-
ferometric probe.
The groups latest method involves
screens, such as those found in large mon-
itors or televisions. These form what
Burge calls a software configurable optical
test system, or SCOTS, which can be used
for metrology of various surfaces.
To measure a mirror, all you do is take
a computer screen and put images on that
screen. You look at that screen in reflec-
tion off the mirror. Basically, the distor-
tions that you see have the information on
the mirror surface irregularity, Burge
said.
Optics & Optics Fabrication
New 80 80 FPA for High-Speed MWIR Detection
New Infrared Technologies brings to the market the new uncooled MWIR
FPA of 80 80 pixels: high-speed MWIR (1 to 5 m) data acquisition at the
thrilling speed of 2500 frames per second (at 80 80, full frame, snapshot
mode) in real uncooled operation. The new FPA has the ROIC (readout
integrated circuit) monolithically integrated, digital interface for easier
integration and individual pixel dark current correction. A low-res version
(32 32) is also available (10,000 fps at 32 32). The new FPAs from New
Infrared Technologies: uncooled MWIR imaging faster and larger than ever!
+34 91 632 43 63
sales@niteurope.com
www.niteurope.com
Custom Precision Optics
DiMaxx Technologies specializes in custom precision optics such as windows,
spherical lenses, prisms, flow tubes and polished metal surfaces. We fabricate
laser-quality optics for the medical, scientific, military, biotechnology and
other markets. Typical specifications include fused silica and BK-7 surface
roughness of <3 , with surface quality of 10-5 or better. Optics from
3 to 300 mm. CNC experts for high-accuracy machined glass components.
(530) 888-1942
info@dimaxxtech.com
www.DiMaxxTech.com
Measuring Lens Centering, Air Spacing
and Center Thickness with One Instrument
OptiCentric
3D is a two-in-one solution for the detailed investigation of

assembled objective lenses. It combines the OptiCentric
centering error
measurement technology with the low-coherence interferometer OptiSurf
,
measuring the air spacing and center thickness within the optical system.
This cross-interaction procedure allows aligning the lens system fast and
precise. This provides a significant increase of measurement accuracy
and detailed quality information:
Centering errors of <0.1 m
Air spacing and thickness of <1 m
+49 4103 180 060
info@trioptics.com
www.trioptics.com
Full Power Across the Spectrum
Optical filters from Chroma provide precise color separation, signal purity
and optical quality. Whether your application is fluorescence microscopy,
flow cytometry, confocal or multiphoton microscopy, or other applications
requiring precision optics, our filters provide optimum results. BP/LP/SP *
Multiband * Notch * Dichroic Mirrors * Polychroic Mirrors * UV/VIS/NIR *
AR Coatings * Hot/Cold Mirrors * ND/AG/AL Mirrors * Laser Grade and more,
engineered and manufactured by a team of employee-owners committed to
bringing you the finest optical filters, filter sets and optics solutions.
(800) 824-7662
sales@chroma.com
www.chroma.com
New Product! 2-m Isolators
New 2-m isolators from Innovation Photonics operate from
1.9 to 2.5 m and offer features including:
4 mm Aperture
Tunable Wavelength
Transmittance: >90%
Isolation: >30 dB
A catalog is available upon request.
(973) 857-8380
info@innpho.com
www.innpho.com
712_Spotlight_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:42 PM Page 66
Very Long Wavelength Infrared (VLWIR) Filters
DSIs new very long wavelength infrared (VLWIR) filters include narrow
and wide bandpass filters (NBP and WBP), long- and shortwave pass
filters (LWP and SWP), and antireflection (AR) coatings. They provide high
transmittance over the 12m to beyond the 22m-wavelength region.
They readily pass all standard environmental tests and can be repeatedly
cycled between ambient and cryogenic temperatures without degradation.
Commonly used VLWIR substrates include germanium (Ge), zinc selenide
(ZnSe), silicon (Si) and indium antimonide (InSb). Ideal for remote sensing,
chemical analysis, astrophysics/astronomy, and horizon sensors.
(707) 573-6700
solutions@depsci.com
www.depsci.com
Automatic Centering Machine with Robot
Model SPCM-M1-AT50 from Mildex centers and bevels lenses or plano
workpieces in a fully automatic cycle, including loading and unloading of
the workpieces by robot. The machine has two integrated lens holding pallets.
Depending upon lens size, up to 600 lenses can be loaded for automatic
processing. Once processing parameters are set by the operator, the machine
can run uninterrupted for four to eight hours. The small footprint saves
factory floor space.
(585) 473-6540
info@mildex.com
www.mildex.com
Complete Turnkey Solutions
PG&O supplies complete in-house turnkey optics solutions, including
precision and commercial components, thin-film coatings, fabrication
and a large, readily available inventory of glass. Products include windows,
mirrors, prisms and assembled optics, from square, rectangular and circular
parts to complex shapes and precision optical prisms. Ideal for military/
defense, avionics displays, medical, life sciences, imaging, digital cinema,
solar, industrial and astronomy applications.
(714) 540-0126
info@pgo.com
www.pgo.com
New sCMOS Camera
The new Zyla 5.5-megapixel scientific CMOS (sCMOS) camera is ideal
for research and OEM usage. Zyla sCMOS offers a 100-fps rate, rolling
and snapshot (global) shutter modes, and ultralow noise performance
in a light, compact and cost-effective design. Zyla achieves down to
1.2-electron rms read noise and can read out the 5.5-megapixel sensor at
a sustained 100 fps through a 10-tap Camera Link interface. A highly cost-
effective 3-tap version is also available, offering up to 30 fps.
(800) 296-1579
info@andor.com
andor.com/zyla
Precision Polymer Optics
G-S Plastic Optics manufactures precision polymer optics for imaging, scan-
ning, detection and illumination applications. In addition to an extensive cata-
log offering of plastic optics, the company has in-house capability to provide
custom-designed diamond-turned and injection-molded prototypes, produc-
tion injection molding of optics, thin-film and reflective coatings, and inte-
grated optical solutions for the military, medical, commercial and consumer
markets. (585) 295-0200
info@gsoptics.com
www.gsoptics.com
Custom Optics
Swift Glass specializes in providing short lead times for high-volume
manufacturing requiring optical tolerances and multiple diameter variances.
Capabilities include: double-sided lapping and polishing; ceramic and crystal
lapping and polishing; precision parallel components; scratch-dig to 20-10;
machining center for close dimensions; surface coating availability; optical
edge polishing; color filters; -in. diameter to 36 in. square.
(607) 733-7166
quality@swiftglass.com
www.swiftglass.com
AccuFiz Compact Laser Interferometer
The compact AccuFiz
Fizeau laser interferometer offers an unmatched

combination of performance, quality and value for highly accurate shape
and transmitted wavefront quality measurements. The AccuFiz provides
unparalleled accuracy at midspatial frequencies, letting you measure
polishing artifacts that other interferometers simply miss.
Standard features include a touch-screen remote, Smart Zoom
for
repeatable lateral resolution at all zoom settings, and user-friendly 4Sight
analysis software. Optional Dynamic Interferometry
capability lets you

measure despite vibration, without an air table.
(800) 261-6640
info@4dtechnology.com
www.4dtechnology.com
High-Performance CCD Lenses
Westech offers a full line of lenses for linear and area arrays. Focal lengths
range from 1.8 to 150 mm. Apertures start at f/0.8. Lenses are 4, 6, 8 or
9+ element construction. Lens design and engineering services are always
available, and Westech offers total quality management. Westech specializes
in producing high-volume precision optics. Dont pay catalog prices for
OEM optics.
