Industry News

Simple device, measuring 15x15x20cm, includes heating structures and fluorescence camera as detector.

While 3D imaging in machine vision has been applied in key use cases for many years, use of the technology has recently grown and expanded, making it increasingly common in a wider range of applications. The best practices that can help to ensure a successful 3D imaging project involve component specification and project implementation. However, it’s important to start with an overview of 3D imaging and a review of the methodologies available in the marketplace.

A useful way to think about 3D sensing and imaging systems is to understand that in virtually all of these components the 3D information is derived by processing one or more 2D images, often with associated unique and very specific illumination strategies. Put more...

Losses widen as the startup firm works to scale manufacturing at sites in Mexico and Thailand.

A light-based prototype envelops the heart in a petal-like mesh and offers wireless, highly targeted defibrillation with less pain than standard devices.

Micro-Optic Manufacturing and Applications

From powerful cameras for smartphones and autonomous vehicles to new light sources for manufacturing and computer processing, micro-optics are seeing increasing demand from various sectors. Similar to the microchip industry, scalability is crucial to riding the growth trend. Contributing editor Marie Freebody interviews suppliers and integrators to learn what challenges stand in the way and what solutions fabricators are exploring.

Key Technologies: micro-optics and micro-lens arrays for specialized couplings, collimators, beam shaping optics, diffractive nanogratings, diffusers, and beamsplitters. Also, micro-molded polymer optics

Lasers for Quantum Computing

The 2022...

An international team of researchers has reportedly set a data transmission record using just a single laser and optical chip to transmit more than 1 Pbit/s. The researchers, from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, transmitted data at 1.8 Pbit/s, corresponding to double the total global internet traffic.

The demonstrated data transmission method used significantly less power than conventional approaches to data transmission and can help reduce the internet’s climate footprint, according to the team.

The light source in the team’s experiment was a custom-designed, frequency comb-producing optical chip; the chip used light from a single infrared laser to create a...

Engineers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) demonstrated an approach to measure neural activity using light. The team’s optical sensors, called optrodes, achieved accurate registers of the neural impulses traveling along a nerve fiber in a living animal.

According to the team, optrodes could provide a more comprehensive interface between the nerves and neural prosthetics than traditional electrodes.

“The real advantage of our approach is that we can make this connection very dense in the optical domain and we don’t pay the price that you have to pay in the electrical domain,” said professor François Ladouceur.

According to Ladouceur, optrode technology resolves several...

Automotive lidar technology developer Luminar said that it began series production, ahead of schedule, of its Iris lidar units for an automotive client. The lidar units, the company said in revealing its financial results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, will appear in the flagship electric vehicle from smart electric brand RISING AUTO. The brand is part of SAIC, China’s largest automaker.

Luminar’s technology helps power the vehicle’s RISING PILOT Intelligent Driving Program to enable advanced safety features and automated driving capabilities over time, the company said.

“With the start of series production, autonomous technology has for the first time evolved from R&D into consumer production...