Laser Focus World articles from April 2005

Laser Focus World archives from April 2005

Finding faults with photonics.(editor's desk)
April 1, 2005... Quality control is critical to the cost and integrity of a manufactured product. It is also key to customer satisfaction in terms of product lifetime, warranty costs, and (where applicable) safety. One aspect of ensuring quality typically...

Industry loses veteran.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2005... It is with sadness and regret that we inform you that our friend and colleague, Ralph Swaine of Loveland, Ohio, died unexpectedly on Feb. 19, 2005. Ralph was well known and respected by his customers and colleagues as a dedicated...

Electricity drives Raman laser.(news breaks)
April 1, 2005... The first Raman laser that is electrically driven and requires no external optical pump was demonstrated by scientists from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), Texas A&M University (College Station, TX), and Bell Laboratories, Lucent...

320 x 256 detector array is solar-blind.(news breaks)
April 1, 2005... Although the first images from an aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) UV focal-plane-array (FPA) camera were published in 2002, quality was lacking and they did not provide a full-frame 320 x 256 image. Now, researchers at Northwestern University...

Metal-to-glass bonding technique allows many glasses to be used.(news breaks)
April 1, 2005... Many optoelectronic devices require hermetic sealing, including some CCDs, CMOS sensors, photodetectors, and optical MEMS devices, with a portion of these requiring very high vacuum-tightness. The best configuration is a glass window sealed to...

Sensitive detector sees terahertz radiation.(news breaks)
April 1, 2005... Terahertz radiation requires special detectors with a noise-equivalent power (NEP) two orders of magnitude smaller than that of current semiconductor and superconductor bolometer types. Although detectors have been built that implement a...

Fabry-Perot interferometer precisely tracks cantilever-probe deflection.(news breaks)
April 1, 2005... Deflections of the probe-containing cantilevers of scanning-force microscopes and similar devices are often measured optically--typically by optical-beam deflection or an interferometer. But the sensitivity of optical-beam deflection drops for...

Diode-pumped solid-state laser produces multiple lines.(news breaks)
April 1, 2005... In the past few years, a bevy of small and efficient blue- and green-emitting diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSLs) has arisen, replacing relatively large and power-hungry gas lasers for some applications. But argon-ion lasers have always...

Microdischarge devices reach large pixel counts.(FLAT-PANEL DISPLAYS)(Cover Story)
April 1, 2005... A group at the University of Illinois (Urbana, IL) developing microdischarge arrays (see Laser Focus World, March 2002, p. 9) has now produced versions that contain up to 40,000 pixels that are scalable to even higher pixel counts. (1) The...

Add/drop filter is based on photonic quasicrystals.(optoelectronics world news)
April 1, 2005... Add/drop filters that add or remove very narrow wavelengths of light from a broader optical signal being carried down a waveguide have been demonstrated in 2-D photonic crystals (PCs) with a complete photonic bandgap (PBG). Versions of this...

LED markets grow, particularly in Asia.(LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES)
April 1, 2005... Last year brought continued strong growth (an almost 50% average annual growth rate since 1995) for the high-brightness light-emitting-diode (LED) market, as evidenced by a record turnout of almost 350 attendees at the 2005 Strategies in Light...

UCLA and Intel continue silicon-laser advances.(SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS)
April 1, 2005... After announcing the first silicon laser, a Raman laser using an external cavity (see Laser Focus World, December 2004, p. 9), the same team of researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA; Los Angeles, CA) has now...

Resonant-tunneling detector counts photons.(PHOTODIODES)
April 1, 2005... While crucial for quantum-cryptographic systems, single-photon detectors have other uses that extend from medical diagnosis to laser ranging. Avalanche photodiodes and photomultiplier tubes work as photon counters; however, their...

Fiber-lasers conference presents the leading edge.(CONFERENCE OVERVIEW)
April 1, 2005... Leading developers of fiber-laser technology reviewed the current state of the art in fiber lasers at "Fiber Lasers II: Technology Systems and Applications," a conference held as part of SPIE's Photonics West 2005 (Jan. 24-27; San Jose, CA)....

Holographic system improves fingerprint imaging.(HOLOGRAPHIC OPTICAL ELEMENTS)
April 1, 2005... A biometric fingerprint-capture device introduced by Aprilis (Maynard, MA) capitalizes upon the unique properties of holographic optical elements. (1) The HoloSensor allows capture of up to 2 x 2-in. images at 500 or 1000 dots per inch (dpi)...