(585) 377-2490
jcarlino@westechoptical.com
www.westechoptical.com
Top-Hat Laser Beam Shaper
Osela Inc.s Top-Hat Beam Shaper converts a Gaussian laser beam to a
top profile with high uniformity and high efficiency within a compact and
flexible housing with dimensions as small as 19 mm in diameter by 30 mm
in length. Its all-glass design is achromatic and offers smooth, slow intensity
variations with no high-frequency noise.
(514) 426-2262
info@oselainc.com
www.oselainc.com
Nanopositioning Stages, Motors and Sensors, and Hexapods
PIs precision positioners, piezo actuators, flexure guided stages and
capacitive sensors combine subnanometer stability with submillisecond
responsiveness.
1- to 6-axis stages with many digital control options
Ultrasonic motors for high-speed automation
Piezo stepping linear motors for high-force, high-precision applications
Hexapods for optics alignment
Hybrid linear translation stages for long travel and nanometer precision
(508) 832-3456
info@pi-usa.us
www.pi-usa.us

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712_PrismAwardsAd_Pg69_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:11 PM Page 69
70
Silicon Polarizing Beamsplitter Cubes
REO has introduced silicon polarizing beam-
splitter cubes for the mid-infrared range. The
optics offer 2- to 6-m-bandwidth operation,
transmission >95% and an extinction ratio
>100,000:1. The devices are available in sizes
from 1 to 75 mm. Typical laser damage thresh-
old is in the 1.5-J/cm
2
range for a 75-ns pulse
at 2.05 m. This is achieved through the use
of ion-beam-sputtered coatings and assembly
based on proprietary Activated Covalent Bond-
ing technology, which eliminates all organics
or glues from the beam path, produces a strong
bond and delivers low transmitted wavefront
distortion. The cubes are durable and insensitive
to shock, vibration and high g forces. The optics
are used in cryogenic environments and in in-
dustrial, military and space-borne applications.
The polarizing beamsplitter cubes are used with
optical parametric oscillators and optical isola-
tion for fiber and quantum cascade lasers.
REO
markd@reoinc.com
16-Megapixel Camera
PPT Vision has extended its M-Series embedded
vision family of cameras with a 16-megapixel
model supported by an updated version of the
proprietary Impact Software Suite. The GigE-
compatible camera is designed for inspections
that require high-resolution, high-quality im-
ages and a wide field of view, and it withstands
the rigors of manufacturing settings. Applica-
tions include flat panel LCD and printed circuit
board inspections, and printing processes.
Features include Class 1 CCD sensors, indus-
trial-grade construction and testing, good ther-
mal management, low-noise performance and
precise alignment of a large sensor, with vari-
ance of <0.1 mm. Version 10.4 of the Impact
Software Suite supports all M-Series embedded
vision systems. A simpler interface makes navi-
gation easy, with faster, more efficient image-
saving and image-filtering tools, and a new
calibration mode is available for user-entered,
point-to-point calibration.
PPT Vision
nancyk@pptvision.com
Miniature Spectrometer
B&W Tek Inc.s Exemplar miniature spectrometer includes an em-
bedded processor for onboard data processing, averaging, smooth-
ing and automatic dark subtraction. USB 3.0 communication transfers
data at 900 spectra per second, and multichannel capabilities deliver
trigger delay of 14 ns and gate jitter of 1 ns. Applications include high-speed binning and sorting,
reaction kinetics and process monitoring. Supporting up to 16 simultaneous channels, the instrument
performs multipoint sampling and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. End-user and OEM cus-
tomers can use the onboard data processing and scalable, multichannel configurations to achieve
simultaneous analysis at nanosecond accuracies. Features include temperature compensation, a
2048-element detector and a 16-bit digitizer with a >2-MHz readout speed. The device is suitable
for UV, VIS and NIR applications with spectral configurations from 200 to 1050 nm and resolutions
between 0.5 and 4 nm. Custom configurations are available.
B&W Tek Inc.
sales@bwtek.com
Hyperspectral Imager
Bodkin Design & Engineering LLC has launched the VNIR-90,
a snapshot hyperspectral imager based on proprietary and
patented HyperPixel Array technology. The imager has an
optical processor that captures the full hyperspectral data
cube in each video frame instantly. The system can be
mounted on moving platforms or used as a handheld device
for capturing transient events or moving objects. Covering
the spectral range from 500 to 910 nm, it produces a data
cube of 55 44 spatial pixels 90 spectral bins. Average
spectral resolution is 4.56 nm per bin. Interchangeable
C-mount lenses enable variable fields of view. The system
is supplied with a USB interface, a laptop PC, and loaded
capture software to produce environment-for-visualizing-
images-compatible data cubes. Applications include foliage
detection, characterization of skin lesions, detection of bullets in flight and development of cosmetics.
Bodkin Design & Engineering LLC
sales@bodkindesign.com
White LED
Excelitas Technologies has announced an
addition to its ACULED family of chip-on-
board LED packages. It combines corre-
lated color temperature (CCT), a high
color rendering index (CRI), a high R9
value and the light output needed for
medical applications including surgical,
dental and examination lighting. Four
separately addressable LED chips provide tunable CCTs from 3500 to 5500 K. CRIs are greater than
95, with R9 values above 90. R9 value indicates how well the light shows deep, saturated shades of
red, a critical color in surgical applications. The LED provides good heat transfer from the chips to
the substrate and heat sink. It is designed with closely spaced chips, enabling improved color mixing
and compact optics. The standard four-chip chip-on-board package (Model R3C6) is supplied with
warm-white, cool-white, red and cyan LED dice.
Excelitas Technologies
media@excelitas.com
2-kW Fiber Laser
The JK2000FL 2-kW fiber laser revealed by JK Lasers
offers good beam quality and high processing power and
can be used with processing fibers with diameters from 100
to 300 m for cutting and welding sheet metal. It can cut
15-mm-thick low-carbon steel (LCS), 6-mm aluminum alloys
and 10-mm stainless steel (304SS), and can weld 8-mm LCS
and 304SS. It delivers stable output power and a consistent
focused spot size and beam profile over the power range. Pro-
prietary detachable plug-in prealigned beam delivery fibers
incorporate patented backreflection protection to shield the
laser from damage when processing highly reflective materials.
Wall-plug efficiency is >25%. The >300,000-h mean time to
failure for the laser pump sources extends system lifetime. Features
include software, fast modulation and pulse shaping. An optional time-share
unit simultaneously connects four separate workstations.
JK Lasers
sales@jklasers.com
IDEAS
BRIGHT
712BrightIdeaLeads_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:40 PM Page 70

Hyperspectral Retinal Imaging System
Targeting hyperspectral retinal imaging, Photon
etc. has unveiled the IRIS system for noninvasive
localization of biomolecules in the eye fundus.
Based on a mydriatic retinal camera and a pro-
prietary tunable laser source, the instrument
performs high-definition imaging from 420 to
1000 nm. It is a research tool for developing
treatments for diseases such as diabetic retinop -
athy and age-related macular degeneration. An
automatic spectral calibration setup guarantees
spectral reproducibility, while a photodiode pro-
vides temporal normalization of the light inten-
sity. The instrument includes a CCD camera and
an X-Y-Z manual positioning system. The illumi-
nation is based on proprietary and patented
Bragg grating filtering technology and enables
rapid and accurate wavelength selection from
a supercontinuum source. The system provides
noninvasive localization of structures and bio-
molecules in the retina using their specific
spectral signatures.
