A line of lasers devised for neurosurgery. An FDA-cleared semiconductor laser for treating glaucoma — smaller and less expensive than others on the market. These technologies were among the 27 finalists for the 2020 Prism Awards, in categories ranging from communication, vision technology, and the life sciences to transportation, quality control, and health care. Nominees within biophotonics-related categories are listed below. The 2019 Prism Award winners pose for a group photo. The Prism Award ceremony and banquet, co-sponsored by SPIE and Photonics Media, will be held during SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco on Feb. 5. Presenters include Constantin L. Häfner, newly appointed Fraunhofer director; Daphnie Chakran, Spectrum Scientific president and CEO; and Dave Rego, Physik Instrumente vice president and general manager. The black-tie awards ceremony, now in its 12th year, recognizes industrial innovations in photonics in multiple categories. For consideration in the 2020 Prism Awards, SPIE and media partner Photonics Media received 105 applications from 18 countries. “The finalists for the 2020 Prism Awards represent the most exciting innovations in today’s thriving optics and photonics industry,” said SPIE CEO Kent Rochford. “From data centers and 5G networks to reducing CO2 and imaging our brains, photonics continues to impact and enhance our daily lives, and it’s been thrilling to see the variety of products and technologies currently being cultivated and created. We congratulate all the applicants for the many years of research, development, and perseverance necessary to bring a sellable technology to market and look forward to recognizing the winners at SPIE Photonics West in February.” Health Care Modulight (Tampere, Finland) ML6710i lasers are iOS device-controlled medical devices for ophthalmology and neurosurgery. They can be used to locally activate photosensitive drugs and, according to Modulight, they produce significantly fewer side effects compared to systemic treatment. The mobile application uses AI-based analytics, which allow treatments to be guided based on in situ feedback. Doctors can use iOS devices to authenticate users and define treatment parameters and personal settings. Cloud connectivity enables price differentiation, pay-per-use business models, remote support, training, calibration, and information sharing across platforms. Norlase ApS (Ballerup, Denmark) The Norlase LEAF is an FDA-cleared, laser-based medical device for treating glaucoma and retinal diseases. Based on the latest semiconductor technology, Norlase said the LEAF drastically reduces size and cost compared to products currently on the market. The laser can be mounted directly on top of the doctor’s slit lamp and features voice control of treatment parameters. The core technology of the LEAF product takes full advantage of the recent development of visible semiconductor lasers, both in power and wavelengths. PhotoniCare (Champaign, Ill.) The TOMi Scope is a video otoscope that provides a high-quality video image of the eardrum surface and a depth view through the eardrum to directly visualize the middle ear. The depth view enables users to objectively determine the presence and density of fluid in the middle ear, providing up to 90% diagnostic accuracy, nearly doubling that of the gold standard of otoscopy (50%), according to PhotoniCare. Exams are quickly and easily shared with patients or placed into the electronic medical record, and the depth imaging portion of the exam may be submitted for reimbursement to insurance payers. Life Sciences Celloptic Inc. (Rockville, Md.) CINCHSCOPE is an all-optical confocal microscope that creates superresolved real-time images at any magnification or wavelength, with only one snap, based on an incoherent single-beam holographic principle using only a birefringent lens. According to Celloptic, a CINCH-enabled microscope is able to provide better-resolved, highly informative images of samples at low cost and with the ease of use and maintenance of a standard fluorescence microscope. The microscope is well suited for the research market, with the typical customer being individual research labs that require facile and improved imaging resolution. Hamamatsu (Bridgewater, N.J.) The ORCA-Fusion camera uses a custom CMOS sensor designed from the ground up for low-light quantitative imaging. With a custom pixel design and state-of-the-art semiconductor processes, the camera offers improved pixel read noise and read noise uniformity and linearity. It outputs images and quantitative data directly from the camera, especially in low-light conditions. According to Hamamatsu, the Gen III sCMOS sensor is the first with a unique fundamental pixel design and read-noise characteristics that surpass existing technology. The sensor includes well-accepted front-illuminated Gen II sCMOS and back-side illuminated sCMOS. TERA-print (Skokie, Ill.) The TERA-Fab E series delivers the nanoprinting experience with a combination of speed, resolution, design flexibility, and materials generality for a lower price, according to TERA-print. The platform seamlessly integrates state-of-the-art structured light illumination with ultraprecise optomechanics to enable rapid printing of millimeter-scale, arbitrary designs with a diffraction-unlimited (sub-250 nm) resolution, using massively parallel arrays of hundreds of thousands of independently actuatable near-field probes. A compact benchtop format, combined with a custom-built, user-friendly interface, makes the E series useful for researchers who need to prototype cutting-edge nanostructured devices.