Sensores

Representatives from the New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering, and Science (NY CREATES) visited the Fraunhofer Institute in Dresden, Germany to set concrete dates for a joint exchange in 2024. The meeting follows last year's signing of a memorandum of understanding between NY CREATES and the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems to collaborate on joint research projects, symposia, and workshops as well as promoting scientific exchanges.

From top: Lumicore’s production base in Nanjing, China and the company’s 1.32-in. micro-OLED. Courtesy of Lumicore. SHANGHAI — Micro-OLED display manufacturer Lumicore has closed a Series A funding round worth $100 million to help raise...

Seven quantum hardware companies have been awarded contracts to build a diverse range of quantum computing testbeds at the National Quantum Computing Centre facilities in Oxfordshire, England by March 2025.

The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition, delivered by Innovate UK, is providing £30 million ($37.8 million) funded through the UKRI Technology Missions Fund and the NQCC to accelerate the development of scalable quantum computing.

The winners are University of Sheffield spinout Aegiq; Infleqtion; ORCA Computing; Oxford Ionics; Quantum Motion; QuEra Computing; and Rigetti.
The National Quantum Computing Centre will be host to a range of quantum technology testbeds developed by quantum computing...

A new imaging technique could improve survival rates for pancreatic cancer by enabling physicians to detect the full extent of the disease for surgical intervention. The technique pairs a contrast agent with multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) to identify pancreatic cancer cells at the microscopic level, at approximately 10 times more magnitude than what is currently possible.

A research project led by Lacey McNally and Ajay Jain, MD, professors of surgery at the University of Oklahoma’s OU College of Medicine will investigate the technique's efficacy in evaluating the spread of pancreatic cancer. McNally and Jain received a $3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to...

Two research hubs in Southampton and Bristol, England have received £11 million ($13.9 million) each to help bring new chip technologies to market. The newly established Innovation and Knowledge Centres (IKC) will support research and initiatives, provide access to state-of-the-art prototyping technology, and will work closely with early-stage companies.

At the University of Southampton, the Cornerstone Information and Knowledge Centre will build on the university’s expertise in silicon photonics and work to improve the development and commercialization of silicon photonics technologies. The site will be led by professor Graham Reed, director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre.
U.K.’s Minister for Tech and...

In separate transactions, Bruker has acquired preclinical in-vivo optical imaging systems company Spectral Instruments Imaging (SII), and Nanophoton Corporation, a provider of advanced research Raman microscopy systems. Financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

With the deals, Bruker has made five acquisitions since the start of 2024.
Bruker has acquired Nanophoton Corporation, developer of the RAMANtouch high-speed Raman microscope (shown). The company also acquired Spectral Instruments Imaging (SII), a provider of preclinical in-vivo optical imaging systems. Courtesy of Bruker via Business Wire. Established in 2009 in Tucson, Ariz., SII’s technology supports co-registered bioluminescence, fluorescence, and...

Optica has appointed Judith M. Dawes as the editor-in-chief of Optics Continuum, effective March 1. Dawes takes over for Takashige Omatsu, who led the journal as the founding editor since 2018. Dawes is a professor of physics at Macquarie University in Sydney with research interests in laser physics, nanophotonics, and laser applications in medicine and communications. She has made significant contributions to research on Yb:YAB crystals and the invention of a laser-cured protein solder for laser microsurgery. She is a fellow of SPIE, the Royal Society of New South Wales, and Optica, as well as its director-at-large. Judith M. Dawes. Courtesy of Optica.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sir Peter L. Knight has been named an Optica Honorary...

The Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) has partnered with TRUMPF, LayTec, and Finetech to develop high-power diode laser stacks with high duty cycle and optical power, and low fabrication cost. The work is to take place under the HOTSTACK project, coordinated by TRUMPF. The initiative addresses the need for stacked arrays of diode lasers to pump the new generation of pulsed solid-state lasers of the highest energy class.

Diode lasers are needed in high volumes for these systems, but manufacturing processes, such as epitaxial growth, III-V wafer structuring, and etching processes are complex. Meanwhile, reliable process control is essential for understanding and controlling the...

NASA will collaborate with the European Space Agency (ESA) on a space-based observatory designed to detect gravitational waves. The ESA formally adopted the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) to its mission lineup, with launch slated for 2035.

The construction of the instruments and spacecraft will begin in 2025 once a European industrial contractor has been selected, the ESA said.

Gravitational waves were first detected in 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) following the merger of two black holes. Along with other ground-based facilities, LIGO has since observed dozens of these mergers, as well as other gravitational-wave producing phenomena.
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna...

A new, 3D-printable material that is a highly efficient emitter could lead to cheaper, more sustainable manufacturing processes for OLED devices. The material, called supramolecular ink, demonstrated the ability to convert nearly all absorbed light into visible light during the emission process.

Although OLEDs are lighter, thinner, and more energy-efficient than other flat-panel technologies and provide a higher-quality image, they often contain rare, expensive metals such as iridium. Supramolecular ink, which is made of inexpensive, Earth-abundant elements instead of costly, scarce metals, could enable more affordable, environmentally sustainable OLED displays and electronic devices.
These 2-cm-high 3D-printed objects were...

Biotechnology company PlaqueTec and the Babraham Institute’s Flow Cytometry Facility have begun a collaboration to develop cell phenotyping assay to detect cell subpopulations in human blood. The collaboration aims to use the assay to investigate the different cell types present in coronary artery samples collected from patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) participating in PlaqueTec’s ongoing BIOPATTERN trial.

