Ophir Optronics Acquires Photon Inc.

Precision laser measurement company Ophir Optronics announced Tuesday it has added scanning-slit technology to its beam profiling product line through the acquisition of Photon Inc. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Established in 1984, San Jose-based Photon Inc. provides a range of instruments for aligning and building laser optical systems, collimating lasers, and characterizing fiber optic beams, lasers and other light sources. The company was the first to provide real-time focused beam size measurements for laser beams with its BeamScan line of profilers. Photon also offers a patented line of high-speed goniometric radiometers to spatially characterize LDs, LEDs and optical fibers used in telecommunications as well as laser sources.

Ophir Optronics, which is based in Jerusalem, said the acquisition creates a diverse and powerful supplier of laser measurement equipment for industrial, medical, military and scientific/research applications in its Ophir-Spiricon group. Spiricon merged with Ophir Optronics in 2006 and became Ophir-Spiricon, part of the Laser Measurement Group, in 2006.

"Photon Inc. and its products are a perfect complement to Ophir-Spiricon's beam profiling business. Photon's people and products are well-respected, as are our own. And Photon's scanning-slit technology combines accuracy and ease of use for a wide range of applications, including real-time operations," said Moty Gelbman, general manager of the Laser Measurement Group, in a statement.

Of special interest in the acquisition, Ophir said, was Photon’s scanning-slit technology. Its scanning-slit NanoScan profilers provide high accuracy and precision for the measurement of CW- and KHz-pulsed laser beams across the spectrum range from UV to far-infrared. The technology offers the highest ease-of-use profiling because it can measure most high-power beams without the need for complicated attenuation schemes, Ophir said. Today, its low-noise NanoScan scanning-slit technology is capable of measuring the waist of a collimated millimeter-diameter laser beam to within a centimeter. NanoScans are frequently used to directly measure tightly focused spots. Photon systems are used across a diverse range of applications, including automation, laser and laser system manufacturing, and design/test.

"I truly believe it will be best for both companies. It's been a struggle. We came back from the telecom bust — that was really hard. It took a while to come back from that, and then 2008 happened," Mary Russell, who handles marketing for Photon Inc., told Photonics Media Tuesday at the CLEO/QELS 2010 trade show in San Jose. Photon Inc. products will be a brand of Ophir-Spiricon, she said.

For more information, visit: www.ophiropt.com