NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer satellite (ICON) is scheduled to launch next month for a two-year mission to gather information on weather and other physical processes within the ionosphere — the frontier of space, where Earth’s weather and space weather meet. A central component of the ICON satellite’s instrument package is the Michelson Interferometer for Global High-Resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI), developed by a team at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and Jenoptik, which built the imaging optics. MIGHTI represents a significant...Read full articleRelated content from Photonics MediaARTICLESNASA’s ICON Satellite Begins Study of IonosphereNASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite launched at 9:59 p.m. EDT Oct. 10 from the Kennedy Space Center. Northrop Grumman’s L-1011 Stargazer aircraft carrying the... January 0001 IssuePhotonics News: Week in Brief: 07/09/21FREIBURG IM BREISGAU, Germany — Fraunhofer Energy Research opened a showroom called ENIQ: Energy Intelligence by Fraunhofer, on the EUREF-Campus in Berlin. The facility functions as an...Photonics.com 7/9/2021NASA Turns to Laser Communications System for Data Transfer BoostThis summer, NASA will launch its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), setting the stage for high-speed transmission of data between planets. NASA missions have been using the same...Photonics.com 5/17/2021Primary Mirror Completed for NASA’s Roman Space TelescopeThe Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s primary mirror has been completed, NASA announced. The telescope will have a field of view 100× greater than the Hubble Space Telescope, and it...Photonics Spectra November 2020 IssuePRODUCTSLaser Production Optical SystemThe JENvelt™ from Jenoptik Optical Systems GmbH is a complex optical system that integrates into laser production machines. The compact plug-and-play system caters to various...Photonics Spectra December 2019 IssueF-Theta Battery LensAn F-theta lens for 1064-nm applications has been announced by Jenoptik AG, designed for battery laser foil cutting and high-volume serial production with ultrashort-pulse lasers. The lens...Photonics Spectra March 2021 IssueOptoelectronic Probe CardThe UFO Probe™ Card from Jenoptik AG is designed for photonic integrated circuit (PIC) wafer-level testing on semiconductor chips. The novel optical solution for integration into...Photonics Spectra April 2021 IssueHyperbolic MirrorsHyperbolic mirrors from Optical Surfaces Ltd. are designed for deep space observation telescopes and earth observation satellites. Hyperbolic mirrors are used in a telescope design to correct...Photonics Spectra October 2019 IssuePHOTONICS HANDBOOK ARTICLESAcousto-Optic Devices: Charts showing the characteristics of acousto-optic scanning devices, acousto-optic figures of merit, and solutions for common problems with acousto-optic processor devices.ACOUSTO-OPTIC SCANNING DEVICES: CHARACTERISTICS MODULATORS Material Bandwidth (MHz) Rise Time (ns) Acousto Input Power (W) (Saturation) Material Wavelength Range...Photonics HandbookFilters: Glossary, Equations, Parameters: The following is a list of terms commonly used to describe the spectral characteristics of filters.Attentuation Region (or Blocking) The spectral region over which very low transmission is required. Attenuation requirements are generally specified in percent transmission over a given spectral...Photonics HandbookOptical System Design: Keeping the Coatings in Mind: The design of optical systems should balance the coating constraints with the optical and mechanical requirements. Understanding the key properties and limitations of optical coatings enables the system designer to improve the performance of the optical system.An optical coating engineer is frequently confronted with a difficult specification for a coating. Often the difficulty in the specification results from the particular form of the optical system. If...Photonics HandbookCamera Resolution: Combining Detector and Optics Performance: Most image-quality discussions center on resolution, which is thought to uniquely determine system performance. Resolution, however, is a more complex concept.Camera resolution depends upon the optical blur diameter and the detector size. Schade combined these to create an equivalent resolution that is a function of Fλ/d where F is the focal ratio,...Photonics HandbookWHITEPAPERSLaser Sources for LiDAR ApplicationsRPMC has published an extensive amount of educational content on the fundamentals of LiDAR and LiDAR applications, including self-driving cars, windspeed monitoring, and active night vision imaging...Photonics.com 11/9/2020Knight Optical Meets Customer's Quality ExpectationsIt is with great pleasure that Knight Optical – the industry-leading supplier of metrology-tested, on-spec optical components – announces a 99.9% pass