The BIOPATTERN trial uses PlaqueTec’s Liquid Biopsy System to collect samples at multiple sites along a patient’s diseased coronary artery. The resulting data from the cell phenotyping analysis could uncover novel biological insights into the cell types accumulating at coronary disease sites, and...

A new software program can map the movements of multiple particles within cells simultaneously, providing insight into cellular functions that are difficult — and sometimes impossible — to investigate using single-cell tracking methods.

The software, developed by researchers at the University of Bonn and Wageningen University and Research, speeds the high-throughput process used to observe molecules in cells, enabling fivefold shorter measurement times than single-particle tracking, according to the researchers.

In single-particle tracking, the molecule is marked with fluorescent light, and hundreds of photos per second are taken using a high-resolution microscope. By looking at the gaps between molecules and the...

STEMMER IMAGING AG, a machine vision technology developer, has rebranded its INFAIMON subsidiaries in Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and Portugal as STEMMER IMAGING. According to the company, customers will continue to have the same contacts and will gain access to an expanded product portfolio following rebranding, which came into effect Feb. 1.

BRUSSELS — Semiconductor deep tech startup VoxelSensors has completed a seed round with an additional €3 million ($3.3 million) in tail investment. The funding, led by new investor Qbic Fund, will go toward the company’s international growth and customer engagement for its spatial and empathic computing solution for mobile and XR devices. The investment is an extension of the...

PowerLight Technologies, a developer of laser power beaming systems, will provide critical wireless power beaming expertise, solutions, and support for the development of lunar power infrastructure, as part of Blue Origin’s award under the DARPA Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) initiative. PowerLight Technologies is teamed with Blue Origin on the scalable surface power infrastructure solution that includes generation and transmission of megawatts of electricity using lunar-sourced materials and wireless power beaming.

Power beaming can provide the means for delivering power to remote devices in the early stages of lunar development and operations where efficiency of mass, deployment flexibility, and ease of implementation are...

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, recognized the top innovations in new optics and photonics products at the 2024 Prism Awards held at Photonics West on Jan. 31. The gala event marked the Prism Awards’ 16th anniversary.

The annual ceremony honored a range of established and emerging companies applying groundbreaking and creative solutions to critical problems in areas such as augmented and virtual reality, sensors, lasers, quantum technology, and biomedical optics solutions.

Finalists and winners were selected by a panel of international judges who leveraged their knowledge and acumen from across the technology commercialization and funding sectors. The distinguished judges' roster included the...

I have never been one to leave a party early, much less when the band is just warming up. But this, sadly, will be my final editorial column for Photonics Spectra. Fortunately, my next professional endeavor will not carry me entirely beyond photonics, because all signs indicate that this industry has barely hit the dance floor.

Regular readers will have noticed that, though some photonics sectors have become almost commoditized, the overall industry still regularly sets the stage for Nobel-winning research as well as headline-making technological leaps.

Additionally, as this column has observed, photonics technology is itself undergoing a sea change. One general theme defining this change is that many large, complex systems are...

In the early 2000s, a husband-and-wife team, Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin of Texas Tech University, first demonstrated the range of outstanding features provided by micro-LED displays. Since then, the technology has seen increasing adoption in the display screens of a growing number of popular electronic devices. Their applications range from large video walls to microdisplays for wearables and AR/VR devices. With additional advancements in deep-ultraviolet (DUV) laser manufacturing systems, experts predict micro-LEDs will further disrupt the display market and help to add new functionalities, such as cameras and sensors, to the screen.

Bright, robust, and compatible with integrated sensing, micro-LEDs are the next generation of...

Raman microscopy is a fantastic technique for analyzing the chemical composition of samples. It is a nondestructive technique that mitigates the need for material preparation and the use of stains or dyes.

Further, combining Raman spectroscopy with microscopy enables high spatial resolution to be obtained that can be applied to particles measuring a few micrometers in size.


A stereotypical Raman microscope showing the laser light’s journey through the main components. Lasers (red), microscope (green), optical path (purple), and spectrometer (blue). Courtesy of Edinburgh Instruments.
This versatility has prompted use of the technology in a wide range of applications and end markets, from semiconductors to bioscience,...

LASER-TEC is the Center for Laser and Fiber Optics Education, founded in 2013 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and headquartered at Indian River State College in Florida. It was established to help meet the goals of educating and sourcing domestic talent in the areas of optics and photonics. As a service to students, recent graduates, and prospective employers, Photonics Spectra runs a profile of one of the LASER-TEC colleges each month.

Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) offers an Associate of Applied Science degree in engineering technology with an electronics specialization, which includes elective studies on lasers and optics technology. The degree program focuses, in part, on the applied aspects of science and...

Moore’s law has been challenged many times during the past sixty years, but semiconductor engineers always found new tricks to continue doubling the density of transistors on a chip. In the meantime, the cost to do so has skyrocketed. Today, chip makers create structures on silicon chips that are as thin as a few atoms. It will not be long before physics prevents these structures from getting any smaller.

Decreasing the transistor size has always helped to increase the clock rate. There are other ways to enable higher processing speeds, such as cooling or using lower voltages. But most of these methods will also reach their physical limits in a few years, which will inhibit processors from getting faster.

At the same time,...

Many a researcher has probably shared, at one time or another, the wry sentiment, “Meetings: the practical alternative to work.” I would argue that serving on your institution’s laser safety committee (LSC) does not involve meetings that fall into that category. Whether you are starting, rekindling, or joining your organization’s laser safety program, a functional, engaged committee is vital to its practical success. In the interest of transparency, it is worth noting that no laser standards require such a committee.

The most recent edition of the ANSI Z136.1 standard, Safe Use of Lasers (2022), only suggests that a committee be formed under certain circumstances. In Appendix A, under Section A2, titled...