Photonics Prism Awards Finalists Offer Solutions for Pollution, Manufacturing, Brain Imaging, More

Sensors for monitoring environmental toxins and detecting explosives, powerful new lasers for manufacturing, and tools for noninvasive imaging deep inside the brain are among finalists in nine categories for the 2013 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation, a competition recognizing new products and inventions that break with conventional ideas, solve problems and improve life through the generation and application of the essential technologies of optics and photonics. The awards are sponsored by Photonics Media and SPIE.

Winners will be announced by industry leaders on Feb. 6 during SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco; presenters are being confirmed. Past presenters include industry leaders Michael Mertin, Jenoptik; Robert Edmund, Edmund Optics; Mary Lou Jepsen, Pixel Qi; and Milton Chang, Incubic.

Since 2008, the annual Prism Awards have recognized photonic products that break with conventional ideas, solve problems and improve life through the generation and harnessing of light.

"Each year, the quality of entries is higher and the competition keener," said SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs. "The awards celebrate the wide reach of photonics as an enabling technology and the innovation power of our community. Photonics inventions help create valuable new jobs in communications, health care, security, manufacturing and entertainment. The National Research Council's report 'Optics and Photonics, Essential Technologies for Our Nation' notes that, in the US, public companies focused on optics and photonics create more than $3 trillion of all public company revenues and 7.4 million of public company jobs."

"The immense pride these companies have in their innovations and the pride they take in being named finalists in the Prism Awards is well-earned," said Laurin Publishing CEO Thomas F. Laurin. "Just as they are building on the inventions and innovations of the industry giants who came before them, they are all helping to build a strong industry for the future. And the Prism Awards are growing right along with them, becoming a highly sought after recognition."

Many of the finalists will exhibit in the Photonics West exhibition (Feb. 5-7) and BiOS Expo (Feb. 2-3); see asterisks in the alphabetized list below. Visit www.photonicsprismaward.com for complete details.

Defense and Security

OEwaves*: Micro-Opto-Electronic Oscillator (µOEO), an information system on unmanned aerial vehicles and other platforms

P&P Optica: PPO HyperChannel, for high-resolution detection of explosives

Thermo Scientific Portable Analytical Instruments* (formerly Ahura Scientific and Polychromix): TruNarc, a handheld system for rapid narcotics identification

Detectors, Sensing, Imaging and Cameras

Princeton Instruments*: IsoPlane SCT, a research-grade imaging spectrograph

Specim*: AisaFENIX full-spectrum hyperspectral imager, for imaging plant health, and detecting invasive and illicit species

Wasatch Photonics*: Stroker f/1.3, Raman spectroscopy in low-light applications including online and industrial settings

Green Photonics

AdTech Optics*: DFB QCL 783, for air-pollution and emissions monitoring

Visualant Inc.: ChromaID, for environmental-toxin and food-safety testing

Leosphere: R-MAN510 Aerosol Lidar, for real-time detection of atmospheric hazards

Industrial Lasers

Aerotech*: Galvo and controller combination offers Infinite Field of View™ and >24-bit resolution

IPG Photonics*: GLR-100, a single-mode CW green laser for materials processing, solar cell manufacturing, semiconductor inspection and annealing, etc.

TeraDiode: TeraBlade 2-kW high-brightness direct-diode laser, beam combining for 1-µm fiber or disk laser brightness and direct-diode wall-plug efficiency and compactness, and for industrial metal cutting and welding

Life Sciences and Biophotonics

Femtolasers Produktions: Integral Core, a small sub-8-fs Ti:sapphire laser for biomedicine and industry

Olympus America*: Scaleview microscope objectives, seeing farther into the brain

Verisante Technology: Aura, multimodal imaging for skin cancer detection

Manufacturing

AFL*: LZM-100 LAZERMaster, a CO₂ laser system for splicing and shaping glass

Heidelberg Instruments*: µPG501 direct-write lithography system, a desktop maskless lithography tool for small patterns

Parian Technologies: Archetto 3, an exponentially less-expensive nanolithography tool

Optics and Optical Components

TAG Optics*: TAG Lens 2.0, ultrahigh-speed acoustics to increase depth of field

TelAztec: Antireflection Microstructures (ARMs), for suppressing reflection for solar modules, displays and finished optics

Tornado Spectral Systems*: HyperFlux VIS-NIR multimode spectrometer, high spectral resolution with order-of-magnitude-higher photon flux

Scientific Lasers

Continuum*: Horizon OPO, a full-spectrum spectroscopy research tool

Femotolasers Produktions: Femtosource rainbow CEP4, an ultrastable tool for ultrafast science

Insight Photonic Solutions*: Advanced OCT Swept Tunable Laser, high performance at low cost

Test, Measurement, Metrology

KMLabs* (Kapteyn-Murnane Laboratories Inc.): Chromatis, broadband dispersion characterization for optics and coatings.

Linden Photonics: Lindex Optics Cleaners, cleaning media for fiber optics

Resolution Spectra Systems*: Zoom Spectra, ultrahigh spectral resolution for tunable laser control, laser diode measurement, Bragg component measurement and high-depth OCT

Winners of the 2012 Prism Awards for photonics innovation pose with presenters after the gala awards banquet in January 2012 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square during SPIE Photonics West.

Photonics Media, a global photonics publishing powerhouse, is the media brand of Laurin Publishing. It is responsible for publishing Photonics Spectra, BioPhotonics and EuroPhotonics magazines, Photonics.com as well as the Photonics Buyers' Guide — the most trusted and well-respected reference guide in the industry. For more information, visit www.photonics.com/prismawards

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The society serves nearly 225,000 constituents from approximately 150 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional growth and patent precedent. SPIE provided more than $2.7 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2011. For more information, visit: http://spie.org