Photon etc.
info@photonetc.com
USB 3 Camera Software
IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbHs ver-
sion 4.0 software package supports the USB 3
uEye CP camera series. A new streaming func-
tion allows transfer of compressed H.264
(mpeg4) and mjpeg streams for mobile data ac-
quisition, surveillance and remote control of the
camera. All settings to access this feature can
easily be adjusted via uEye Cockpit. Another
new feature is the uEye programming interface
for Microsoft .NET. This object-oriented pro-
gramming interface is flexible and easy to use,
and it allows platform-independent program-
ming so that integrating inexpensive and effi-
cient applications is as easy as adapting appli-
cations when requirements change. V4.0 is
available for free at www.ueyesetup.com.
IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH
usasales@ids-imaging.com
PV Reference Cell
Konica Minolta Sensing Americas Inc. has
launched the AK-300 PV (photovoltaic) refer-
ence cell, a dedicated dye-sensitized solar cell
used as a standard point of calibration to en-
sure consistent measurements of photovoltaic
cells. It uses proprietary advanced optical filter
technology and was designed using an optical
filter mounted on a stable crystalline silicon
solar cell, rather than using traditional dye ma-
terials. Features include a spectral mismatch
error of <1%, durability against solar simulator
light, and zero errors caused by multiple reflec-
tions. The integrated cell has connectors for I-V
measurement as well as temperature measure-
ment. The built-in temperature sensor can be
connected to a commercially available tempera-
71
b BRIGHT IDEAS
712_BrightIdeas_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:29 PM Page 71
ture-controlled stage to achieve and maintain
the standard test condition of 25 C. Included
are the short-circuit current values used for
solar simulator adjustment.
Konica Minolta Sensing Americas Inc.
marketing@se.konicaminolta.us
Signal Analyzer
Agilent Technologies Inc.s EXA millimeter-wave
signal analyzer covers frequencies up to 44
GHz; with external mixing, it can cover up to
325 GHz. The analyzer is expandable, accom-
modates a wide variety of measurement appli-
cations and can be easily upgraded. Its porta -
bility makes it suitable for applications in
aerospace/defense and wireless communica-
tions backhaul. The system weighs 16 kg, pro-
duces sensitivity of 140 dBm/Hz across the V-
band (with proprietary smart harmonic mixers)
and enables accurate measurement of spurs
and harmonics. With its good phase-noise per-
formance, it meets tight regulations and test
requirements for millimeter-wave device design
and performance verification.
Agilent Technologies Inc.
contact _us@agilent.com
TCSPC Module
Aurea Technology has announced the SPD_AT,
its new near-infrared time-correlated single-
photon-counting (TCSPC) module. The ultra -
low-noise and high-quantum-efficiency 900-
to 1700-nm device includes a Geiger-mode
InGaAs avalanche photodiode and thermoelec-
tric coolers that ensure high detection efficiency
of up to 25%. Two versions are available:
the SPD_AT_M1 with one channel and the
SPD_AT_M2 with two channels. Applications
include near-infrared fluorescence spectros -
copy and photoluminescence.
Aurea Technology
jerome.prieur@aureatechnology.com
Filter Wheels
Finger Lakes Instrumentation has introduced its
latest generation of six- and 10-position high-
speed filter wheel systems for microscopy appli-
cations. The HS-625, HS-1025 and HS-1032
deliver filter exchange rates of up to 23 ms fully
loaded. The compact, space-saving design uses
advanced brushless servomotor technology with
all circuitry incorporated within the housing. No
additional control units are required. Systems
are available in configurations accommodating
25- or 32-mm filters. The filter wheels are sup-
plied with control software and a software de-
velopment kit and are compatible with Micro
Manager and most image analysis programs.
Features include a synchronous belt drive, se-
lectable speed and an RS-232 communications
interface. Mounting interface choices include C-
and bayonet-mount, with custom configurations
available.
Finger Lakes Instrumentation
info@flicamera.com
Control Center for Vision Systems
Cognex Corp. has released the Explorer control
center, which displays a graphical view of all
Cognex ID readers, and vision and visualization
systems connected to the network. It incorpo-
rates maintenance tools for backing up, restor-
ing or cloning systems, and for performing
firmware upgrades. The intuitive point-and-click
interface is easy to use and requires no training.
The control center displays the identity, type and
status of all Ethernet-connected In-Sight vision
systems, DataMan ID readers and VisionView
display devices on the network. Users can view
device settings including IP addresses and
firmware/software versions, execute firmware
updates, back up and restore multiple systems
simultaneously, clone systems when adding
more to the network, and add licenses for Vi-
sionView. The system is available free of charge
to all of the companys customers. It can be
downloaded at www.cognex.com/explorer.
Cognex Corp.
john.lewis@cognex.com
VLWIR Filters
Deposition Sciences Inc. has unveiled a line of
very long wavelength infrared (VLWIR) filters
that provide high transmittance over the 12-m
to beyond the 22-m wavelength region. Fabri-
cated using a proprietary and precise physical
vapor deposition process, the robust coatings
pass all environmental tests and can be repeat-
edly cycled between ambient and cryogenic
temperatures without degradation. They are
available with antireflection coatings in narrow-
and wide-bandpass, and in long- and short-
wave pass types. They can be applied to a vari-
ety of substrates, including germanium, zinc
selenide, silicon and indium antimonide. Edge
placement, transmission blocking ranges and
levels, and operating temperatures and angles
can be customized per specifications. Applica-
tions include remote sensing, chemical analysis,
astrophysics/astronomy and horizon sensors.
Deposition Sciences Inc.
solutions@depsci.com
Terahertz System
Advanced Photonix Inc.s T-Gauge terahertz sys-
tem was developed for use on the factory floor
for quality and process control during manufac-
ture of web processing and converting products.
Terahertz energys ability to penetrate noncon-
ducting materials, combined with the systems
high-speed data processing, enables nonde-
structive inspection of web-based products with
feedback for continuous process adjustments.
The nonnuclear system is sensitive to physical
and chemical composition changes in products,
can measure single- and multilayer thickness,
density and basis weight, and can detect sub-
surface defects and delamination. Manufactur-
ers can mount proprietary and patented fiber-
coupled sensors on a scanning frame without
contacting or impeding the product. They also
can collect more information than was previ-
ously possible, resulting in tighter tolerances
and improved quality. The system is aimed at
replacing nuclear gauges.
Advanced Photonix Inc.
ir@advancedphotonix.com
Single-Wavelength Laser Diode
Eblana Photonics Ltd. has made available a sin-
gle-wavelength 2000-nm laser diode module
based on the proprietary Discrete Mode laser
technology platform. The optically isolated laser
module uses a strained quantum well design to
provide stable distributed feedbacklike perform-
ance. It is available in wavelengths from 1995
to 2020 nm and is suited for carbon dioxide
detection using the 2004-nm absorption line.
It delivers high spectral purity, with a typical
side-mode-suppression ratio of 45 dB, and it
provides good device-to-device wavelength
and performance uniformity.
Eblana Photonics Ltd.
info@eblanaphotonics.com
Tailored Bar Architecture
Dilas has developed a modular diode laser con-
cept combining high power, high brightness,
wavelength stabilization and low weight.
