Laser Focus World articles from April 2004

Laser Focus World archives from April 2004

From molecules to moons.(editor's desk)
April 1, 2004... Nanotechnologist Ralph E. Merkle (see www.merkle.com) has described current manufacturing methods as being akin to building a castle out of Lego blocks while wearing boxing gloves. "You can push the Lego blocks into great heaps and pile them...

Terahertz radiation carries information.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... Researchers at the Technical University of Braunschweig (Braunschweig, Germany) and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (Manchester, England) have demonstrated transmission of information by modulating terahertz...

QD and QW lasers face off.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... Semiconductor quantum-well (QW) lasers are the workhorses of the laser-diode world. Semiconductor quantum-dot (QD) lasers, on the other hand, remain largely in research, as their predicted beneficial qualities--a narrow gain spectrum, no...

Attosecond pulses probe atoms' inner dynamics.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... Probing transient events in the interior of an atom with light requires pulse durations that are on the order of the 150-attoseoond (as) orbit time of an electron. Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology (Vienna, Austria), the Max...

Quantum-dot transistor counts photons.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... A quantum-dot field-effect transistor (QDFET) is at the heart of a low-noise single-photon detector developed at Toshiba Research Limited and Cavendish Laboratory (both of Cambridge, England) that has a microsecond response time. The active...

Brownian MOONs measure viscosity.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... The rotational viscosity of fluids influences industrial as well as life processes. Measuring rotational viscosity on the microscopic scale is important, because many fluids have a viscosity that depends on the scale of the measurement probe;...

Photon-detector refrigerator cools to 100 mK.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... Some photodetectors must be cooled to reduce electrical noise; a small subset of these requires chilling to close to absolute zero. For example, certain x-ray photon sensors--useful in spectroscopy for the semiconductor industry--require...

Corner-detection algorithm prunes false candidates.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... Corners are important parts of the geometry of objects within an image; consequently, corner-detection algorithms are important to image processing, in which the confusing information in a real image is reduced to something a computer can...

Random-wavelength ceramic laser emits in stable transverse mode.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... In an example of a technological development that as yet has no practical application (but may someday), researchers at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and the University of Electro-Communication (Tokyo, Japan) have developed a...

Single polymer serves both as transistor and emitter in active pixel.(news breaks)
April 1, 2004... Active-matrix flat-panel displays that use organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) as their elements have a transistor at each OLED pixel for signal processing. Because semiconductors that work well for transistors are not usually the same as...

Optical lithographers look to immersion.(world news)
April 1, 2004... "Immersion" was the word at the SPIE Microlithography 2004 meeting (Santa Clara, CA; Feb. 22-27) as chipmakers put off the tough climb to 157-nm optical lithography and opted instead for the slippery and wet descent to 45-nm and smaller feature...

ZnO emitters fabricated on silicon wafers.(world news)
April 1, 2004... Shuji Nakamura's Seemingly single-handed invention of practical gallium nitride-based blue end UV lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) during his stint at Nichia (Kam|naka, Japan) has made him one of the few optoelectronics researchers to...

OFC postdeadline sessions show technical vigor.(Conference Review)
April 1, 2004... While flipping through the papers presented at the postdeadline sessions at this year's Optical Fiber Conference (OFC; Los Angeles, CA; Feb. 22-27), it is almost possible to pretend that the telecom "bubble" never popped. The bandwidth glut...

Lab on a chip is designed for the field.(Spectroscopy)
April 1, 2004... A team at the University of California-Berkeley has devised a system that can perform light induced fluorescence spectroscopy, has an area less than 1 [cm.sup.2], and is less than 1.5 mm thick. While the more expensive electronic part of the...

Digital imager assesses buns.(Image Processing)
April 1, 2004... Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech; Atlanta, GA) are working with a local bakery to develop a machine-vision system to automatically inspect freshly baked sandwich buns. Georgia's food processing industry is...

