France To Display Its Expertise At 2008 Photonics West Trade Show

Chicago — UBIFRANCE will arrange for 15 innovative French organizations (including companies, competitiveness clusters, and trade associations) to participate in the Photonics West trade show, which will be held in San Jose from Jan. 22 to 24, 2008. In the past five years, Photonics West has become the leading American trade show devoted to optics and photonics and the major event for the sector's professionals, hosting 1,000 exhibitors and 17,000 visitors in 2007. A third hall has been opened for the 2008 edition. The UBIFRANCE pavilion will be booth 1307 in Hall 2 and booth 6150 in the South Hall of the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

Leaders in their business sectors, the 15 groups listed below will present their new products, whether biomedical optics or imaging technologies, optoelectronic components, fiber optics, lasers, technical lenses and coatings, or nano- and microtechnologies. It will be a chance for visitors to better realize the collaboration possibilities existing with French companies and investment opportunities in France.

Teem Photonics is the leader in passively Q-switched microlasers as well as ion-exchange-integrated optics. The combination of passive Q-switching and microlaser technologies result in sources distinctive for sub-nanosecond, high-peak power pulses, generated from compact packages at high repetition rates. Wavelengths of operation are in the near-infrared as well as the green and ultraviolet. Applications include biophotonics, instrumentation, remote sensing, and material processing. Ion-exchange-integrated optic products consist of advanced passive and active waveguide circuits that are used to increase the performance and economics of packaged laser diodes. Teem Photonics manufactures diode pumped passively Q-switched microlasers operating at 1064, 532, 355, and 266 nm as well as at 1535 nm. Peak powers can be in excess of 100 kW with pulse durations as short as 400 ps. Lasers are compact and designed for rugged environmental conditions. Ion exchange waveguide products include erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers (EDWA™ and a variety of optical integrated circuits that incorporate passive and active functions).

SILIOS Technologies is an SME, located in Rousset area (French Riviera), specialized in the design and manufacturing of micro-optics, diffractive optics, miniaturized spectrometers and optical instrumentation. The main fields of business are tooling, medical, scientific lasers and astronomy for the components and waste water treatment, medical diagnostic, oil analysis and quality control of microelectronics process for the systems. To this aim, SILIOS Technologies owns a 400 m² (4500 ft²) clean room and electronic lab for production of prototypes to small and medium size series.

Serving the special applications fiber optic market for more than 20 years, SEDI Fibres Optiques offers a unique range of optical fibers and cables and manufacturing components (connectors, couplers, hermetic feed-throughs, WDMs, collimators, filters). Also SEDI Fibres Optiques is a specialist of custom-designed assemblies for applications including high temperature, high pressure, biocompatibility, radiation resistance, vacuum chambers, severe chemical environment, power lasers, UV, IR, polarization maintaining devices, etc.

SAVIMEX is a specialist of the design and the manufacturing of optical components in thermoplastic polymer materials (PC, PMMA, COC, COP, PEI) by injection, as well as of optical thin film coatings and for opto-mechanical subsystem assemblies. SAVIMEX also proposes ultra-precision machining by diamond turning technology with four advanced diamond machining systems.

PHASICS manufactures high-resolution wave front sensors based on the innovative technology: 4-Wave Lateral Shearing Interferometry. This technology extends the precision for laser characterization (wave front, intensity profile and M² measurements). The very high resolution (up to 300 x 400 simultaneous measurement points) and the compactness offer the optimal features in optical metrology for optics characterization (aberrations, PSF, and MTF measurements) and surface inspection. PHASICS also proposes an adaptive optics loop for laser spot optimization and beam shaping that could be combined with any deformable optics (deformable mirror, deformable membrane, liquid crystal device, and more).

iXFiber is a leading French independent manufacturer of active and passive specialty optical fibers, components based on Bragg gratings technology, and subassemblies modules for a diverse range of industries. Its main products are rare earth doped fibers (such as Er, Yb, Tm, Nd, Er/Yb), double-clad fibers for fiber laser application, PM gyroscope fibers for terrestrial and space application, polarization maintaining fibers (PM fibers), photosensitive fibers, planar waveguide fibers, ultra-high numerical aperture fibers (HNA fibers), custom design fibers, preforms, Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG): Laser Diode Stabilizers, sensors (temperature, strain, etc.), gain-flattening filters, mirror cavities for fiber laser, DWDM filters, chromatic dispersion compensation filters, and active doped fibers subassemblies.

Impulsion is a competitiveness cluster for optics in Saint-Etienne, France. The cluster deals with businesses that perform micro-structuring of any substrate by laser with ultra-short-pulses of all types of materials, companies that design and manufacture of femtosecond laser machines by integrating the cluster's knowledge in the manufacturing process, and also subcontracts in micro-cutting, micro-drilling, micro-structuring, and micro-marking.