72
b BRIGHT IDEAS
Through the optimization of semiconductor chip
structures and optical parameters, the tailored
bar (T-Bar) architecture delivers high beam
quality and high power using standard micro-
optic fast-and slow-axis collimators. The device
can handle multiple emitters during each manu-
facturing step to lessen complexity and enhance
reproducibility of the beam quality and the fiber
coupling. Lab results have demonstrated that
the optical output power is scaled from 180 W
coupled into a 100-m, 0.22-numerical-aper-
ture (NA) fiber up to 1.7 kW coupled into a
400-m, 0.22-NA fiber. A lightweight laser unit
with an output power of more than 300 W for a
200-m, 0.22-NA fiber with a weight vs. power
ratio of only 0.9-kg/kW can be produced.
Dilas
sales@dilas.com
15-m Camera
Flir Systems Tau SWIR (short-wavelength in-
frared) 15 is a rugged, compact and low-power
short-wave imager incorporating a proprietary
15-m-pixel 640 515 InGaAs focal plane
array. Designed for defense system developers
SWAP+C requirements in dismounted soldier
systems, and ground and aerial platforms, it ex-
hibits sensitivity of <50 e
noise at 20 C case
temperature and can be operated at integration
times of 100 s. It runs on <4 W, weighs <130
g, takes up 130 cm
2
of volume and operates
at 30 fps. It supports subwindowing when
higher frame rates are required. The sensor fea-
tures a thinned InGaAs detector that widens the
spectral response to 600 to 1700 nm and re-
duces blooming when viewing bright objects.
The camera produces nearly zero image latency
and is suitable for active-illuminated and range-
gated applications. Its optical interfaces support
M42 and C-mount lenses, and data interfaces
include Camera Link, low-voltage CMOS and
NTSC analog video.
Flir Systems
sales@flir.com
Round LEDs
Luminus Devices Inc. is releasing a family of
round LEDs that will accelerate the adoption of
solid-state technology by displacing conven-
tional light sources in high-brightness lighting
applications. The new round LED increases sys-
tem-level efficiency by as much as 30%, en-
abling customers to use a single LED to replace
a 250-W high-intensity-discharge lamp. Appli-
cations include medical, machine vision, port -
able and retail spot lighting. There are benefits
to fiber-coupled lighting systems, but whereas
the fiber and optic are round, the LED was
always square. This is resolved with the round
LED, which will enable replacement of the
300-W xenon lamp in applications such as
endoscopy.
Luminus Devices Inc.
sales@luminus.com
Single-Pulse LED Measurement System
Gigahertz-Optik Inc.s LED measurement system
comprises the BTS256-LED tester and LPS-20-
1500 LED power supply with S-BTS256-LED
software for single-pulse LED binning. The
meter, power supply and control software drive
and measure the test LED in single-pulse mode
and record the results. The compact tester
measures luminous flux, and spectral and color
data of LEDs in the visible spectrum. Its bi-tech-
nology light sensor offers a fine photometric re-
sponse photodiode for wide-dynamic-range flux
detection. A compact low-stray-light spectrome-
ter performs spectral color measurements. The
sensor photodiode makes pulse form profiling
measurements and operates in fast data logger
mode with a 1-ms sampling rate. The tester is
powered via USB when connected to a PC. The
microprocessor-based current and voltage
source is set up for remote control operation in
continuous-wave or single-pulse mode. Current
and voltage can be measured with 16-bit reso-
lution.
Gigahertz-Optik Inc.
b.angelo@gigahertz-optik.com
FIFO Isolators
Gooch & Housego has launched a line of high-
power fiber-in, fiber-out (FIFO) isolators for the
pulsed fiber laser market. It complements the
companys existing portfolio of high-power fiber
laser components, including kilowatt-class mul-
timode fiber combiners; single-mode fused tap
couplers and wavelength combiners; fiber-cou-
pled acousto-optic modulators; fiber end caps
and mode-field adapters; fiber-in, beam-out
isolators; and fiber-coupled second-harmonic-
generation modules. The FIFO isolator is used
between amplification stages in high-power
pulsed fiber laser systems to isolate the initial
lower power stages from backreflected pulses as
well as from parasitic lasing and is designed to
operate at average powers of >20 W.
Gooch & Housego
plc@goochandhousego.com
73
b BRIGHT IDEAS
Fiber-Coupled LED Light Engines
Innovations in Optics Inc.s LumiBright FC fiber-
coupled solid-state LED light engines replace
lasers and arc lamps in fiber optic applications
in industrial, life sciences and laboratory equip-
ment. They provide illumination for borescopes,
microscopes, machine vision, phototherapy,
medical endoscopy and UV curing as well as
for gel and blot imagers, real-time polymerase
chain reaction systems, cytometers, colony
counters, microplate and gene array readers,
evaporative light-scattering detectors for liquid
chromatography, and label-free systems using
surface plasmon resonance. The light engines
feature patented nonimaging optics and high-
brightness LED arrays, available with single or
multicolor options in spectral distribution rang-
ing from 365 nm through the near-infrared as
well as broadband white. The small footprint
enables integration into OEM or end-user
systems configured for tabletop, rack-mounted
and portable handheld devices.
Innovations in Optics Inc.
kevinc@innovationsinoptics.com
IR Sensor, Thermocouple Interface Kit
IRphotonics portable iCure IRT200 Thermo Meter
is a noncontact infrared sensor that measures the
temperature of objects based on their emitted in-
frared energy. It measures heat and converts it
into an electrical signal that is proportional to the
surface temperature of the cure zone. Working
with the iCure thermal spot curing system, it in-
cludes a power controller and a sensor. It offers a
temperature range of 50 to 975 C and a mea-
surement spot down to 0.9 mm. The iCure TCK200
USB Thermocouple Interface Kit integrates with it
for precise measurements of temperatures using
common contact thermocouples. It can be used to
calibrate the IRT200 and to perform process vali-
dation in the lab. It supports up to four J-, K-, E-
and T-type thermocouples; displays temperature in
Celsius, Fahrenheit and kelvin; uses terminal
blocks to interface to thermocouples with stripped
leads; connects directly to iCure via a USB port;
and delivers a sampling rate of 40 ms.
IRphotonics
sales@irphotonics.com
Mini CCD Spectrometer
Horiba Scientifics VS-7000+ mini CCD spec-
trometer outperforms front-illuminated and
back-illuminated CCDs, the company says,
making it suitable for industrial low-light appli-
cations such as fluorescence, emission, ab-
sorbance and reflectance. It offers coverage for
three spectral ranges: ultraviolet-visible, visible
and ultraviolet-near-infrared. It also provides a
high signal-to-noise ratio. The uncooled ultra-
compact spectrograph features a back-thinned
CCD with a very deep full well, two height op-
tions (300 and 1000 m) and a USB 2.0 inter-
face. Its sturdy single-optic design with a con-
74
b BRIGHT IDEAS
West
Photonics
Conferences & Courses
27 February 2013
Exhibition
BiOS Expo: 23 February 2013
Photonics West: 57 February 2013
Location
The Moscone Center
San Francisco, California, USA
Technologies
- BiOSBiomedical Optics
- OPTOIntegrated Optoelectronics
- LASELasers and Applications
- MOEMS-MEMSMicro & Nanofabrication
- Green Photonics
Optoelectronics, lasers, micro/nanophotonics,
and biomedical optics
Call for Papers
Submit your abstract by 23 July 2012
spie.org/pw2013
712_SPIE_PhoWest_Pg75_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:11 PM Page 75
cave grating offers light purity, and with no
moving parts or shutter, it is reliable for OEM
integration.