Saturn's moon becomes a refractive lens.(Astronomy)
April 1, 2004... When a planet with an atmosphere passes in front of a star (an event known as an occultation), earthbound scientists can glean information about the planet's atmosphere by examining how the starlight dims and winks out, then reappears. On Nov....

Spatial solitons of moderate power interact.(Nonlinear Optics)
April 1, 2004... Solitons are among the most fascinating objects in nonlinear optics. Not only are they a key issue for optical telecommunications, but they also promise to provide--in the form of spatial solitons--tools to steer light by fight, which is of...

SHG images neuron impulses quickly.(Microscopy)
April 1, 2004... Biophysicists from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) have joined forces with a chemist from Universit4 de Rennes (Rennes, France) to tackle one of the biggest optical-imaging challenges in neuroscience: imaging electrical impulses in the brain....

Tunable thermal laser exploits Rydberg matter.(Exotic Lasers)
April 1, 2004... In a Rydberg atom (or molecule), an outer electron is excited to a high quantum state without being ionized, resulting in an atom with a very large electron cloud. Rydberg matter (condensed Rydberg atoms or molecules) can be created by...

It's a small world.(Lithography)
April 1, 2004... In a development that may one day help in the fabrication of nanometer-scale optical devices, engineers at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT: Tokyo, Japan) have created an electron-beam (e-beam) lithographic system that patterns...

Electrowetting boosts speed, color, contrast.(Reflective Displays)
April 1, 2004... Two groups of researchers have advanced the use of electrowetting droplets for displays, with one demonstrating a new way of exploiting the optical geometry of the liquid used, and another developing video-speed performance and a new strategy...

Silicon modulates IR at more than 1 GHz.(Waveguide Optics)
April 1, 2004... A fast modulator made of silicon (Si) may make researchers take another look at the material, which has been largely forsaken by the optoctectronics industry in favor of other semiconductors with more favorable light-manipulating properties....

Brain imaging shifts focus from learning to homeland security.(Biomedical Optical Imaging)
April 1, 2004... Using technology based on a continuous-wave near-IR imager first demonstrated in 1996 by Britton Chance, emeritus faculty at University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), and colleagues, a research team headed by Chance is looking for signs of...

Laser-based breathalyzer screens for TB in minutes.(Fluorimetry)
April 1, 2004... A laser-based breathalyzer system may make painful, under-the-skin testing for tuberculosis (TB) a relic of the past. Population migration and modern transportation are causing the re-emergence of numerous infectious diseases that scientists...

Rofin-Sinar acquires Swedish fiberoptics firm.(laser industry report)
April 1, 2004... Rofin-Sinar Laser (Hamburg, Germany), an affiliate company of Rofin-Sinar Technologies (Plymouth, MI), has acquired 90% of the common stock of Optoskand (Gothenburg, Sweden) in a cash transaction. The remaining 10% of the common stock of...

IDS expands portfolio with patent on medical imaging system.(laser industry report)
April 1, 2004... Imaging Diagnostic Systems (Fort Lauderdale, FL) has announced that the U.S. patent application filed October 2001, "Laser imaging apparatus using biomedical markers that bind to cancer cells," was granted to Robert Wake, vice president of...

Report optimistic on future of long-wavelength lasers.(laser industry report)
April 1, 2004... The recovery in the telecom sector and growing use of 10-Gbit optical links for enterprise and storage applications will drive steady growth in the long-wavelength laser and transceiver market, according to a new study from Strategies Unlimited...

Synrad (Mukilteo, WA) signed a new distribution partnership with Optoprim (Vanves, France).(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... Synrad (Mukilteo, WA) signed a new distribution partnership with Optorpim (Vanves, France). Optoprim will head Synrad's C[O.sub.2] laser distribution in France

StockerYale (Salem, NH) has completed the placement of $6.6 million.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... StockerYale (Salem, NH) has completed the placement of $6.6 million consisting of $4 million in convertible notes with Laurus Master Fund, and $2.6 million of common stock with existing and new institutional investors.

