As more and more fields employ optronics, special tools must be developed to ensure that the lasers and light-emitting devices in these applications are precise and perform within a very small margin of error. Ophir has a wide range of beam analysis tools that are the ideal choice for these optronics applications.
Medical Applications
You’re probably familiar with lasers used in medical applications as a surgical tool, to both make precise incisions, and simultaneously cauterize blood vessels. Also, IPL (= Intense Pulsed Light) uses high-energy non-coherent pulses of visible light for aesthetics such as hair removal, rejuvenating sun-damaged skin, and treating skin conditions. Ophir has special instruments that measure a laser’s power and energy, and special sensors just for IPL applications to verify the system’s energy and fluence (energy density). And, in the field of eye safety, Ophir makes special power sensor tools, with apertures that duplicate the behavior of the human pupil, measuring the exposure that the human eye could experience.
THz Measurement
Terahertz radiation is used nowadays in medical imaging and cancer detection–it’s a safer, non-ionizing alternative to X-rays. THz radiation is also used in structural analysis of materials. Ophir has a number of instruments specially for THz measurement: power meters and sensors with special absorbers, as well as beam profilers, for the THz region of the spectrum.
Additive Manufacturing & Materials Processing Applications
In the fields of additive manufacturing (=AM, known more familiarly as 3D printing) and materials processing, lasers are used to cut metals, mark plastics, and to construct models and prototypes.
The laser’s precise power, beam shape, and size must be monitored constantly, to ensure accurate and repeatable results. Ophir has a number of laser sensors, absorbers, beam profilers, and analyzers, for powers ranging from femtowatts to kilowatts, and for single-shot and repetitive-pulse energies. There are stand-alone units and devices that you hook up to a PC, for data analysis. Some use Bluetooth sensors to track laser performance when a cable connection is either difficult or impossible.
Automotive industry and VCSELs applications
Modern-day applications of optronics in the automotive industry include using lasers for welding, cutting, marking, and cleaning metal. Ophir has products to measure the high power beams increasingly being used in such applications including in automated factory floor settings, as well as instruments to monitor the laser’s focal point and power level, both during production and once deployed.
And in the burgeoning field of self-driving cars and unmanned aerial vehicles, high-power VCSELs (=Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers) are in big demand. Ophir makes integrating spheres to measure multiple laser parameters simultaneously, as well as power, energy, and irradiance sensors.
LED Measurements
LEDs are an economical light source, and are used also in UV curing of adhesives, disinfecting food and water, machine vision, microscopy, and more.
Ophir also has a number of products for LED measurements, measuring total emitted power, irradiance (Watts/cm2), the dosage of UV light (in Joules/cm2), and more.
Scientific Research Applications
Photonics is a critical tool in scientific research applications, such as
fluorescence microscopy, DNA sequencing, biomedical instrumentation, fusion energy…the list is endless. Ophir offers photonic measurement solutions for all such applications, whether as stand-alone instruments for end users or as integrated customized solutions for instrument manufacturers.
Fiber optics and Telecommunications Applications
And no discussion of optronics would be complete without mentioning its use in fiber optics and telecommunications. Here, low-power, NIR lasers transmit signals through optical fiber as thin as a single human hair. Ophir makes photodiode-based sensors sensitive enough for the low-power needs of telecom optronics, and special integrating spheres, to measure laser power and pulse characteristics simultaneously.
There are also custom connectors and adapters for connecting fibers, or recording output to a meter or PC interface.
If you have an application that involves laser and optical devices, Ophir makes the tools to improve your efficiency and ensure your safety. Check out our website for more details.
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