Horiba Scientific
joanne.lowy@horiba.com
29-Megapixel Camera
Imperx Inc. has introduced its four-tap Bobcat
camera series. Led by the 29-megapixel ICL-
B6640 Bobcat, the cameras operate over a tem-
perature range of 40 to 85 C and offer a
mean time between failures of >660,000 h at
40 C. The B6640 produces 6600 4400-pixel
resolution and operates at 5 fps at full resolu-
tion. Available in monochrome, color and True-
sense color, with 8-, 10- and 12-bit output,
the programmable camera consumes 7.8 W.
It measures 60 60 53 mm, is lightweight
and is enclosed in a rugged housing. It is suit-
able for military, industrial, medical and scien-
tific applications. Standard features include Base
or Medium Camera Link, binning of up to eight
pixels horizontally and vertically for variable
image resolution, a Truesense Imaging KAI-
29050 sensor, eight independent areas of
interest and five triggering modes.
Imperx Inc.
sales@imperx.com
Digital Microscope
Keyence Corp. of America has released the
VHX-2000 digital microscope, which integrates
zoom optics with a CCD camera, a 17-in. LCD
monitor, a light source, a controller and soft-
ware to streamline testing and improve inspec-
tion speed. Magnification ranges from 0.1 to
5000, and supported lighting techniques in-
clude bright- and dark-field, transmitted, polar-
ized and differential interference observation. A
color filter wheel allows users to choose a spe-
cific wavelength of light for their samples, and a
superresolution mode combines the blue filter
with proprietary pixel shift technology for high-
resolution imaging. The microscope can be
equipped with a motorized X-Y stage and mo-
torized Z-axis lens control. The image stitching
function can be completed with the push of a
button to produce up to a 20,000 20,000-
pixel image that expands the viewing area.
Keyence Corp. of America
microscopes@keyence.com
Light Measurement Systems
Labsphere Inc. has announced the illumia and
illumia pro series LED and light-measurement
systems. They measure the characteristics of
LEDs, arrays, and solid-state and traditional
lighting products, and offer a choice of four
76
b BRIGHT IDEAS
The latest in photonics for researchers, engineers,
product developers, clinicians and others in medicine,
biotechnology and other life sciences.
Subscribe at www.Photonics.com/Subscribe
From the publisher of
Photonics Spectra magazine.
MICROSCOPY
SPECTROSCOPY
IMAGING
OPTICS
LASERS
spectrometers and integrating spheres ranging
in size from 25 to 195 cm. The systems measure
total spectral flux, luminous flux, radiant flux,
chromaticity, correlated color temperature, color
rendering index, peak and dominant wave-
length, and luminous efficacy. With the addition
of a thermoelectric temperature control and
monitoring component, the illumia pro also per-
forms thermal, optical and electrical characteri-
zation. Proprietary MtrX-SPEC software delivers
spectral results in milliseconds. The companys
NIST-traceable, NVLAP-accredited calibrated
lamp standards allow manufacturers to move
product development from design to market
more quickly with in-house testing of thermal,
optical and electrical properties.
Labsphere Inc.
labsphere@labsphere.com
Laser Tracker Measurement
Hexagon Metrologys Version 1.1 firmware pro-
vides enhancements for the Leica AT401 Ab-
solute Tracker, which now features full-speed
digital readout for dynamic laser tracker mea-
surement and free-form surface inspection. The
portable 3-D system enables high-speed meas-
urements for large-scale inspection, component
adjustment, alignment, and building of jigs and
fixtures. It is used in inspection and tool building
for oversize components in the aerospace, nu-
clear, and solar and wind energy industries. The
upgrade introduces outdoor mode, which in-
creases performance when the tracker is used in
rain or snow. Other improvements include the
use of several reflectors in view of the sensor at
the same time. The laser trackers built-in WiFi
can be used in a companys encrypted WiFi in-
frastructure, even with several sensors in the
same network. The firmware allows the operator
to quickly see where reflectors are placed.
Hexagon Metrology
info@hexagonmetrology.us
Purged UV Spectrophotometer
McPherson Inc. has launched its latest VUVAS
scientific-grade spectrophotometer, which pro-
vides stable measurements over time. With a
long lamp life at short ultraviolet wavelengths
(120 nm), it is suited to analysis of doped and
crystalline materials as well as of deep-UV op-
tics and coatings. It provides direct optical char-
acterization of transmission, variable angle re-
flectance and gas cell absorbance. It offers
reproducible wavelength control throughout the
120- to 350-nm region, and sensitive signal re-
covery with lock in detectors controlled by
software. McPherson Spectrometer Control Soft-
ware provides single-point control for scanning
and data acquisition. Sample contamination is
minimized, and lamp life is extended via purge
controls that integrate sensitive oxygen sensors
and automatic low- and high-flow purge gas
channels. Accessories include light sources,
detectors and sample chambers.
McPherson Inc.
mcp@mcphersoninc.com
FTIR Spectrometer
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.s Nicolet iS50
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) research-grade
spectrometer is an all-in-one materials analysis
platform that can be upgraded from a simple
FTIR bench to a fully automated multispectral-
range system that acquires spectra from the far-
to the near-infrared. Users can initiate attenu-
ated total reflectance (ATR), Raman and NIR
modules, enabling access to these techniques
via the automatic beamsplitter exchanger. The
diamond ATR interface allows users to obtain IR
spectra in seconds, and an in-sample-compart-
ment Fourier transform Raman feature includes
a video microstage for point-and-shoot Raman
spectroscopy with no fluorescence. A fiber optic
and integrating sphere module enables collec-
tion of NIR spectra from a variety of bulk sam-
ples. Applications include pharmaceutical for-
mulation, polymer development, forensics,
art conservation, vibrational circular dichroism,
polarization-modulation infrared reflection
absorption spectroscopy and time-resolved
spectroscopy.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
analyze@thermofisher.com
Debris Shields
Debris shields from Optical Surfaces Ltd. protect
target-facing optics located in high-power laser
facilities. Using debris shields to protect final re-
flective or refractive focusing high-power optics
extends their lifetime. Manufacturing high-qual-
77
b BRIGHT IDEAS
ity debris shields requires producing a precision
wavefront on a flexible window with a high di-
ameter-to-thickness ratio. Working with glasses
including BK-7 and fused silica, which offer
good homogeneity and transmission from the
UV to the near-IR, the company provides shields
of virtually any shape and thickness. They are
available with up to a 600-mm diameter, typical
wavefront error of /10 and surface finish of
40-20 to 10-5.
Optical Surfaces Ltd.
sales@optisurf.com
1350-nm Lasers
SemiNex Corp. has announced the availability
of high-power 1350-nm lasers. The company is
offering this wavelength in raw bars, chips, sub-
mounts and fiber-coupled packages. The new
technology benefits medical applications such
as lipid reduction procedures. The 1350-nm
bars are standard 19-emitter bars with total
power >40 W, continuous wave, and slope
efficiency >40%. Single-emitter 1350-nm sub-
mounts yield 6 W of continuous-wave power,
and the fiber-coupled products provide 4.8 W,
also continuous wave.
SemiNex Corp.
info@seminex.com
Machine Vision Lighting
For machine vision automation applications,
Multipix Imaging Ltd. has launched the Micro -
scan Nerlite Smart Series lighting with a built-in
controller to adjust intensity continuous mode
and high-output strobe mode. The series in-
cludes the Hi-Brite area/floodlight, diffuse on-
axis lighting (DOAL) and ringlighting. Hi-Brite
features IP67 industrial sealing and bright LEDs.
