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Appearances Can Be Deceiving
Most commercial lens assemblies such as lenses for cameras and microscope objectives are reasonably priced (on the order of several hundred dollars) and are available immediately. A custom-designed lens assembly looks the same externally, but its cost is often more than an order of magnitude higher than the off-the-shelf assembly. Why such a discrepancy? Just what is it that makes custom optics expensive, and is it worth it? Most people who work peripherally with lenses and optics will judge ...
Photonics Spectra, August 2000
Defining Performance
In laser applications such as materials processing, environmental monitoring and confocal microscopy, understanding the laser’s performance is critical. A laser that operates erratically as it drills holes in steel could fail to penetrate the...
Photonics Spectra, August 2000
For Pixels, Size Matters
In the rat race for ever-higher pixel counts for the digital still camera market, it is clear that, if the chip size must remain constant, then "more pixels" inherently means "smaller pixels." The driving force to keep the silicon area of the sensor...
Photonics Spectra, August 2000
Great Gratings
Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) is the most effective means for expanding communications capacity in optical networks. The technology places several closely spaced wavelengths of light into one fiber, with each wavelength serving as...
Photonics Spectra, August 2000
High-Tech ’Vision’ Test
Modulation transfer function is the predominant measure of the performance of image-forming lenses and systems. It can be measured objectively and calculated from lens design data, enabling manufacturers to compare the quality of lenseswith design...
Photonics Spectra, August 2000
How Photons Work
The study of light has been inextricably linked to the advancement of scientific thought for more than 2000 years. From Euclid to Newton to Einstein, many of the great treatises of science have been directed toward unraveling light’s...
Photonics Spectra, August 2000
Photonics Rules of Thumb
Scientists and engineers tend to want to answer simple relational questions with a blackboard covered with equations, even when questioners just want a rough estimate to gauge whether a change would cause more problems than it would fix. The "rules...
Photonics Spectra, August 2000
Squelch the Noise
The silicon positive-intrinsic-negative (PIN) photodiode is a ubiquitous component that detects light in photometric devices from fluorescence instruments in the laboratory to laser speed guns on the highway. Each application has different...
Photonics Spectra, August 2000
Back-Illuminated Camera Images the Future of Spaceflight
Rocket power blazed the early trails that took us into orbit, but aerospace engineers have endeavored to develop a jet-propelled aircraft able to reach orbital velocities from Mach 20 to 25. One possibility is the supersonic combustion ramjet, or...
Photonics Spectra, July 2000
Bring Images to Life
Making photographs at the microscope can be difficult. For example, magnification produces problems associated with the depth of field, and diffraction creates problems with image resolution. One of the most difficult aspects of photographing...
Photonics Spectra, July 2000
Catch Your Drift
Whether a laboratory researcher or an optical-equipment manufacturer, you’ll be concerned with how temperature changes affect your optical system. A thermally stable mount will lead to improved optical-system performance as the ambient...
Photonics Spectra, July 2000
Death, Taxes and Shot Noise
Have you ever watched a live video line from your fine camera on an oscilloscope? Were you bothered by the pixels bouncing up and down from time to time? The sensor manufacturer promised a signal-to-noise ratio of 1000:1, and you designed your...
Photonics Spectra, July 2000
Ion Lasers:
When diode-pumped solid-state lasers first appeared in the marketplace during the early 1990s, argon-ion, helium-neon and other classic laboratory lasers seemed doomed. The newer technology was more compact and rugged, allowing researchers freedom...
Photonics Spectra, July 2000
Light Levels and Noise Guide Detector Choices
Photonics is an enabling technology that creates benefits and value far in excess of the cost of the optoelectronic components that are used in a device or system. As such, photonics is responsible for increasing the length of our lives as well as...
Photonics Spectra, July 2000
Measuring Optical Quality
... The optics industry has helped to shape these standards for indicating tolerances. At the same time, methods of measurements are becoming standardized, so not only does everyone understand tolerances, but the relevant optical testing also...
Photonics Spectra, July 2000
Thorough Testing Produces Fiber Lighting System
A fiber optic distributed lighting system can illuminate exterior door handles, puddle lamps and running boards in vehicles, eliminating the need for incandescent lamps or light-emitting diodes in these high-moisture, -shock and -vibration areas....
Photonics Spectra, July 2000
A Model of Efficiency
Product advances based on classical illumination technology have primarily correlated with advances in lamp technologies: higher brightness, shorter arc and/ or higher pressure. But rethinking the design of an illumination system can advance the...
Photonics Spectra, June 2000
Integrating Spheres Create ’Artificial Sunshine’
When testing a camera system or a material’s weathering performance, researchers need a stable, uniform light source that closely mimics the conditions that the product will encounter in its actual application. For devices that work on Earth...
Photonics Spectra, June 2000
Managing Polarization Mode Dispersion
The increasing demand for bandwidth is driving most telecommunications operators toward the deployment of large-capacity transmission systems. Systems based on 10-Gb/s channel rates are being deployed, and suppliers have announced plans for channel...
Photonics Spectra, June 2000
Small Block Cameras Tackle Tough Tasks
They go where humans can’t. Sometimes they go where no camera has gone before. Often they go where they can’t be seen. And what they see (and enable us to see) is revolutionizing the use of video cameras in the industrial, law...
Photonics Spectra, June 2000
Small Optics Offer Big Correction
At the heart of many photonics projects is a microlens or an array of microlenses. Whether one is attempting to design and fabricate a laser diode corrector, optical fiber coupler, optical storage device or any other microlens-incorporating device,...
Photonics Spectra, June 2000
Telecom Test Equipment Takes to the Outdoors
The ever-growing demand for more bandwidth is creating a breakneck pace in the development and implementation of new optical telecommunications technologies. And when we compare transport capacity developed in the laboratory with installed capacity,...
Photonics Spectra, June 2000
To Manufacture More, Automate
The rapid expansion of dense wavelength division multiplexing telecommunications networks has created a worldwide demand for optoelectronic devices that is becoming increasingly more difficult to meet. This stems primarily from the limitations...
Photonics Spectra, June 2000
Big Hopes for Small Lasers
The growth in telecommunications, data storage and data processing is driving fiber optic data communications to progress at a breathtaking rate. At the "edge" of the network, outside the dense wavelength division multiplexed long-haul core, is the...
Photonics Spectra, May 2000
Display Measurement: Measure What You See
Significant advances in display technology have been made in recent years, creating new market opportunities and applications. Liquid crystal and thin-film transistor displays are commonly integrated into motor vehicles and aircraft cockpits. They...
Photonics Spectra, May 2000
(2,985 results found)

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