Applied Optoelectronics.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... Applied Optoelectronics (Sugar Land, TX) raised $12 million in a third round of private financing, boosting the total Capital raised by the company to $29.2 million since its inception in early 1997.

James Hsia, former senior vice president and chief research officer at Candela (Wayland, MA), has returned to Candela.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... James Hsia, former senior vice president and chief research officer at Candela (Wayland, MA), has returned to Candela as chief technology officer after leaving the company for a time to found Lasersharp.

BU partners with French optics consortium.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2004... A joint initiative has been set up between the Boston University (BU; Boston, MA) Photonics Center and France's Opticsvalley, a consortium of optics and photonics companies, to foster the establishment of French start-up optics and photonics...

Adaptive optics locate larger stars.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2004... Scientists from the University of California-Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL; Livermore, CA), in conjunction with astrophysicists from the California Institute of Technology, UC-Santa Cruz, the National Science...

Melles opens coating technology center.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2004... Melles Griot Optics Group (Rochester, NY) has commissioned a new Coating Technology Center. The new facility includes four advanced high-volume vacuum deposition systems, including plasma-assisted evaporation; enhanced, automated, lens-element...

Edmund Optics adds MRF capabilities.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2004... Edmund Optics (Barrington, NJ) has launched a new magnetorheological finishing (MRF) optical-polishing capability at its headquarters in Barrington. According to the company, MRF technology is easily adjustable and conforms to the optic's...

Olympus opens optical foundry.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2004... Olympus Partnership Development Group (OPDG; San Jose, CA) has established a new optical foundry. The foundry will include Olympus' aspherical lens research, development, and products and additional products and will complement Olympus'...

University of Rochester.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... The Whitaker Foundation has awarded the University of Rochester's (NY) Department of Biomedical Engineering a $3 million grant for construction of a new biomedical engineering/optics building. The award will aid in the construction of a...

The Advanced Optical Systems Division of Adaptive Optics Associates (Cambridge, MA), a subsidiary of Metrologic Instruments (Blackwood, NJ), received $2 million under a subcontract for a proprietary customer for work to be completed during 2004.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... The Advanced Optical Systems Division of Adaptive Optics Associates (Cambridge, MA), a subsidiary of Metro-logic Instruments (Blackwood, NJ), received $2 million under a subcontract for a proprietary customer for work to be completed during...

Kodak to divest remote-sensing business.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2004... ITT Industries (White Plains, NY) signed a definitive agreement to purchase Eastman Kodak's Remote Sensing Systems (RSS; Rochester, NY) business for $725 million. ITT plans to create a new Space Systems Division at the RSS facility in Rochester...

Omron picks up KOA backlight business.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2004... Omron (Tokyo, Japan) and KOA (Tokyo, Japan) have agreed on the transfer of the backlight business from the Display System Division of Tama Electric Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of KOA, to Omron. A new company will be created via a corporate...

Dow Chemical Company (Midland, MI) and Osram Opto Semiconductors (Regensburg, Germany) signed a commercial supply agreement.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... Dow Chemical Company (Midland, MI) and Osram Opto Semiconductors (Regensburg, Germany) signed a commercial Supply agreement for light-emitting polymers for use in Osram's Pictiva polymeric light-emitting diode display modules.

Vitex Systems.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... Vitex Systems (San Jose, CA) raised $24 million of equity financing in the initial close of its Series B funding round.

Taiwan, South Korea, and China now represent the world's largest region for the production of high-brightness LEDs, according to a report from Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, CA).(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... Taiwan, South Korea, and China now represent the world's largest region for the production Of high-brightness LEDs, according to a report from Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, CA). Companies in this region produced 16.8 billion...