Versatile 10 spot and 50 flood lens options
allow them to be used at both near and far dis-
tances. DOAL illuminators provide diffuse, uni-
form illumination for flat specular surfaces. With
the coaxial lighting approach, specular surfaces
perpendicular to the camera appear bright,
while surfaces that are marked or embossed
absorb light and appear dark. The ringlights
are for diffuse illumination of surfaces. With
subtle adjustments to working distance and
angle of light delivery, ringlights deliver good
image contrast.
Multipix Imaging Ltd.
sales@multipix.com
78
b
THE ECOC EXHIBITION:
Bringing the world the latest in optical communications
AMSTERDAM RAI | Exhibition 17 - 19 September 2012
Pre Register and WIN a Kindle 3G
REGISTER NOW at www.ecocexhibition.com
BRIGHT IDEAS
b
ANOTHER BRIGHT IDEA
Advertise your new product in
Photonics Showcase or in the
Spotlight section of Photonics Spectra.
Reach all of our readers in these
low-cost, lead-generating features.
Call Kristina Laurin at (413) 499-0514,
or e-mail advertising@Photonics.com.
AUGUST
Second International Conference on
Optical, Electronic and Electrical Materials
(Aug. 5-7) Shanghai. Contact Conference
Secretariat, +86 519 8633 4730; info@oeem.
org; www.oeem.org.
Optical MEMS and Nanophotonics
Conference (Aug. 6-9) Banff, Alberta,
Canada. Contact Megan Figueroa, IEEE
Photonics Society, +1 (732) 562-3895;
m.figueroa@ieee.org; www.mems-ieee.org.
SPIE Optics + Photonics (Aug. 12-16) San
Diego. Includes NanoScience + Engineering;
Solar Energy + Technology; Organic Photonics
+ Electronics; and Optical Engineering +
Applications. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290;
customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
Sixth EOS Topical Meeting on Visual
and Physiological Optics (EMVPO 2012)
(Aug. 20-22) Dublin. A European Optical
Society event. Contact Julia Dalichow,
EOS Events and Services GmbH, +49 511
277 2673; emvpo2012@myeos.org;
www.myeos.org.
Fifth EPS-QEOD Europhoton Conference:
Solid State, Fibre and Waveguide
Coherent Light Sources (Aug. 26-31)
Stockholm. A European Physical Society
Quantum Electronics and Optics Division
event. Contact EPS, +33 389 32 9448;
conferences@eps.org; www.europhoton.org.
Ninth International Conference on
Group IV Photonics (GFP) (Aug. 29-31)
San Diego. Contact Rose Ann Bankowski,
IEEE Photonics Society, +1 (732) 562-3898;
r.bankowski@ieee.org; www.gfp-ieee.org.
SEPTEMBER
MIOMD-XI Mid-Infrared Optoelectronics:
Materials and Devices (Sept. 4-8) Chicago.
Contact Manijeh Razeghi, Northwestern
University, +1 (847) 491-7251; miomd-11@
northwestern.edu; miomd-11.northwestern.edu.
Speckle 2012, International Conference on
Speckle Metrology (Sept. 10-12) Vigo, Spain.
Contact Speckle 2012, Universidade de Vigo,
speckle2012@uvigo.es; speckle2012.uvigo.es.
SPIE Photomask Technology (Sept. 10-13)
Monterey, Calif. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-
3290; customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
Nanosystems in Engineering and Medicine
(Sept. 10-13) Incheon, South Korea. Contact
SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290; customerservice@
spie.org; spie.org.
XIX International Symposium on High
Power Laser Systems and Applications
(Sept. 10-14) Istanbul. Ozgur Tataroglu,
Tbitak Mam, +262 677 3133; ozgur.tataroglu
@mam.gov.tr; hplsa2012.mam.gov.tr.
International Manufacturing Technology
Show 2012 (Sept. 10-15) Chicago. Contact
AMT The Association for Manufacturing
Technology, +1 (800) 524-0475; amt@amt
online.org; www.amtonline.org.
Avionics, Fiber-Optics and Photonics
Conference (AVFOP 2012) (Sept. 11-13)
Cocoa Beach, Fla. Contact Megan Figueroa,
m.figueroa@ieee.org; www.avfop-ieee.org.
Photonics in Switching 2012 (PS 2012)
(Sept. 11-14) Ajaccio, France. Contact
Michel Dupire, SEE, +33 1 5690 3709;
www.ps2012.net.
JSAP-OSA Joint Symposia (73rd Japan
Society of Applied Physics Annual Meeting
2012) (Sept. 11-14) Matsuyama, Japan.
Symposia held with Optical Society. Contact
JSAP, +81 3 5802 0864; jsap-osa-js@jsap.
or.jp; www.jsap.or.jp/english.
OSA Fall Vision Meeting 2012
(Sept. 14-16) Rochester, N.Y. Contact Michele
Schultz, Center for Visual Science, University
of Rochester, +1 (585) 275-8659; mschultz@
cvs.rochester.edu; www.cvs.rochester.edu/
fvm_2012.
Laser World of Photonics India
(Sept. 14-16) Mumbai, India. Contact
Bhupinder Singh, MMI India Pvt. Ltd., +91 981
1090 046; bhupinder.singh@mmi-india.in;
world-of-photonics.net.
Fifth International Conference on
Singular Optics (Sept. 16-21) Sevastopol,
Ukraine. Contact A. Volyar, Taurida National
University, tel./fax, +380 652 230 248;
volyar@crimea.edu; singular-optics.org.
15th European Microscopy Congress
(Sept. 16-21) Manchester, UK. Contact Royal
Microscopical Society, +44 1865 254 760;
general@emc2012.org.uk; www.emc2012.org.
SPRC 2012 Annual Symposium
(Sept. 17-19) Stanford, Calif. Contact
Stanford Photonics Research Center, +1
(650) 723-5627; photonics@stanford.edu;
photonics.stanford.edu.
Metamaterials 2012: Sixth International
Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic
Materials in Microwaves and Optics
(Sept. 17-22) St. Petersburg, Russia.
Contact contact@congress2012.metamor
phose-vi.org; congress2012.metamor
phose-vi.org.
SPIE Laser Damage 2012 (Sept. 23-26)
Boulder, Colo. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-
3290; customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
ICALEO, 31st International Congress on
Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics
(Sept. 23-27) Anaheim, Calif. Contact Laser
Institute of America, +1 (407) 380-1553;
icaleo@lia.org; www.icaleo.org.
IEEE Photonics Conference 2012
(Sept. 23-27) Burlingame, Calif. Contact
Mary S. Hendrickx, IEEE Photonics Society,
+1 (732) 562-3897; m.hendrickx@ieee.org;
www.ipc-ieee.org.
SPIE Remote Sensing and SPIE Security +
Defence (Sept. 24-27) Edinburgh, UK.
Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290; customer
service@spie.org; spie.org.
EOS Annual Meeting 2012 (EOSAM 2012)
(Sept. 25-28) Aberdeen, UK. A European
Optical Society event. Contact EOS Events
and Services GmbH, +49 511 2788 115;
aberdeen@myeos.org; www.myeos.org.
