Edmund Optics offers a large variety of precision parabolic, spherical, and flat mirrors with an array of metallic and dielectric coatings to suit all application requirements in different regions of the spectrum. Standard metallic mirror coatings include protected aluminum, enhanced aluminum, UV enhanced aluminum, DUV enhanced aluminum, bare gold, protected gold, and protected silver. This application note introduces their first and second surface mirrors, enhanced metal coatings, and available custom coatings.
This application note provides information on the benefits of SWIR imaging in harsh or low-light level conditions, and PG&O's capabilities in manufacturing optical components for SWIR imaging.
Manual instruments in production are gradually being replaced by automated optical measurement systems, where optimal illumination determines the test quality. A device that illustrates this transition is the ZEISS O-SELECT with an LED ring light from SCHOTT. This application note covers this device’s make-up, features, and capabilities.
Optical systems use lenses to focus, collimate, expand, collect, and image light. Ranging from convex to concave, and bestform to aspheric, any lens selection must be made with the utmost consideration for its purpose as well as its required quality. This white paper delivers a review of singlet spherical lens shapes, and guidance on deciding the best lens characteristics for each application.
A new demand that has been placed on glass optical fibers is the need for environmental compatibility. The SCHOTT technology group provides a solution for this demand with their new PURAVIS® glass optical fibers that offer several improved performance parameters compared to other types of glass. The process for manufacturing these products does not use lead, arsenic, or antimony, and already complies with future environmental requirements.
Optics Blazers manufactures Near-Eye Display combiners and other components for optimized display performance and see-through properties. With an integrated manufacturing chain, this company can deliver single reflective surface, multiple reflective surface, free-form, or diffractive combiners. Optics Blazers’ solutions are developed with cost and scalability in mind to serve the competitive consumer electronics market.
LASER COMPONENTS designs and manufactures dielectric coatings for a wide range of laser optics applications. The laser optics provided by LASER COMPONENTS are mostly OEM products that meet the individual customer's specifications; the products include substrates and dielectric coatings.
The MCL-NSOM is a fully operational near-field scanning optical microscope manufactured on Mad City Labs’ versatile RM21™ inverted optical microscope. This instrument is designed to allow users to convert between NSOM, SPM, and fluorescence optical microscopy techniques.
Schneider Optics presents the new Xenon-Topaz lenses that are suitable for modern 1.1” CCD and CMOS sensors with 12 megapixels and a pixel size up to 3.0 μm. These low-weight compact lenses are fitted with a C-mount, and have a 17.6 mm diameter image circle.
SCHOTT Lighting and Imaging offers high tech materials and components for enabling the defense and security industry to develop night vision, display, sensor, and other technologies that are smaller, lighter, and more effective.
Abrisa Technologies now offers the innovative High Ion-Exchange (HIE™) Asahi Glass Corporation (AGC) Dragontrail™ aluminosilicate glass for cover glass, display, sensor, and scanner technologies. Dragontrail supports low profile, reduced weight, portable field, and industrial devices with a toughness of 6x that of soda lime float. It is designed to enhance the usable lifetime of high contact touch displays, and industrial image sensors, document scanners, and on board vehicular and avionics displays.
Abrisa Technologies offers a broad spectrum of glass machining services that can fit nearly every application-specific customer requirement. With CNC processing and other glass fabrication equipment, this company can manufacture a wide variety of glass parts ranging from simple to the most complex designs. Some of the offered processes performed in-house include notching, slotting, grooving, edge grinding, stepped surfaces, hole drilling, circle grinding, polishing, and sandblasting.
OptoSigma’s MHL high rigidity mirror holder is kinematic with a featured blade spring. The holder’s high rigidity makes the device capable of suppressing the positional shift from shocks or vibrations.
LASER COMPONENTS developed a new coating process for so-called triple mirrors that makes it possible to apply this complex layer design in one pass. Coatings for three wavelengths used to have to be manufactured in two passes. The new method not only results in higher specifications, but it also has the additional advantage of a shorter duration of production.
ZC&R Coatings for Optics (ZC&R), a division of Abrisa Technologies, now offers high throughput efficiency Wide Angle, Broad Spectrum Sensor and Laser Scanning Window solutions for the visible 425-675nm (VIS), visible to near infra-red 425-1050nm (VIS-NIR), short wave infrared 700-1800nm (SWIR) and popular laser and LED wavelengths from 405 to 1550nm. Designed for image sensors and scanners these optics are used in industrial 3D metrology, machine vision, automotive obstacle avoidance, security and surveillance, document scanners, 3D scanning, gesture recognition and other digital imaging applications.
Qioptiq, an Excelitas Technologies® Company, recently introduces the new 1.73x Tube Lens as a widely desired addition to the mag.x system 125. Representing a new class of optical systems that enable microscope-like resolution with wide fields-of-view to support modern high-resolution sensors, the 1.73x Tube Lens makes the mag.x system 125 a perfect match for sensors with the 35 mm camera format.
Qioptiq, an Excelitas Technologies® Company, recently introduced the Fetura+™ Advanced Zoom Lens enabling high speed and reliable optical performance for the machine vision and inspection markets. Fetura+ features a unique linear rail design coupled with precision optics to enable it to travel through the 12.5:1 zoom range in less than one second. Due to this unique design, Fetura+ offers a service life in excess of one million cycles and delivers exacting repeatability in any orientation.
Invenios LLC, an advanced technology micro-fabrication foundry specializing in glass structuring, micro glass packaging and glass bonding is a world leader in providing consumables and devices for gene sequencing, bio-medical, sensor, electronic and optical applications announced recently that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Varioptic, previously a Business Unit of Parrot Drones SAS for an undisclosed amount.
Optics
Optics is an interesting subset of physics. It is the study of light and how it can be used in various industries from measurements to biology as well as photography to navigation. Optics is a fascinating field and we are just beginning to scratch the surface with what we know. One of the most interesting developments in optics is the use of fiber optics in the transmission of data. Light is used to transmit data across long distances and this has proved to be efficient as well as inexpensive.
Light is the fasted trailing particle in the universe and it is radiated from one point to the next in the form of waves. Light in a vacuum can travel at an astonishing 300 million meters per second, a speed that would take it to the moon in just about one second. Optics is primarily concerned with the use of light and how the light can be reflected, refracted, bent or manipulated in just about any way. The unique nature of light gives tremendous benefits in using it in various industries. Optics is no one of the ways where light can be used to store data. It seems that anything electrons have done in the past, light waves are able to do, just able to do it faster. In the beginning copper cables were used to transmit electrical pulses in network data transfer. While at that time it was a breakthrough, it was comparatively slow to the movement of light through fiber optics. Once fiber optics replaced, broad band speeds were achieved. All thanks to optics. The uses of optics can advance further with headway being made in fields of defense as well as medicine. Optics are now being used to return sight to the blind as well as create sight for robots.
