Annual awards celebrate the best of photonics innovation in areas such as quantum, vision technology, transportation, and smart sensing
BELLINGHAM, Wash., Dec. 31, 2020 — Industry giants and emerging challengers will be honored at the Prism Awards in a March 2021 virtual ceremony. The Prism Awards recognize industrial innovation in photonics in multiple categories. For the consideration of the 2021 Prism Awards, SPIE and media partner Photonics Media received 149 applications from 18 countries.
Notable trends in quantum, manufacturing, health care, smart sensing, and autonomous transportation mark this year’s entries and finalists. Emerging companies Lumedica and Qnami and returning Prism champions WaveOptics and nLight will share the stage alongside industry stalwarts such as IPG and Osram. With 10 categories ranging from manufacturing, vision technology, and life sciences to transportation, quality control, and medical devices, the Prism Awards showcase the latest products and technical innovations across optics and photonics.
“The finalists vying for the 2021 Prism Awards represent exciting innovations in the optics and photonics industry,” said SPIE CEO Kent Rochford. “In a year when R&D has been understandably challenged, we still see tremendous work from our community in terms of developing products that enable health care, make our planet safer and cleaner, and improve manufacturing, while also looking into the future to continue to impact and enhance our daily lives. We congratulate all the applicants for the research, development, and perseverance necessary to bring a sellable technology to market and look forward to recognizing the winners early next year.”
2021 Prism Award winners will be announced during a virtual ceremony in March 2021. This year’s awards feature four new categories: Medical Devices, Quantum, Software, and Smart Sensing.
“The Prism Awards represent the preeminent honor for our industry and offer a window into the innovation taking place in established and emerging fields — from smart sensing to transportation to quantum and beyond,” said Tom Laurin, CEO of Photonics Media. “It’s our great pleasure to congratulate the 2021 finalists, and we wish them luck as the final round of voting takes place. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that even a pandemic can’t slow the progress of photonics in shaping our world.”
A full list of the Prism Award finalists and their competing technologies:
Life Sciences
Augmentiqs Medical, Augmentiqs 1000
IPG Photonics, YLPF-FlexO
OmniVision Technologies, OVM6948 CameraCubeChip
Manufacturing
BMF (Boston Micro Fabrication), microArch S240
IPG Photonics, LightWELD 1500
nLight, AFX
Medical Devices
Endofotonics, SPECTRA IMDx
Lumedica Vision, OQ EyeScope
Norlase, LION
Quality Control
Ophir, LBS-300HP-NIR
Teledyne DALSA, Linea HS 32k TDI Camera
RoadVista, StripeMaster 3 Retroreflectometer
Quantum
AUREA Technology, Quantum Entangled Twin Photon Source
Element Six, DNV-B1
Qnami, Qnami ProteusQ
Safety & Security
Alakai Defense Systems, Situational Awareness for First Responders (SAFR)
Cubert, ULTRIS 20 Hyperspectral Camera
RaySecur, MailSecur mmWave Scanner
Software
ALPhANOV, Immersive Photonics Lab
Beijing JCZ Technology, EZCAD Laser Processing Software
OptoTest, OPL-CLX Software Suite
Smart Sensing
Luxmux, Ultrawide Tunable Fabry Perot Laser
mirSense, New QCLs from 10 µm to 17 µm
nanoLambda, Digital Nano Spectrometer
Transportation
AEye, AEye 4Sight M
Lumotive, X20 LiDAR
SLD Laser, LaserLight W-IR SMD
Vision Technology
Gamma Scientific, NED-LMD Waveguide Tester
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, 550 aperture PowerBoost VCSEL
WaveOptics, WaveOptics Waveguide Platforms
More information on the Prism Awards is available on the official award website: www.photonicsprismaward.com/.