Photonics Quality, Costs Top Concerns in SPIE Survey

Quality, costs and intellectual property confidence rated high on the list of concerns for respondents to a photonics industry survey conducted by SPIE this spring.

The survey was designed to provide input to the US National Academies’ update of its 1998 study, Harnessing Light: Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st Century.

The survey found that supply chains raised concern, with 59% of respondents apprehensive about global supply chains for optical and photonic components and devices, while US supply chains were a concern for 51%.

The advantage of cost was rated very high in non-US supply chains, while confidence in protection of intellectual property was rated very low. For US supply chains, the strongest advantage was seen in quality, while cost was the least beneficial.

The survey found that stability among companies was a major worry and that market control by the government was seen as a global threat; mergers were considered the greatest threat within the US.

All photonics technologies were seen by the survey takers as having some level of importance for future development. Laser components and systems rated the highest, followed by military and industrial detectors and sensors, cameras and imaging devices and processing, and fiber optics and communication technologies.

The survey has been reopened and made accessible on the blog site “Harnessing Minds,” which was launched by SPIE to encourage further comments for the committee appointed to research and write the study.

SPIE is an international society for optics and photonics.

For more information, visit: www.spie.org