Camera looks for damage on Space Shuttle.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2004... NASA is using a 10-camera optical motion-capture solution from Vicon (Lake Forest, CA) to evaluate potential tile damage review and repair procedures for the Space Shuttles. NASA's Anthropometry and Biomechanics Facility at Lyndon Johnson Space...

Scottish group invests in 3-D imaging.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2004... Scottish Equity Partners has awarded a start-up funding package from the Synergy Fund to IRIS-3D (Interactive Real-time Imaging Systems 3D), which was spun out of the University of Strathclyde (Scotland) last December. The start-up package for...

Arasor acquires Lightbit and IOA.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2004... Arasor (Fremont, CA), a developer of integrated circuits for wired and wireless communications networks, has acquired Lightbit (Mountain View, CA), an optical subsystem provider. As part of this deal, Arasor has also acquired Intelligent...

BU opens optics lab.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2004... The new Integrated Optics Laboratory at the Photonics Center at Boston University (Boston, MA) is officially open for business. The laboratory is designed to facilitate hybrid integration, device characterization, and measurement of active and...

Bookham partners on MEMS design.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2004... MEMS designs and fabrication processes have been jointly established through a complementary relationship between Bookham Technology (London, England) and Colibrys (Neuchatel, Switzerland) to create and implement variable optical attenuator...

Emcore (Somerset, NJ) and Corona Optical Systems (Lombard, IL) have signed a cross-licensing agreement for parallel optical transmitters and receivers.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... Emcore (Somerset, NJ) and Corona Optical Systems (Lombard, IL) have signed a cross-licensing agreement for parallel optical transmitters and receivers, giving Emcore exclusive license to manufacture and sell OptoCube 40 parallel optical...

CorActive.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... CorActive (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada) signed an exclusive agreement with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory for the manufacture of its mid-infrared transmission fiber. This exclusive agreement will see all commercial manufacturing and future...

u2t Photonics (Berlin, Germany) a provider of optoelectronic components for fiberoptic systems.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2004... u2t Photonics (Berlin, Germany) a provider of optoelectronic components for fiberoptic systems, has expanded its global sales and customer support team u2t Photonics' products and customer support will be represented by Tera Comm (Guilford, CT)...

Avanex divests PLC business.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2004... Avanex (Fremont, CA) has opted to sell off the silica planar lightwave circuit (PLC) business in Livingston, Scotland rather than shut down the factory completely. According to the companies, the passive PLC products from Avanex's U.K....

LEDs sharpen machine vision: in a small market, solid-state lighting matches up well with solid-state sensors.(inside imaging)
April 1, 2004... The boom in LED lighting has surged through many consumer and business sectors, showing us the advantages of long-lived and robust solid-state illumination over incandescent bulbs. Yet all the attention associated with LED lighting in...

Is commercial work really different from government work?(business forum)
April 1, 2004... Q: I am frustrated working for a government contractor because of the waste and dishonesty. What's the commercial sector really like? A: Businesses in the long run are built on trust and relationships, and satisfied customers. Most...

Good science and business practices also yield positive educational results.(comment)
April 1, 2004... The reliance of modern society on science and technology has created a serious and growing need for a large high-technology workforce and a technically literate population. Nowhere is this clearer than in the area of optics. Furthermore,...

Upbeat mood prevails in solid-state lighting.(market watch)
April 1, 2004... The high-brightness LED market has undergone another year of 50% growth. All of the major industry players are expanding capacity, and epi wafer and chip production capacity is growing rapidly in Taiwan, Korea, and China. In addition, new...

Satisfactory design outcomes require effective communication.(software & computing)
April 1, 2004... Communication is the key to effectively carrying out optical design projects while shortening design cycles and reducing manufacturing costs because it enables the customer and the designer to work as a team to identify tradeoffs that can be...

Wavefront sensing lights 21st century path for ground-based astronomy.(Adaptive Optics)(Cover Story)
April 1, 2004... Wavefront sensing for adaptive optics (AO) has become an essential component in building large ground-based telescopes and telescope interferometers for 21st century astronomy. The adaptive-optics systems on these large telescopes generally use...

