Photonics Rolls Up Its Sleeves

Hank Hogan, Contributing Editor

As might be expected, photonics plays a major role in manufacturing. But the story is bigger than that. Thanks to the application of photonics in such critical areas as semiconductors, electronics and transportation, much of modern manufacturing is based on light. Despite these successes, there are challenges still to be overcome, barriers that end users say prevent further growth.

Some of these barriers are related to cost. Cutting-edge machine vision systems, for example, do not come cheaply. Other barriers arise because of the nature of the technology itself.