Optical modules detect high-energy neutrinos.(PHOTOMULTIPLIER TUBES)
April 1, 2005... Over the next five years, an international research team led by Francis Halzen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of physics, intends to place a total of 4200 digital optical modules (DOMs) within a cubic kilometer of ice buried more...

Laser Doppler system for small aircraft measures wind shear.(OPTOELECTRONICS FOR AVIATION)
April 1, 2005... Swan International (Sydney, Australia), a startup firm developing laser-based wind-shear-detection systems for small aircraft, has moved a step closer to its goal of launching a commercial version of this technology in the United States, having...

Cluster eye may become cell-phone lens.(COMPOUND LENSES)
April 1, 2005... As most schoolchildren know, there are two main types of imaging systems that exist in nature: the simple, or single-lens, eye (used mainly by vertebrates) and the compound eye (the sort sported by insects). Usually, cameras and other...

Heat-transfer simulation aids in TPV prototyping.(PHOTOVOLTAICS)
April 1, 2005... Unlike photovoltaic (PV) cells, which generate electricity from electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum, thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells generate electricity from IR radiation, for example as produced through the combustion of fuel...

Northrop Grumman establishes new group for high-energy lasers.(laser industry report)
April 1, 2005... Northrop Grumman (Redondo Beach, CA) has established a new business area to help transition its high-energy laser systems from the laboratory to the battlefield. The new group, dubbed Directed Energy Systems (DES), is being headed-up by Art...

Jenoptik plans new production facility.(laser industry report)
April 1, 2005... Jenoptik Diode Lab (Berlin-Adlershof, Germany) plans to build a new manufacturing facility to produce optoelectronic semiconductor components, with particular emphasis on semiconductor materials for high-power diode lasers. These lasers are...

Candela to pay more royalties on device.(laser industry report)
April 1, 2005... An arbitrator ordered medical-laser manufacturer Candela (Wayland, MA) to pay additional royalties to the Regents of the University of California. Candela licenses certain patent rights from the Regents relating to technology incorporated in...

Airbus orders FARO Laser trackers.(laser industry report)
April 1, 2005... FARO Technologies (Stuttgart, Germany, and Lake Mary, FL) received approximately $1.7 million in FARO Laser Tracker orders from Airbus. The orders consisted of seven units for Airbus U.K.'s A380 wing assembly plant, and five units for Airbus...

DARPA releases details of ADHELS initiative.(laser industry report)
April 1, 2005... Scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA; Arlington, VA) are moving ahead with a program to develop a 100-kW weapons-grade laser-diode system capable of destroying military targets. The 18-month first phase of the...

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; Richland, WA) has received a four-year, $12.5 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop laser-based chemical weapon sensors.

BAE Systems.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... BAE Systems (Hampshire, England) has been selected by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to convert a 60-mm mortar into a precision-guided munitions system.

Photonic Products.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Laser-diode developer Photonic Products (Hertfordshire, England) has moved to larger premises in Hatfield Broad Oak, Hertfordshire.

Laser Components.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Laser Components (Olching, Germany) signed a distribution contract with New Source Technology (NST; Pleasanton, CA) covering the western United States. NST will be selling Laser Component's high-power laser optics and laser-diode modules.

Semrock, Molecular Probes sign supply agreement.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2005... Molecular Probes (Eugene, OR), a wholly owned subsidiary of Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA), signed an agreement with Semrock (Rochester, NY) to offer Semrock's BrightLine series of fluorescence filters in its worldwide catalog. "Working directly...

Cabot opens thin-films manufacturing facility.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2005... Cabot Supermetals (Boyertown, PA, and Aizu Wakamatsu, Japan), a business unit of Cabot (Boston, MA) has officially opened its new thin-films manufacturing facility located in Etna, OH. The new 90,000-sq-ft facility produces tantalum sputtering...

Konarka collaborates on first solar working fabric.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2005... Konarka Technologies is developing photovoltaic fabric with Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL; Switzerland). The photovoltaic fibers and textiles based on nanotechnology programs are expected to yield the first fully integrated...

JMAR granted x-ray lithography patent.(optics industry report)
April 1, 2005... JMAR Technologies (San Diego, CA) has been issued a patent (U.S. 6,845,145 B2) for advanced x-ray lithography stepper technology that will enable a faster, more cost-effective means of producing zone plate optics for its Compact X-ray...

Scanner Technologies.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Scanner Technologies (Minneapolis, MN) has been granted patent 6,862,365 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the three-dimensional inspection of ball-grid-array devices with fixed optics and a single camera.

Northrop Grumman.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Northrop Grumman (Redondo Beach, CA) won NASA's George M. Low Award for outstanding technical and managerial achievements in quality and performance. Northrop Grumman is leading the design and development of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope,...