HAPPENINGS
PAPERS
COMSOL Conference 2012 (October 3-5) Boston
Deadline: abstract submission, July 28
Authors are invited to present their work in a paper or poster at this conference, which will focus on
multiphysics modeling and simulations using the COMSOL Multiphysics software environment. Sug-
gested topics include semiconductor devices; microfluidics; sensors and actuators; and optics, photon-
ics and plasmonics. Accepted work will be published in the conference CD, which has a worldwide
audience. Contact Jinlan Huang, +1 (781) 273-3322; jinlan.huang@comsol.com; www.comsol.com.
Photonics 2012 (December 9-12) Chennai, India
Deadline: submissions, August 15
Organizers of the Photonics 2012 International Conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics encourage
authors to submit original research in areas of interest within the field. Topics include biophotonics;
optical fiber devices; photonics modeling; ultrafast optics; silicon photonics; solid-state lighting; green
photonics; diffractive optics; holographic storage; optical signal processing; nonlinear optics; photonic
crystal structures; and plasmonics, nanophotonics and metamaterials. Contact Shanti Bhattacharya,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, +91 44 2257 4438; photonics2012@ee.iitm.ac.in;
photonics.res.in.
SPIE Advanced Lithography (February 24-28) San Jose, California
Deadline: abstracts, September 10
Papers are encouraged for this symposium, which is organized into seven conferences: Alternative Li-
thography Technologies; Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography; Metrology, Inspection and Process Control
for Microlithography; Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology; Optical Microlithogra-
phy; Design for Manufacturability Through Design-Process Integration; and Advanced Etch Technology
for Lithographic Patterning. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290; customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
712Happenings_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:55 PM Page 79
OLEDs World Summit 2012
(Sept. 26-28) San Francisco. Contact Brian
Santos, Smithers Apex (formerly IntertechPira),
+1 (207) 781-9618; bsantos@smithers.com;
www.smithersapex.com.
Seventh International Conference
on Laser Induced Breakdown
Spectroscopy (LIBS 2012) (Sept. 29-Oct. 4)
Luxor, Egypt. Contact info@libs2012-niles.org;
tel./fax: +202 3567 5335; libs2012-niles.org.
22nd International Symposium on
Optical Memory (ISOM12)
(Sept. 30-Oct. 4) Tokyo. Contact ISOM12
Secretariat, c/o Adthree Publishing Co. Ltd.,
+81 3 5925 2840; secretary@isom.jp;
www.isom.jp.
OCTOBER
23rd IEEE International Semiconductor
Laser Conference (ISLC) (Oct. 7-10)
San Diego. Contact Rose Ann Bankowski,
r.bankowski@ieee.org; www.islc-ieee.org.
International Congress on Space
Optics (ICSO) and International
Conference on Space Optical Systems
and Applications (ICSOS) (Oct. 9-12)
Ajaccio, France. Contact Carte Blanche, +33
5 63 72 30 68; contact@icso2012.com;
www.icso2012.com.
LEDs 2012 (Oct. 10-12) San Diego.
Contact Erin Morton, Smithers Apex, +1
(207) 781-9633; emorton@smithers.com;
www.ledsconference.com.
IONS-12 Naples Conference
(Oct. 10-12) Naples, Italy. An event of
IONS, the International OSA (Optical Society)
Network of Students. Contact IONS Committee,
ions@fisica.unina.it; www.ions-project.org.
Neuroscience 2012 (Oct. 13-17) New
Orleans. Contact Society for Neuroscience,
+1 (202) 962-4000; info@sfn.org;
www.sfn.org.
Frontiers in Optics 2012/Laser Science
XXVIII (Oct. 14-18) Rochester, N.Y.
Annual meetings of OSA and American
Physical Society/Division of Laser Science,
respectively. Contact Optical Society, +1
(202) 416-1907; custserv@osa.org; www.
frontiersinoptics.com.
22nd International Conference on
Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS-22)
(Oct. 15-19) Beijing. Contact general@
ofs-22.org; www.ofs-22.org.
Photonex 2012 (Oct. 17-18) Coventry, UK.
Contact Clare Roberts, XMark Media Ltd., +44
1372 750 555; info@enlightenmeetings.com;
www.photonex.org.
LIAs Lasers for Manufacturing Event
(LME 2012) (Oct. 23-24) Schaumburg, Ill.
Contact Laser Institute of America, +1 (407)
380-1553; lme@lia.org; www.lia.org/lmesd.
OPTO (Oct. 23-25) Paris. Contact Nadege
Venet, GL events Exhibitions, +33 1 44 31 82
57; nadege.venet@gl-events.com; www.opto
expo.com.
SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing
(Oct. 29-Nov. 1) Kyoto, Japan. Contact SPIE,
+1 (360) 676-3290; customerservice@spie.org;
spie.org.
NOVEMBER
Fifth International Photonics and
OptoElectronics Meetings (POEM 2012)
(Nov. 1-2) Wuhan, China. Contact Wuhan
National Laboratory for Optoelectronics,
+86 27 877 92 227; poem@mail.hust.edu.cn;
poem.wnlo.cn.
SPIE/COS Photonics Asia (Nov. 4-7)
Beijing. Sponsored by SPIE and the Chinese
Optical Society. Contact SPIE, +1 (360)
676-3290; customerservice@spie.org;
spie.org.
80
h HAPPENINGS
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Ad close: July 25, 2012
October Content Focus: Manufacturing
Spotlight: Optics & Optics Fabrication
Sneak Preview: Society for Neuroscience
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Bonus Circulation: Frontiers in Optics, Photonex,
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Associate Director
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 112
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
becky.pontier@photonics.com
NY, NJ & PA
Timothy A. Dupree
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 111
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
tim.dupree@photonics.com
Northern CA, AK, NV, Pacific Northwest,
Yukon & British Columbia
Joanne C. Gagnon
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 226
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
joanne.gagnon@photonics.com
Central CA, Southern CA & HI
Tracy L. Reynolds
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 104
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
tracy.reynolds@photonics.com
Eastern Canada
Maureen Riley Moriarty
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 229
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
riley.moriarty@photonics.com
Europe, Israel & South Central US
Owen Broch
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 108
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
owen.broch@photonics.com
Austria, Germany & Liechtenstein
Olaf Kortenhoff
Voice: +49 2241 1684777
Fax: +49 2241 1684776
olaf.kortenhoff@photonics.com
Asia (except Japan)
Hans Zhong
Voice: +86 755 2872 6973
Fax: +86 755 8474 4362
hans.zhong@yahoo.com.cn
Japan
Scott Shibasaki
Voice: +81 3 5225 6614
Fax: +81 3 5229 7253
s_shiba@optronics.co.jp
Reprint Services
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
editorial@photonics.com
Mailing addresses:
Send all contracts, insertion orders
and advertising copy to:
Laurin Publishing
PO Box 4949
Street address:
Laurin Publishing
Berkshire Common, 2 South St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
advertising@photonics.com
Aero Research
Associates Inc. ....................73
www.aerorese.com
Aerotech Inc. .........................32
www.aerotech.com
Alluxa ...................................38
www.alluxa.com
Andor Technology .................67
www.andor.com
Applied Scientific
Instrumentation Inc. .............28
www.asiimaging.com
BaySpec Inc. .........................50
www.bayspec.com
Bristol Instruments Inc. ............16
www.bristol-inst.com
Cargille Laboratories ..............30
www.cargille.com