Active photonic lattices aim for high powers: active-photonic-lattice distributed-feedback lasers emit a diffraction-limited surface-normal beam. These lasers can be coherently combined into arrays that could potentially emit 50 W of continuous-wave IR light.(Surface-Emitting Lasers)
April 1, 2004... High-power (greater than 0.5-W) continuous-wave laser diodes with high beam quality would be of great benefit to areas ranging from free-space and fiberoptic communications to micromachining. Today, high-power continuous-wave laser diodes exist...

Atomic-force microscopy finds new role in the nano world: AFM is a well-established surface-analysis tool, but researchers are also using it to manipulate matter on the molecular and atomic scale.(Optoelectronic applications: microscopy)
April 1, 2004... Since first coming onto the scene in 1986, atomic-force microscopy (AFM) has matured into an essential tool for imaging, measuring, sensing, and manipulating surfaces in cell biology, semiconductor manufacturing, and materials science. With the...

193-nm coatings resist excimer-laser damage.(High-Energy Coatings)
April 1, 2004... Argon fluoride (ArF) lasers produce intense, short pulses of 193-nm radiation, making them useful light sources for a host of scientific, medical, and industrial applications. Eyesight correction (laser assisted in situ keratomileusis, or...

Flexible microbolometers promise smart fabrics with embedded sensors.(Detectors)
April 1, 2004... The future will provide many applications for sensors and associated electronic circuitry on flexible substrates. Potential applications include "smart fabrics"--fabrics with embedded sensors for future attire--and ready-to-use sensor arrays...

CLEO/IQEC 2004 heralds novel technology and exciting applications.(Conference Preview)
April 1, 2004... This year's Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the International Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/IQEC; May 16-21; San Francisco, CA) will include thousands of technical papers, a distinguished list of invited speakers, and many...

Machine vision guides lumber cutting: combined with laser triangulation, a vision system determines the saw cuts that maximize the usable lumber obtained from tree trunks.(Vision Systems)
April 1, 2004... With the advent of easier-to-use, lower-cost vision systems, and with increasing awareness among manufacturers about the many benefits of these solutions--particularly increased quality--the use of vision systems is on the rise worldwide across...

Installation costs limit fiber deployment: regional phone companies in the United States have left fiber rollout to others, but as bandwidth demands increase, fiber to the home is gradually gaining momentum.(Optical networking: fiber to the home)
April 1, 2004... The elusive vision of fiber to the home is finally starting to be realized, although not in the way most observers expected. The world leader is Japan, with fiber lines running to 900,000 homes, and passing millions more, says Bob Whitman of...

Closed-loop control maintains arc-lamp stability.(Power Supplies)
April 1, 2004... Other than lasers, short-arc lamps are the brightest manufactured sources of DC (direct-current, or steady-state) radiation, and are used for many spectroscopic applications. The stability of an arc lamp's output depends greatly on the power...

High-speed CCD.(new products)
April 1, 2004... A 12-bit, OEM camera uses a 754 x 488-pixel frame-transfer CCD to acquire full images at faster than three frames per second, A two-stage cooler unit provides low noise and high linearity. It comes with a USB-port interface and is designed to...

Attenuator.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The UM-VAM variable beam attenuator is a cross-roller, high-precision variable-aperture motorized attenuator model for use with high-power excimer lasers. It has a stepper motor resolution of 1 [micro]m and can be operated by the company's or...

Display measurement system.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The OL 770-DMS display measurement system combines a high-speed test and measurement system with a CCD imaging telescope. It is available in wavelength ranges from the UV to the near-IR and is capable of 25+ spectral scans/s. It has a USB...

Stitching interferometer.(new products)
April 1, 2004... A subaperture stitching interferometer provides interferometric measurement of large, clear-aperture and high-numerical-aperture surfaces. It can measure high-NA components with NA up to 1, and automatically controls positioning, nulling, and...