Suss MicroTec.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Suss MicroTec (Munich, Germany) is consolidating its two mask-aligner manufacturing sites in Asslar and Munich to the facility at its corporate headquarters in Munich. SUSS MicroTec manufactures photoresist and dielectric coat/bake/develop...

DALSA to acquire Coreco.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2005... Coreco shares skyrocketed shortly after the maker of image-processing technology said it would be purchased for Can$72 million (US$58.5 million) by Dalsa (Waterloo, ON, Canada), which makes image sensor equipment. Raymond James analyst...

Strong attendance marks first-ever global FPD summit.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2005... The inaugural Global Flat Panel Display Partners Conference (GFPC) achieved extremely promising progress in promoting cooperation among executives within the Flat Panel Display (FPD) industry, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials...

Grant for noninvasive cervical cancer detection.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2005... SpectRx (Atlanta, GA) is partnering with Emory University (Atlanta, GA) as part of a grant to Emory from the Georgia Research Alliance to support United States Food and Drug Administration clinical trials of a noninvasive cervical cancer...

Cambridge and Toppan initiate phase two of joint program.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2005... Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) and Toppan Printing (Tokyo, Japan) have commenced Phase Two of their joint program to explore alternative printing processes for the fabrication of displays based on light emitting polymer (PLED) technology....

Michigan Aerospace awarded multiyear 3-D sensor software contract.(imaging & detector industry report)
April 1, 2005... Michigan Aerospace (Ann Arbor, MI), a provider of optical products and advanced engineering services, received a $600,000, two-year contract jointly funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Johnson Spaceflight Center...

Three-Five Systems.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Three-Five Systems (Tempe, AZ), a manufacturer of custom displays and display systems using LCD and LCoS microdisplay technology, is planning a number of actions to reduce operating costs and excess manufacturing capacity, including relocation...

Webview (Santa Rosa, CA), a provider of machine-vision technologies and products, has purchased all of the assets and intellectual property of the Spectrum Vision System.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Webview (Santa Rosa, CA), a provider of machine-vision technologies and products, has purchased all of the assets and intellectual property of the Spectrum Vision System for inspection of food and other products from Advanced Technologies,...

B&W TEK.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... B&W TEK (Newark, DE), a manufacturer of analytical spectrometers and other industrial instrumentation, received a minority investment from Summit Partners, a leading private equity and venture capital firm with more than $5.5 billion in capital...

Laser Physics U.K. and ADM Photonics partner.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2005... Laser Physics U.K. (Cheshire, England) and ADM Photonics (Cheshire, England) entered into a strategic partnership that should help both companies provide a more comprehensive service to their customers. Products that are available from this...

Steren acquires assets of Lightwave Solutions.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2005... Steren Electronics International (San Diego, CA) acquired the assets of Lightwave Solutions (San Diego, CA). Lightwave Solutions, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Steren, will continue to serve the optical-transport market. Lightwave Solutions...

Bookham announces new chairman and chief operating officer.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2005... Andrew Rickman, founder and chairman of Bookham (San Jose, CA), has stepped down as chairman and a member of the board of directors following 17 years of service. The board of directors appointed Peter Bordui to succeed Rickman as chairman of...

FiberLabs expands territory.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2005... FiberLabs (Saitam, Japan), a private corporation previously spun out of KDD Laboratories, is now selling its line of optical amplifiers and amplified-stimulated-emission sources in Canada and the United States through a team of manufacturers'...

ElectroniCast predicts broadband component growth.(fiberoptics industry report)
April 1, 2005... The total global deployment of components consumed in broadband-to-the-premises applications is forecasted by ElectroniCast (San Mateo, CA) to grow at an average rate of 13 percent per year, from $5.9 billion in 2003 to $10.8 billion in 2008....

OE Solutions.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... OE Solutions (Santa Ana, CA), a global supplier of high-performance optoelectronic transceiver solutions for optical communications, announced the opening of its U.S subsidiary, OE Solutions America. located n Santa Ana. CA.

Lightconnect.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... Lightconnect (Newark. CA) shipped its 40,000th MEMS-based variable optical attenuator WOA) to a large optical system manufacturer

NeoPhotonics (San Jose, CA), a developer and manufacturer of planar-lightwave-circuit-based integrated optical modules and subsystems, has become the largest shareholder in Photon Technology.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... NeoPhotonics (San Jose, CA), a developer and manufacturer of planar-lightwave-circuit-based integrated optical modules and subsystems, has become the largest shareholder in Photon Technology (Shenzhen, China), following the acquisition of all...