rate from its state-of-the-art Metrology...Photonics.com 9/9/2020Colored Glass as a Versatile and Economical Means for Optical FilteringColored glass filters find many uses in optical systems including imaging, laser, and industrial equipment. We describe design and fabrication techniques for implementing low cost optical filters...Photonics.com 1/31/2020Pushing Freeform Optical Manufacturing: Fabricating Optimax’s Largest Freeform ComponentWhile manufacturing the largest extreme freeform optic that Optimax has fabricated to date, several issues associated with the size and complex shape of the optic were encountered, including...Photonics.com 7/1/2021WEBINARSEuropean Photonics Manufacturing Services Funded by ECThis event is supported by the European initiatives presented and is moderated by EPIC, the European Photonics Industry Consortium. The European Commission is helping companies access the...Photonics.com 6/30/20213D-Printed Freeform VIRGO OpticsIn this presentation, Field introduces a cutting-edge, 3D freeform volumetric index of refraction gradient optics (VIRGO) technology platform that includes engineered optical nanocomposites,...Photonics.com 4/28/2021Optics for High-Power Laser ApplicationsThe field of laser optics, while by no means new, continues to be a subject of confusion and frustration, but also exciting innovation. Recent developments in laser technologies have enabled...Photonics.com 4/27/2021Industrial Imaging and VisionAdditional Questions & Answers from the webinar are below Speakers: 3-D Vision for Industrial Robot Guidance Clay Flannigan Manager, Robotics and Automation Engineering ...Photonics.com 4/10/2013PHOTONICS DICTIONARY TERMSdiscontinuously reinforced aluminum (DRA)A composite derived from aluminum alloy powder and silicon carbide, used as an optical substrate in air- and spacecraft applications. It is as light as aluminum but exhibits greater strength and...EDU.photonics.com 9/8/2009infrared photodetector arrayAn impurity-doped silicon detector array sensitive to long infrared wavelengths, installed in optical collecting systems capable of detecting the presence of infrared-emitting objects at extensive...EDU.photonics.com 9/8/2009thin-film solar cellA solar cell that is lightweight and flexible because of its construction by vacuum deposition of a semiconductor material (e.g., gallium arsenide or cadmium sulfide) onto a thin metal or plastic...EDU.photonics.com 9/8/2009free-space optical interconnectA type of internal photonic connection in an integrated circuit in which a holographic grating is used to focus light at points on a silicon chip, maximizing the speed of signal propagation.EDU.photonics.com 9/8/2009MEDIATech Transfer Programs Bridge Gap Between Industry and ResearchTechnology Transfer Programs are often a concerted effort to share skills, knowledge, technologies, methods of manufacturing, samples of manufacturing, and facilities among governments or...Photonics.com 6/19/2018Luminate NY 2019: Lightning AwardsLuminate is the world's largest Optics, Photonics and Imaging accelerator focused on advancing next-generation OPI-enabled companies. The accelerator program accepts ten companies per year to compete...Photonics.com 11/16/2018Laser Munich Wrap-up & Kepler goes Kaput - LIGHT MATTERS 05.22.2013-Laser Munich Wrap-up -Kepler goes Kaput -Nanoantenna Sensing This week on Light Matters: The space telescope Kepler goes kaput, nanoantennas improve infrared sensing, and I share my final...Photonics.com 5/22/2013PIC Fundamentals, Design at Heart of AIM Photonics Summer AcademyStudents from large and small size companies and bigger Department of Defense affiliates of the AIM Photonics Institute took part in the recent AIM Photonics Summer Academy at MIT. This was the third...Photonics.com 7/30/2018PHOTONICS BUYERS' GUIDE CATEGORIESPrinted Circuit Board and Mounted Integrated OpticsMasks For Evaporation/DepositionDetector ChipsDiamond Tools and Machining EquipmentCOMPANIESJenoptik Optical Systems LLC, Light & OpticsJenoptik is a globally operating technology group. Optical technologies are the very basis of our business with the majority of our products and services being provided to the photonics market. Our...Photonics Buyers' GuideAlkor TechnologiesAlkor Technologies - Your premier source of infrared optical components. We provide infrared optical windows, cylindrical and spherical lenses, prisms, wedged windows, IR interference filters,...Photonics Buyers' GuideAccess OpticsAccess Optics manufactures complete medical + surgical imaging devices for robotic and minimally invasive surgical applications; micron-tolerance precision optical components & assemblies;...Photonics Buyers' GuideA.R.W. Optical CorporationARW Optical is your reliable manufacturer of quality optics and coatings. Beamsplitters • Prototyping through volume-production quantities • High-performance and durable optical...Photonics Buyers' Guide