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Optics and Illumination Go Hand in Hand
There are many things to consider from an optical perspective when designing the illumination for a machine vision system. Some are as simple as the use of low-cost optical filters to increase contrast or to reduce unwanted lighting effects (Figure 1). Others stem from radiometer principles related to the lens design used. Doing some upfront legwork will increase system capability and reliability, while helping to reduce the likelihood of undesirable results and delays in start-ups or rollouts....
Photonics Spectra, May 2004
Procuring Custom-Designed Lenses: How to Reduce Risk and Improve Results
When lens development programs go awry, the results often include blown schedules, ill-defined nonrecurring engineering programs, overpriced prototypes, rework and worse. To avoid such problems, it helps to establish a seamless line of...
Photonics Spectra, May 2004
Scaling Single-Mode Photonic Crystal Fiber Lasers to Kilowatts
The first rare-earth-doped fiber lasers, which produced a few milliwatts at a wavelength of around 1 μm, were operated in the early 1960s. For the next several decades, fiber lasers were little more than a low-power laboratory curiosity....
Photonics Spectra, May 2004
The US Photonics Job Market: Is It Getting Better?
As you talk with people in the photonics industry, you detect a hint of optimism regarding business for the rest of 2004. Some companies have started to see an upswing, which is beginning to be reflected in the want ads. Because many companies...
Photonics Spectra, May 2004
Thermal Power Meters Advance in Small Steps and Big
Lasers, like other technologies, are continuously changing and progressing as a result of developments in other areas, such as in new solid-state or fiber technologies. As a result, power meters have had to keep pace with the technology and with the...
Photonics Spectra, May 2004
Uncooled IR Detectors Maintain Sensitivity
There is a common belief that it is necessary to cool long-wavelength IR photodetectors to achieve high sensitivity. The radiation is characterized by low photon energy; thus, detection requires electron transitions with threshold energy lower than...
Photonics Spectra, May 2004
3-D Multispectral Imaging Cameras Go Airborne
Attaching a camera to the end of a missile to help guide the missile to a target might sound a little like science fiction. However, researchers at Utah State University and Lidar Pacific Corp,, both in Logan, Utah, have received a patent for an...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
CCD Cameras Tune in to Scientific Imaging
Since their first appearance some 30 years ago, CCDs have been embraced by the scientific imaging and spectroscopy communities for their extraordinary ability to quantify light. Over the years, their performance has been bolstered by a number of...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
CCDs Aid Exploration
Whether imaging the galaxy or intracellular activity, cameras based on CCD sensors continue to capture ever more complex images of the known universe. Still images that are generated with full-frame CCDs can present stunning vistas, but images can...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
CCDs Capture Dynamic Motion
Whether the application involves high-speed machine vision, live-cell imaging or surveillance, dynamic motion capture is a key task of the CCD image sensor. The need to capture an image fast and freeze it, while immediately exposing the photodiode...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Closed-Loop Control Boosts AFM Functionality
Many atomic force microscopes (AFMs) and scanning probe instruments that provide usable images do not have closed-loop position control, which is essential for accurate, distortion-free visualization and metrology. The key to position control is...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Diamond Turning Enters a New Era
Single-point, diamond-turned optics, if programmed and fixtured properly, can typically be produced right off the machine at λ/4 peak to valley, with surface finish as low as 50 Å rms in bare aluminum and as low as 25 Å rms with nickel plating,...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Fluorescence Microscopy Becomes Portable
A centimeter-wide “lab-on-a-chip” has been developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, using a new laser-processing technique. The chip, which contains optical elements for fluorescence analysis, can be taken onto the...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
High-Speed Optical Sensor for Security Applications
In today’s world, with its increasing demand for security, passive optical sensors are helping to keep us safe. They typically are used in video cameras that generate a two-dimensional image on a screen. The problem with 2-D imaging for security...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Image Intensifiers Multiply Photons
Originally developed to enhance night vision in military applications, image intensifiers combined with improved CCD imaging sensors emerged as serious contenders for low-light scientific imaging applications in the early 1990s. Today many...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Imaging Systems Gain a Brain
The use of video surveillance as a security tool historically has been plagued by multiple limitations, including cross-platform incompatibility, inadequate nighttime operability, and the human fatigue and error factors. Software developed by...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Interline CCDs Serve Machine Vision Applications
Many industrial manufacturers use machine vision systems to control the quality of their products. Such systems can measure the product’s size, position and color, the location of key components or other characteristics that determine whether an...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Laser Beam Characterization of a Diode Stack
The characterization of diode lasers becomes more and more important with the increasing number of industrial applications that depend on this type of laser. ISO 11146 provides the measurement procedures to characterize the propagation properties of...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Long-Range Surveillance Day or Night
Law enforcement and security professionals who safeguard borders, ports, nuclear power and chemical plants, and other high-value/high-danger assets deploy thermal imaging cameras as a critical component to their overall day/night situational...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Near-Field Holography Manufactures Submicron Gratings
Gratings with a 200- to 600-nm pitch are necessary for telecommunications devices such as passive optical components and InP laser diodes. They also are required in some emerging applications, including biosensors and various microelectromechanical...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Outsourcing: A Growing Trend for Optomechanical Assemblies
One area of the optics industry that continues to experience growth is that of precision optomechanical assemblies. This trend runs in parallel with increased reliance on more sophisticated laser-based instrumentation, which places extreme demands...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Spectroscopy Takes Security into the Field
With important advances in the miniaturization, cost and performance of optoelectronic devices and sampling accessories, techniques such as fluorescence spectroscopy and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy have found new applications in...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Strengthening Global Surveillance and Security
Patrolling national borders, detecting explosives and weapons in luggage and cargo and scanning battlefields for toxins are different tasks, yet they all have something in common. They are undertaken to ensure global security, the need for which is...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Testing the Water
Shortly after Sept. 11, an incident arose in which a water reservoir had been tampered with. The severity and seriousness of the act resulted in speculations of terrorist activity. The reservoir in question was the primary water source for a...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
Vacuum Sealing Adds Life to Scientific CCDs
Perhaps a key question for any scientific imaging application is how long the CCD camera will last before the chip underperforms. One major “camera killer” is condensation on the chip. Most cameras leave the factory virtually blemish-free, but over...
Photonics Spectra, April 2004
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