Gaggione provides comprehensive design, development and manufacturing capabilities for the production of thermoplastic-based products. An ISO 9001- and ISO 9002-certified company, Gaggione today is comprised of four business units offering its customers end-to-end solutions. OPTICAL COMPONENTS: Complete design through production expertise and facilities for high-end optical components using thermoplastic injection processes (PMMA, PC, and COC) focused on diverse LED-based lighting applications. STANDARD OPTICAL COMPONENTS for high power LED sources: Compatible with the major manufacturers of these kinds of sources, these are the smallest products of their kind on the market. PACKAGING PRODUCTS: market research, design, production and marketing of a wide range of opaque or transparent packaging boxes. These products and models are registered under the brand name PLASTICASE. TECHNICAL COMPONENTS: Impulsion: Micro-structuring of any substrate by laser with ultra short pulses of all types of materials; design and laser realization of machines femtosecond integrating our knowledge to make in process; subcontracting in micro cutting, micro drilling, micro structuring, and micro-marking.

FOGALE nanotech is a world-class specialist in high-accuracy, non-contact dimensional metrology systems. It offers a broad range of standard sensors and systems based on capacitive, inductive, and optical technologies for industry and laboratory applications. The company has also strong engineering capabilities to develop specific applications and has participated to numerous research projects involving academic and industrial partners. It provides many OEM modules for various partners worldwide. FOGALE nanotech has recently opened a new subsidiary in Los Angeles to bring a better support to its U.S. customers.

FIBERCRYST offers single crystal fibers, tubes, and shaped crystals for laser, detectors, and sapphire applications. The high and unique properties of single crystal materials are now available for customers' applications that require long crystal length, light-guiding properties, and thin cross sections. Several crystal compositions are available such as sapphire, YAG, LuAG, LiNbO3, BGO, and LYSO. The fibers' cross sections range from 300 microns to several millimeters and the fiber length can be up to one meter.

FASTLITE is a scientific instrumentation company dedicated to the design and manufacture of standard and custom systems for the ultrafast scientific community, as well as for solid state and fiber based ultrafast laser manufacturers. FASTLITE products' outstanding capabilities, whether in ultrafast dispersion compensation or ultrafast pulse characterization, are key ingredients to meet or exceed the customer's scientific or industrial objectives.

EOLITE Systems develops and manufactures high-power pulsed fiber lasers for a variety of fine-technology micro-machining applications, including cutting, engraving, ablation, drilling, annealing, printing, scribing, patterning, LIBS, and more, with power levels up to 150W and pulse energies up to 1 mJ with short 10-ns pulses at 1030 nm, and harmonics at 515 nm and 343 nm. The company's lasers combine very good and constant beam quality independent from output power and are de facto non-sensitive to back-scattering beams. The lasers' principal advantages to micro-machining are better marking and deep-engraving quality thanks to short pulse duration minimizing thermal effects and faster speed processing with high peak power pulses.

CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES owns unique technologies of low-voltage piezo-actuators, piezo-transducers and piezo-motors. These technologies are patented and innovative according to patent search reports. Piezoelectric devices are both available as off-the-shelf products and as customized products. The company also masters several technologies of low-power electromagnetic rotating and linear drives, including their control/command and their power supply. Its magnetic devices are mostly developed for customized applications. CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES also provides customers with mechatronic systems for active control and damping of vibrations, non-destructive testing, health monitoring, energy harvesting, and fine positioning.

AMPLITUDE TECHNOLOGIES' mission is to produce ultra-intense femtosecond systems with the best performances, from the point of view of pulse duration, temporal contrast and spatial beam quality. The customers of the laser system developed by Amplitude are mainly national laboratories specialized in laser matter interaction and particle acceleration. The future application for this laser system will be the proton acceleration for proton therapy. Its engagement in performances continues after the delivery and our collaboration with the costumer guarantee laser specification over the whole lifespan of the laser. Its state-of-the-art performances consists in the shortest pulses (< 20 fs) with the highest temporal contrast (>10 orders) and the highest energy.

The ALPhA association — Aquitaine Lasers, Photonics and Applications — gathers the laser and photonics community in Bordeaux region (Aquitaine region, in the southwest of France). Backed by public authorities and social economic partners, ALPhA has been created to develop lasers and optics industrial and R&D activities in the Aquitaine region. ALPhA is the governing structure of the Route des Lasers® competitiveness cluster. It rests on the double opportunity of an exceptional R&D dynamic around the university campus and the built of the Megajoule Laser (LMJ). This extreme physics instrument (temperature over 10 million degrees, pressure over 10¹² Pa in a few billionth seconds) is part of the French Simulation program for nuclear deterrence. It will be operating in 2011 over at least 30 years. The Route des Lasers competitiveness cluster conducts innovative and structuring projects for fostering the cooperation of businesses, research laboratories and training organizations. It promotes the cluster to generate attraction to investors and develops national and international networking.

SOURCE: French Technology Press Office