Laser diodes.(new products)
April 1, 2004... Three new laser diodes offer single longitudinal and fundamental transverse-mode performance with CW powers of 100 mW (DL-LS2032) and 150 mW (DL-LS2031, DL-LS2052) at a lasting wavelength of 808 nm. The diodes are useful as excitation sources...

Eye-safe laser.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The DS Series Nd:YLF-based optical parametric oscillator (OPO) incorporates a patented frequency-conversion technology, which enables it to produce a high-efficiency, high-pulse-rate laser source at the eye-safe wavelength of 1.516 [micro]m....

Violet laser module.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The new temperature-controlled instrument-quality (IQ) module emits 50 mW of violet output at 405+10 nm. The IQ measures 1.50 in. in diameter and 6.20 in. in length. The unit has an adjustable focus, glass optics, optional beam-expanding...

Servo-amplifier motion interface.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The C-809.40 servo-amplifier motion interface provides four axes of amplification, conditioning, and analog/PWM conversion to drive open- and closed-loop DC servomotor stages. It is compatible with piezo motors, National Instruments (NI) motion...

Off-axis paraboloids.(new products)
April 1, 2004... Off-axis paraboloids are available with diameters up to 600 mm, surface accuracy of up to [lambda]/20, and off-axis angles up to 25[degrees]. The company uses proprietary production tools to directly generate off-axis parabolic profiles,...

Universal lens mounts.(new products)
April 1, 2004... All-aluminum universal lens mounts hold stock lenses from 20 to 75 mm in diameter simply by threading a stop ring inside the lens mount to the desired depth, then inserting the lens and fixing it in place with the retaining ring and a spanner...

Synchronized ID imaging system.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The 20Z704USB camera is coupled with an LED flash system in a single, integrated, USB-controlled ID-badging, and imaging package. This eliminates the need for frame grabbers required by video-based systems. Twain interfaceable software allows...

Kinematic mirror mounts.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The IXM-series mirror mounts feature a Kinematic design with a patented spring-loaded pivot and a full 5/8-in.-thick backing plate for maximum stability. Three mounting configurations for 1/2-, 1- and 2-in. mirror diameters, as well as right-...

Solid-state laser.(new products)
April 1, 2004... A new solid-state laser consists of an Nd:YAG with an integrated passive Q-switch. It produces a 4-mJ, 3-ns pulse at 1064 nm with repetition rates of up to 125 Hz. The laser can be configured to utilize a KTP frequency doubler to produce 532-nm...

Thin-disk laser.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The DisQ-Mark is a Q-switched, thin-disk laser designed for industrial marking and precision machining applications. The diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser generates up to 8 W of NIR output, with a beam quality [M.sup.2] >4, and pulse repetition rates...

Signal-processing camera.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The IK-TU51 3 CCD, 10-bit digital signal-processing camera is designed for machine vision, microscopy, and broadcast applications. The camera provides digital and RGB output and has interchangeable 1/2- or 1/3-in. remote heads. New features...

IR transceiver.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The new TFBS4711 serial-infrared (SIR) transceiver measures 1.9 mm high x 3.1 mm deep and 6.0 mm long. The 115-kb/s device allows design engineers to add short-range IR connectivity to smaller and thinner handheld systems, enabling mobile...

Power meter.(new products)
April 1, 2004... The Q8230 optical power meter provides measurement of blue-violet lasers in the 400-nm region. It can be combined with the Q82312 optical sensor. It has a 0.001-dB resolution level and a 5.5-digit display, and can adjust the wavelength setting...

Optical engines.(new products)
April 1, 2004... New Qubes optical engines are designed to power any multisourced-agreement (MSA) optical-module form factor at 2.5 and 10 Gbit/s, including 300-pin transponders, XFP, SFF, SFR and GBIC. The engines can simplify the design process and reduce...