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Camera Memory Allows Rapid Data Transfer
In scientific and imaging applications, there is a trend toward CCD and CMOS camera systems with higher spatial resolution and frame rates. Designers have responded to the demand for greater detail and less magnification with more sophisticated cameras — but these come at the cost of data overload. For example, to capture an image of 4008 × 2672 pixels using a camera with 14-bit dynamics, two bytes per pixel are needed for the gray value (if stored as a 16-bit standard tiff image). So the...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Differential Interference Contrast Adds Confocal Imaging Flexibility
Confocal laser scanning microscopy continues to make inroads into industrial inspection applications as diverse as printed circuit boards and automotive components. A key reason is the technique’s analysis flexibility. Figure 1. Olympus laser...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Fiber Bragg Gratings: A Versatile Approach to Dispersion Compensation
Chromatic dispersion compensation is recognized as one of the main challenges in high-data-rate optical communications systems. Dispersion directly affects the quality of the data transmission and causes a blurring of the bit stream....
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Industrial MicroscopyGets Down to Work
It's a three-dimensional world for industrial microscopy these days, whether it is used to help monitor thin-film deposition processes or to inspect bumps on a circuit board. Regardless of the technique, building the 3-D image usually involves...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Laser Writes Ferroelectric Domains in a Confocal Microscope
Confocal microscopes are powerful tools for three-dimensional imaging on the submicron scale and, when combined with fluorescence and/or Raman spectroscopy, can yield local information about chemical composition and structural details. Because of...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
LEDs Meet Solid-State Electronics
LEDs, once considered low-flux optosemiconductors, are now finding use in traditional, everyday lighting applications. Substantial increases in power efficiencies have enabled their use in traffic signals, automotive exterior lighting, signage and...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Nanocrystalline Cerium Oxide Improves Glass Polishing Operations
Performance improvements are increasingly being sought in a variety of technologically advanced polishing applications related to the optics and microelectronics industries. From the production of photomask blanks to the fabrication of memory and...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Optical Ceramics Look to Commercial Applications
Stopping a projectile traveling at 2000 feet per second is no easy task. To do so, manufacturers of bullet-resistant glass rely on extra-thick glass and plastic laminates. But more thickness means added weight, which is not what you want when trying...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Plug-and-Play Metrology
The field of metrology historically has been saturated with complicated, proprietary solutions. With such specialization, integration of machine vision into an application has been an expensive and often monumental task for the layman. Those who...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Silicon Carbide Is Poised to Enter the Mainstream
NASA systems designers are always looking to minimize mass on solar system exploration projects because every gram comes at a stiff price. When they found a lightweight material that could be used to manufacture the structure and mirror substrates...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Siloxanes Find Niche in High-Brightness LEDs
Solid-state lighting, such as LEDs, is an emerging platform that, in some cases, will replace conventional incandescent and fluorescent lighting. This technology has many benefits: It will increase energy savings, is more reliable and...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Small Design Changes Can Pump Up Ti:Sapphire Laser Power
Ti:sapphire laser oscillators and amplifiers are the dominant sources for ultrafast applications because they can deliver ultrashort (<100 fs), widely tunable pulses and high pulse energies at various repetition rates. No other active medium,...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Solid-State Heat-Capacity Lasers: Good Candidates for the Marketplace
Under the support of the US Army's Space and Missile Defense Command, and in collaboration with industrial partners Boeing, General Atomics, DRS, Decade Optical Systems and others, we are developing high-average-power (100-kW class) mobile laser...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Technique Maps Complex Microsurfaces
Recently there has been much interest in various noncontact methods for measuring surface profiles.1 One new technique, based on low-coherence scanning interference microscopes, offers several advantages over monochromatic interferometric...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
The Future of High-Speed Smart Cameras: Tomorrow's Interconnect
In recent years, the high-performance camera market has enjoyed an explosion in new technology. With both CCD and CMOS sensors offering acceptable image quality and increasingly high frame rates, users have had a myriad of solutions to meet their...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
The Promise and Challenges of Short-Wave IR Imaging
Although applications for the mid- and long-wave thermal bands are well-established, short-wavelength infrared holds great promise for military and commercial imaging applications. But we have work to do. The short-wavelength IR (900 to 1700 nm)...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Total Interference Contrast Aids Thin-Film Engineering
Many materials manufacturing applications today, including coating deposition, semiconductor production, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and micromachining, require precision surface step-height measurement. To measure simple surface height...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Trends in Camera Design Increase Functionality
Commercially available camera sensors are shrinking, perhaps driven by the camera-phone craze. Now common are 3-μm pixels with megapixel sensors that measure less than half an inch. Although beneficial for compact cameras, such small sensors...
Photonics Spectra, August 2004
Astronomical Research Spawns Detector Innovation
From the middle of the Pacific, Gerard Luppino has a good view of the future and of the past. Luppino, an astronomy professor at the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Astronomy in Honolulu, has access to the optical and infrared observatories...
Photonics Spectra, July 2004
Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals Put on a Good Show
Microdisplays are miniature, high-resolution displays that typically measure 1 cm diagonally and whose use requires magnifying optics. These displays can be transmissive, reflective or emissive. The transmissive type based on twisted nematic liquid...
Photonics Spectra, July 2004
In Situ Monitoring Boosts Yield of Thin-Film Deposition Processes
In situ optical monitoring techniques have been critical components of both plasma-assisted evaporation and magnetron sputtering coating techniques for several years. Until recently, though, it wasn’t uncommon for limitations related to coating...
Photonics Spectra, July 2004
Optical Metrology Enables a Smooth Ride
For an automotive manufacturer to be successful in today’s fiercely competitive environment, continuous improvement is critical. Consumers are paying more attention to the ride and comfort that their automobiles provide, after vehicle function and...
Photonics Spectra, July 2004
Partners in Production
The first semiconductor lasers were produced in the laboratory in the early 1960s. Just months after their development, they were available for sale, their reliability and efficiency generating interest in the marketplace. Of course, the design and...
Photonics Spectra, July 2004
Secondary Spin-Coating Enhances MgF2 Antireflection Coating
The technology used to apply antireflection coatings to glass is well-established. In its simplest form, the coating has one layer of material, usually a dielectric, with an optical thickness of λ/4, where the lowest amount of reflection at the...
Photonics Spectra, July 2004
Semiconductor Inspection Moves to Deep-UV Imaging
Fueled by the ever-decreasing size of features on semiconductor wafers, the semiconductor inspection industry continues to focus on shorter-wavelength light (Figure 1). Increasingly, the manufacturers of wafer and reticle (photomask) inspection...
Photonics Spectra, July 2004
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