InnovaQuarts (Phoenix, AZ) acquired the 3M.(Also in the news ...)
April 1, 2005... InnovaQuarts (Phoenix, AZ) acquired the 3M (West Haven, CT) TECS multimode optical-fiber product line and moved the TECS/Power Core multimode-fiber production business to its new fiber draw facility in Phoenix.

Laser safety takes on the real world.(40 YEARS: THEN AND NOW)
April 1, 2005... In the 40 years since 1965, coverage of laser safety in Laser Focus World has grown progressively from an initial focus on safety devices and procedures for laboratory environments to a much broader range of real-world issues, such as the...

Scientific equipment: cheap and even free.(working the web)
April 1, 2005... Many of you probably know about the numerous Web sites that offer second-hand scientific equipment for the optoelectronics industry either directly for sale or via an online auction, but did you know there is a site that offers free...

A system of systems: the GEOSS program is a global environmental monitoring effort that can generate critical benefits.(inside imaging)
April 1, 2005... Understanding the Earth as an interconnected whole would seem to require more coordination than scientists, governments, and institutions could muster. Yet it's with some surprise and optimism that we can find a program created for just this...

How can I get a U.S. internship with a foreign degree?(business forum)
April 1, 2005... Q: I studied fiberoptics in Europe and would like to intern in the United States. Please tell me how it works; my resume is attached. A: I will take this opportunity to vent a bit. Companies and universities here could learn from their...

Ultrafast lasers link diagnostics and therapy at the cellular level: from nanosurgery to cellular manipulation, laser-tissue interaction studies are paving the way for a new generation of medical applications.(OPTOELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS: NONINVASIVE MEDICINE)
April 1, 2005... For many years, lasers in the medical field were seen primarily as surgical tools for the ablation, cutting, or coagulation of tissue. But in the last decade some of the most successful medical-laser applications have been noninvasive (although...

Poled lithium niobate crystals enable multicycle THz pulse generation.(TERAHERTZ OPTICS)
April 1, 2005... The terahertz frequency range (approximately 0.1 to 10 THz) lies between the microwave and infrared regimes of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, but terahertz (THz) science and technology lags considerably behind the microwave and infrared...

Surface plasmons can circumvent certain limitations imposed by conventional optics; oscillations of conduction electrons in a metal trap photon energy on the surface, and can squeeze through subwavelength holes.(PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: SURFACE PLASMONS)
April 1, 2005... In the days of bulk optics, surface plasmons were just another curious physical effect of largely academic interest. Plasmons are resonant oscillations of free electrons at the surface of a conductive metal that electromagnetic waves can excite...

UV-imager design takes great care: designing an imaging apparatus for the ultraviolet is essentially an exercise in avoiding sharp transitions in material behavior.(ULTRAVIOLET IMAGING)
April 1, 2005... Imaging in the ultraviolet presents numerous complications because many optical materials stop transmitting as the wavelength gets shorter until, finally, only reflectance works. But, because an increasing number of image sensors are capable of...

Chalcogenide optical fibers target mid-IR applications.(MID-INFRARED FIBERS)
April 1, 2005... Great advances have been made at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in reducing optical losses of infrared-transmitting chalcogenide glass fibers using improved chemical purification and better fiber fabrication techniques. The losses are now...

Rotational flexures deliver high precision.(TRANSLATION STAGES)
April 1, 2005... Many applications now demand high-speed rotational motion, ultrasensitive rotational motion, or both. In a typical application a laser beam is steered across a sample using a rotational stage, often with two-axes. An experiment might rely on...

Single-photon avalanche diodes excel at low-light detection.(PHOTODIODES)
April 1, 2005... Many applications in bioscience, imaging, and lidar require low-light detection. In fluorescence-correlation spectroscopy, for example, the confocal technique used to examine properties of single molecules requires single-photon detection...

Multispectral scattering measures fruit texture.(MULTISPECTRAL DETECTORS)
April 1, 2005... Firmness is an important textural property for a wide range of raw (unprocessed) and processed solid foods and is an important quality parameter in grading many horticultural products such as apples, cucumbers, pears, peaches, and watermelons....

Ti:sapphire oscillator.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The Integral-Oct is an ultra-broadband coherent light source based on a low-threshold femtosecond oscillator pumped by a diode-pumped, solid-state module. The device offers a bandwidth of greater than 120 nm with a quasi-Gaussian spectral...

Double-board camera.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The 20RD8 19.25-ram-diameter round double-board camera is designed for space-constrained applications. The camera offers 400 TVL color resolution and 0.3 lux in a 1/3-in. CCD. It has a depth of 14.29 mm. A black-and-white version is available,...

