Lenses

Photonics West 2026 offers over 100 technical conferences, 60 courses, and networking events spanning biomedical optics, lasers, quantum tech, and Vision Tech.

Photonics surged in 2025 through telecom, AI, and health advances. In 2026, AI-driven design, quantum sources, thin films, and sustainability lead the next innovation wave.

Small animal imaging using NIR light enables deep tissue visualization by leveraging reduced scattering and absorbance, enhancing drug tracking, tumor detection, and vascular mapping in vivo.

IDEX Health & Science provides integrated, custom optical solutions—filters, lenses, and assemblies—designed to optimize performance, reduce development risk, and ensure consistency in life science instruments.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will revolutionize astronomy with its massive digital camera, real-time data, and a decade-long sky survey, hunting Planet 9.

It’s almost show time with both Automate 2025 and the CLEO Conference just around the corner. Let’s take a look at two of the photonics industry’s most-anticipated shows.

SPIE Photonics West 2025, scheduled for January 25–30 in San Francisco, offers numerous benefits for professionals in the optics and photonics industry. Here are 25 reasons to attend.

As PICs, waveguides, and fiber arrays move toward scalable applications, post-dicing facet preparation can play a critical role in optical coupling, insertion loss, repeatability, and downstream packaging success.

See how KrellTech’s loose fiber bundle workflow supports repeatable handling from preparation and loading through polishing and inspection. The process is designed for controlled endface processing and efficient inspection, with the flexibility to inspect in-line or offline without re-referencing before additional polishing.

See how KrellTech demonstrates fiber optic connector repair using an FC/UPC connector, combining controlled polishing with in-line inspection while the component remains fixtured. This workflow helps reduce handling between steps, speed endface evaluation, and support repeatable connector repair, process development, and lab work across a range of connector styles.

See how KrellTech demonstrates a complete FAU polishing workflow on the NOVA™ system, from carrier loading and programmable processing to material removal tracking, cleaning, and final inspection for repeatable photonic component polishing.

See how KrellTech’s SpecPro™ Polishing System supports stable, repeatable polishing of large diameter bare fibers for laser and source applications. Using our LD/cannula workholder and SpecVision™ video scope, this process combines polishing and in-line inspection in one system to help reduce handling, support endface quality, and improve workflow efficiency.

In defense and security environments, fiber optic connector polishing often needs to happen in the field and under demanding conditions. KrellTech’s Proton™ Field and FTTX Polisher is a handheld, battery-operated system designed to deliver controlled polishing and Telcordia-compliant UPC and APC finishes. With features such as independent suspension, optically aligned polishing, adjustable pressure, interchangeable connector workholders, and random orbital motion, Proton™ is well suited for military, aerospace,

Opto Diode Corporation toured Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to explore advanced beamline testing enabling breakthroughs in semiconductor technology, metrology, lithography, and next-generation materials research.