Chroma
Technology Corp. ................66
www.chroma.com
CVI Melles Griot ....................29
www.cvimellesgriot.com
DataRay Inc. .........................49
www.dataray.com
Deposition Sciences Inc. .........67
www.depsci.com
DiMaxx Technologies .............66
www.dimaxxtech.com
DRS Technologies Inc. ..............7
www.drs.com
Edmund Optics ......................19
www.edmundoptics.com
Electro-Optics
Technology Inc. ...................77
www.eotech.com
Energetiq Technology Inc. .......36
www.energetiq.com
Fermionics
Opto-Technology ................45
www.fermionics.com
First Sensor Inc. .....................27
www.first-sensor.com
FLIR Systems Inc. ....................39
www.flir.com
4D Technology Corporation ....68
www.4dtechnology.com
G-S PLASTIC OPTICS .............67
www.gsoptics.com
Gooch & Housego .................22
www.goochandhousego.com
Hamamatsu .............................9
www.sales.hamamatsu.com
Innovation Photonics ..............66
www.innpho.com
ISP Optics ...........................CV3
www.ispoptics.com
LaCroix Optical Co. ...............37
www.lacroixoptical.com
Laser Institute of America .......74
www.laserevent.org
Kurt J. Lesker Co. ...................57
www.lesker.com
LightMachinery Inc. ..........14, 24
www.lightmachinery.com
LightWorks Optics Inc. .........CV2
www.lwoptics.com
Mad City Labs Inc. .................40
www.madcitylabs.com
Master Bond Inc. ...................14
www.masterbond.com
Mightex Systems ....................33
www.mightexsystems.com
Mildex Inc. ............................67
www.mildex.com
New Infrared
Technologies .......................66
www.niteurope.com
Newport Corporation .......23, 26
www.newport.com
Nexus Business Media Ltd. .....78
www.ecocexhibition.com
Novotech Inc. ........................30
www.novotech.net
Optimax Systems Inc. .............61
www.optimaxsi.com
Osela Inc. .............................68
www.oselainc.com
PCO-TECH Inc. ......................13
www.pco-tech.com
Photonics
Media ..............31, 69, 76, 80
www.photonics.com
PI
(Physik Instrumente) L.P. .......68
www.pi.ws
Pico Electronics Inc. ................54
www.picoelectronics.com
PicoQuant GmbH ..................18
www.picoquant.com
piezosystem jena GmbH ........80
www.piezojena.com
Precision Glass
& Optics .......................15, 67
www.pgo.com
Qioptiq Inc. .............................8
www.qioptiq.com
Research Electro-Optics ..........17
www.reoinc.com
Reynard Corporation .............44
www.reynardcorp.com
Schneider Optics Inc. .............28
www.schneiderindustrial
optics.com
Siskiyou Corporation ..............65
www.siskiyou.com
Smithers Apex .......................35
www.oledsworldsummit.com
Spectra-Physics,
A Newport Corporation
Brand ..........................6, CV4
www.newport.com
SPIE International
Society for Optical
Engineering ..................25, 75
www.spie.org/aboutop
Stanford Research
Systems Inc. ..........................3
www.thinksrs.com
Sutter Instrument ....................33
www.sutter.com
Swift Glass Co. Inc. ................68
www.swiftglass.com
Sydor Optics Inc. ...................40
www.sydor.com
tec5USA Inc. .........................48
www.tec5usa.com
Tohkai Sangyo Co. Ltd. ..........24
www.peak.co.jp
TOPTICA Photonics Inc. ..........41
www.toptica.com
TRIOPTICS GmbH ..................66
www.trioptics.com
TRUMPF Inc. ..........................11
www.us.trumpf.com
Westech Optical
Corporation ........................68
www.westechoptical.com
Z&Z Optoelectronic
Tech. Co. Ltd. ......................71
www.zzoptic.com
Zygo Corp. ...........................51
www.zygo.com
712AdIndex_Layout 1 6/25/12 3:51 PM Page 81
p PEREGRINATIONS
Uncooled IR camera
reveals mysteries of space
E
ven three years after its liquid helium
cooling supply was exhausted, the
maverick Infrared Array Camera
(IRAC) on NASAs Spitzer Space Tele-
scope continues to capture new and won-
drous views of the universe.
Launched in 2003, the Spitzer was de-
signed to study objects within our solar
system and beyond, to the most distant
parts of the universe. Most of the tele-
scopes other instruments lost function in
spring 2009, when the cold mission
ended.
Now in the warm mission, IRAC is
using its two shortest-wavelength infrared
sensors to image cosmic regions not visi-
ble through optical telescopes, allowing
scientists to see cooler objects in space,
such as failed stars, exoplanets, giant mo-
lecular clouds and organic molecules that
could hold the secret to life on other plan-
ets, according to the mission overview.
To celebrate the warm missions 1000
days of infrared wonders, NASA has re-
leased the 10 best IRAC images (some of
which include data collected during the
cold mission, when all four of the cam-
eras infrared sensors were functioning).
The full Spitzer system consists of the
cryogenic telescope assembly, including
an 85-cm telescope and three scientific in-
struments, as well as the spacecraft, which
controls the telescope, provides power,
handles data and communicates with
Earth. The mission is managed by the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Thanks to the quality of the images
IRAC has produced, NASAs Senior Re-
view Panel has recommended extending
the Spitzer warm mission through 2015.
IRAC continues to be an amazing
camera, still producing important discov-
eries and spectacular new images of the
infrared universe, said principal investi-
gator Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in
Cambridge, Mass.
Caren B. Les
caren.les@photonics.com
Several stellar nurseries can be seen in this giant
cloud. IRAC can measure the warm dust and
peer into it to study the processes of new star
formation. The image shows the edge of a region
near the Perseus constellation. Courtesy of NASA,
JPL-Caltech and Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics.
This tornado nebula is one of the mysterious
objects discovered through the lens of the Infrared
Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space
Telescope. The camera is sensitive to light emitted
from shocked molecular hydrogen (seen in green).
Scientists think the formation arises from an
outflowing jet of material from a young star that
has created shock waves in surrounding gas and
dust. Courtesy of NASA, JPL-Caltech and J. Bally
(University of Colorado).
For more images from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope, visit www.spitzer.caltech.edu.
IRAC captured two galaxies the Whirlpool and
its companion in collision 23 million light-years
from Earth. The camera sees the main galaxy as red
due to warm dust a sign of active star formation,
probably brought about by the collision. Courtesy
of NASA, JPL-Caltech and R. Kennicutt (University
of Arizona).
712Peregrinations_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:14 PM Page 82
THE INFRARED
COMPANY
THE INFRARED
COMPANY
IR OPTO-MECHANICAL DESIGN
IR LENS ASSEMBLIES IR LENS ASSEMBLIES
IR CATALOG
IR CUSTOM OPTICS
IR CRYSTAL OPTICS
IR COATINGS
ISP OPTICS USA: 50 South Buckhout St., Irvington NY, 10533
IR@ispoptics.com s www.ispoptics.com s Tel: (914) 591-3070
ISP OPTICS ISRAEL: 5 Shimshon St, Bldg B, Suite 5, Petach Tikva,
49517, Israel s IR@ispoptics.com s Tel +972 391 99876
ISP OPTICS LATVIA: 24a Ganibu Dambis, korp. 13 Riga, LV-1005,
Latvia s IR@ispoptics.com s Tel +371 67 323 779
712_ISPOptics_PgCVR3_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:00 PM Page CVR3
712_Newport_#1_PgCVR4_Layout 1 6/25/12 4:01 PM Page CVR4

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