Aspherical lenses.(new products)
April 1, 2005... Aspherical glass lenses from Panasonic have focal lengths from 0.69 to 20.0 mm, numerical apertures from 0.097 to 0.65, arid mechanical diameters from 1.7 to 8.2 ram. The lenses can be used as pickup lenses for optical drive devices, collimator...

Excimer lasers.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The Xantos S series of excimer lasers are designed with the entire gas-handling system built in. They come in versions with maximum repetition rates of 200 or 500 Hz and wavelengths of 193 or 248 nm. At 248 nm, the laser has a maximum energy of...

Directly modulated laser.(new products)
April 1, 2005... A directly modulated laser is based on Planar External-Cavity (PLANEX) laser technology. It is intended as a low-cost option for SFF 10-Gbit/s optical interfaces that achieve 80-km transmission distances over standard single-mode fiber without...

DPSS laser.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The Bright Solutions wedge laser provides 1.5 mJ at 1064 nm in 1.5-ns pulses (1-MW peak power) at 1-kHz output. The laser is air/conduction cooled and measures 6 x 10.5 x 9 in. This monolithic laser source is based on proprietary electro-optic...

Optical tunable filter.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The OTF-930 is an optical tunable-filter product. Linear Sliding technology uses dielectric thin-film filters to provide a full 80-nm tuning range with low polarization dependence and low dispersion characteristics. The filters do not require...

Radiation-tolerant camera.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The APS250 video camera is designed to withstand a 5-Mrad dose of gamma rays and high radiation doses of more than 6 Mrad from beams of high-energy particles. The camera uses a STAR250 CMOS image sensor with a protective epilayer, supported...

Reflectometer standard.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The Series HREF high-resolution reflectometer standard enables the verification of optical-reflectometer measurements at close reflection spacings. The standard is designed to speed development time and improve the quality of micro-optical...

Optical-stylus profiler.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The HRT 3000 is a noncontact, optical-stylus profiler that provides z-data in real time. It also has a traditional microscope for conventional x, y metrology, yielding a true three-axis noncontact profilometer. Using proprietary advanced...

X-ray fluorescence platform.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The MicroXR microbeam XRF platform is designed for semiconductor metrology. It uses a combination of microbeam x-ray collimation technology and traditional energy-dispersive XRF (EDXRF) spectroscopy. This results in a nondestructive metrology...

Femtosecond laser.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The FSL1010 Series of fiber-coupled femtosecond lasers provides pulse lengths less than 150 fs, center wavelength of 1550 nm, and a fixed repetition of 80 MHz. Two models offer output powers of 10 or 150 mW. The portable benchtop units...

Hand-held NIR spectrometer.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The IntelliSpectro-lite spectrometer utilizes a proprietary optical design to enable hand-held, battery-operated applications. The unit interfaces to a PC or palmtop via a USB port. Base-32 firm operating software is included. An on-board...

Optical sensor.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The TCND5000 reflective sensor includes an IR emitter and PIN photodiode in a single package. It is designed for object-presence sensors, touch sensors, and proximity sensors in consumer, industrial, and automotive applications. It has an...

Camera Link breakout box.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The CLB-501 Camera Link breakout box provides access to data transferred between a camera and a frame grabber over a Camera Link connection. A standard header-style connector, located on the rear panel, monitors and/or sources all video,...

Multimode diode bar.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The 9xx-nm 120-W, CW multimode laser-diode bar is designed for pumping solid-state disk and fiber lasers, as well as direct applications of laser-diode output. The lasers have enough power for material processing, marking, and printing; medical...

UV-curable adhesive.(new products)
April 1, 2005... UV15-7 is a a one-component, optically clear, nonyellowing UV-curable polymer. The 100% reactive system is free of solvents and volatiles. It provides nearly instantaneous curing at room temperature when exposed to a UV light source of adequate...

Laser sintering system.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The EOSINT M 270 laser sintering system is powered by a 200-W single-mode ytterbium fiber laser. The new fiber laser offers a small focus diameter for improved detail resolution and part quality, while the variable-focus technology and fast...

Laser spot tracker.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The Model 741DP quadrant tracking detector/processor is a laser spot tracker with flexibility for missile and platform applications. A range of n-type silicon detectors are temperature-controlled and give highest performance at 1.06 [micro]m....

Two-line laser.(new products)
April 1, 2005... The Dual Calypso has CW single-beam output at both 491 and 532 nm with power of 20 mW. The diode-pumped, solid-state laser has root-mean-square noise of less than 0.3% and peak-to-peak noise of less than 3%. The industrial device is designed as...