Choosing The Right Laser Power Or Energy Sensor Is Easier Said Than Done.

July 8, 2010

OphirBlog

Choosing the best laser sensor for a particular application can be quite overwhelming. To help make the process much easier, there is now a new tool that will direct you towards the laser sensors that will best fit your needs. It is the (free to use) Ophir-Spiricon Sensors Finding Program (SFP). We’ll talk more about it later (it definitely deserves its own blog post) but here’s the thing: When using the SFP, you’ll be inserting quite a few facts about your laser into the program and in order to insert them correctly, well, you’ll need to know what they are.We’ve created a short guidethat explains which details you need to know about your laser and why. Please keep in mind that it is of utmost importance to attain all of this information so that the sensor you choose will not get damaged and will give accurate readings. Just to give you an idea, here is a quick overview:

Wavelength – The laser wavelength must be within the range of the sensor’s wavelength.
Beam diameter – When you input the beam diameter, the Sensor Finder automatically takes into account that the sensor aperture has to be larger than the beam itself.
Continuous wave (CW) or pulsed – Is your laser continuous or pulsed? Each type comes with different factors to consider like the range of average power or energy, pulse rate and width etc.
Type of measurement required – There are three types of measurements: average power, energy or single shot energy. Basically, a continuous wave laser will need an average power measurement while a pulsed laser will most probably need an energy measurement because it provides more details about the pulses which is usually important. As for the single shot energy measurement, most sensors can provide this information.

To read the full guide, click here. Please let us know if you have any further questions or if there are any topics on which you would like more information

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The New Sensor Finding Program Can Now Be Found On Our Site

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