I am really liking the way the Laser Focus World webcast schedule is shaping up this year. We've already had many very interesting presenters, the latest being Claire Gmachl, the director of MIRTHE (the Center for Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment), who spoke on quantum-cascade lasers earlier this month (the webcast is still available on-demand and can be found on our homepage).
And the trend continues! Next up on July 27 is Almantas Galvanauskas, professor at the University of Michigan and cofounder of Arbor Photonics, Inc., who will be speaking on ultrafast fiber lasers. Over a period of 20 years, he has been prominent in the field of fiber lasers; he has pushed the performance of ultrafast fiber lasers to new highs and has also pioneered ultrashort-pulse fiber chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) systems.
In addition, no one can tell you better what's to come in ultrafast fiber lasers, because Dr. Galvanauskas' research is at the leading edge.
So come join us on July 27 at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific time (the "early bird special" for this pay-per-view webcast lasts until July 20). You can sign up at http://www.laserfocusworld.com/webcasts/2012/07/ultrafast-fiber-lasers.html .
Monday, July 16, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
Harnessing Light study can make a difference
The release of the Harnessing Light report, due in late summer, will be an opportunity to describe to the public and policy makers the critical roles that optics and photonics play in our economy, security, and personal lives. If the companies, universities, and professional societies in the photonics community work to advance its findings, then real progress could be made in priorities such as competitive advantage, workforce needs, and manufacturing infrastructure.
As Paul McManamon, past president of SPIE and cochair of the study committee, notes in this SPIE video, the European community took note of the findings in the original 1998 report to develop its vision and policy--and has benefited ever since. More information and additional links may be found here on the SPIE website.
As Paul McManamon, past president of SPIE and cochair of the study committee, notes in this SPIE video, the European community took note of the findings in the original 1998 report to develop its vision and policy--and has benefited ever since. More information and additional links may be found here on the SPIE website.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
SPIE and OSA cooperate on optics education
In the April print issue of Laser Focus World, our feature article entitled "How to begin a career in photonics" erroneously stated that the Optics and Photonics Education Directory at www.opticseducation.org was from the Optical Society (OSA; Washington, DC). Unfortunately, that information was not correct (my apologies again for the error); indeed, the Optics and Photonics Education Directory--as corrected in the online version of the magazine article--is a joint public service effort by both SPIE (Bellingham, WA) and OSA. In fact, as I learned in the weeks following the release of our April issue from Krisinda Plenkovich, SPIE Education and Community Service director, SPIE actually initiated the directory back in the mid 1980s.
SPIE staff member Rich Donnelly--who still works for SPIE as SPIE Newsroom managing editor--used to get many inquiries about optics programs, so he decided to start publishing a list in the Optics in Education portion of SPIE's then tabloid Optical Engineering Reports. The first edition of the list was printed in 1985-86 and had 26 listings across North America. In 1990, the list became global and evolved into the booklet format that is used today.
But in 2001, SPIE's Education Committee and OSA's Membership & Education Services (MES) Council determined that education was one of the areas where cooperation between the two societies could benefit the entire community and the Optics Education Directory was seen as a vehicle where that cooperation could be especially productive. Consequently, it was decided at the time that SPIE would provide OSA with the content it had been using to produce a print version of the directory and OSA would utilize that information t to create an online version.
This cooperation resulted in the co-branding of the Optics and Photonics Education Directory with OSA. Today, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) exists between SPIE and OSA to define the joint collaboration and sponsorship of the Optics and Photonics Education Directory. In short, SPIE is responsible for managing the print version of the Directory--4500 copies of which were distributed in 2011 to libraries and academic institutions throughout the world (in more than 220 different countries). And OSA is responsible for updating the online version of the Directory, from which the print version content is generated. According to Kathryn Amatrudo, OSA's deputy senior director of Membership and Education, the online Directory receives thousands of visits each month.
When writing the April photonics education article, the Optics and Photonics Education Directory was indispensable for my research on just how many academic institutions exist for our students, what the entry criteria are, how large the student population is at the various institutions, what type of curriculum is offered, and of primary importance, a personal contact at the institution that is available to answer any questions students may pose. With more than 350 international listings, students considering a career in photonics have an excellent photonics education resource at their fingertips, or at the click of a mouse. Courtesy SPIE and OSA, the Optics and Photonics Education Directory is the go-to resource for aspiring photonics students and graduates of the future.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Looking for a laser market analyst
Strategies Unlimited is seeking a senior analyst to cover the laser, LED, and photonics markets. This demanding position will be responsible for collecting data on all critical market areas, and developing market forecasts that will be published in industry reports and presented to private clients and at industry events.
Familiarity with the photonics industry is highly desirable because the position requires insight into the overall global market for lasers and photonics, including market trends, supplier market shares, and market breakout by application segments and geographic regions.
Strategies Unlimited is the research group of PennWell, which is the parent company of Laser Focus World. If you are interested in being considered for this position and have questions, please contact Ashley Pile in PennWell's Human Resources department: ashleyp@pennwell.com or 918-832-9357.
You can find the application on our HR website.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Wearable photonics you can create and live by
Featured in our April issue of Laser Focus World is an article from Philips Research (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) entitled "WEARABLE PHOTONICS: Smart photonic textiles begin to weave their magic" that shows, among other fiber-optic and photonic-based textile styles, Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie wearing an illuminating jumpsuit.
FIGURE: Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas wows in an illuminating jumpsuit. (Courtesy Studio XO)
So what's next beyond temporary, short-lived glow-in-the-dark fashions? The evidence points to wearable photonics that illuminate for long periods of time and offer unique and one-of-a-kind design capabilities, thanks to the advent of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and other flexible display technologies that can be woven into (or somehow incorporated) into wearable fabrics.
Case in point is a new stretchable optoelectronic panel from researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The stretchable polymer OLED device uses carbon nanotubes as the conductor and can be reversibly stretched by up to 50% strain without damage. The polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells (PLECs) were spin-cast on glass, laminated, and then peeled off. The blue emissive fluorene luminescent layer was sandwiched between two single-walled carbon-nanotube polymer electrodes. The sky-blue device has shape-memory capability and maintains stretchability for wearable photonic applications.
And just when you thought wearable photonics was limited to what designers hand you, how about a Lazer Shirt that lets you design your own glowing message or custom work of art?
VIDEO: How to create wearable art with the Lazer Shirt. (Courtesy Lazer Shirts)
Here is how the Lazer Shirt is described on the thinkgeek website: "Lazer Shirts are interactive white t-shirts that let you design your own creation with the power of UV light. Simply touch the ultraviolet Lazer to the shirt, press the button, and draw or write whatever you want. Step into the darkness and your shirt will glow, displaying your creative genius. When the design finally fades, you can use your UV light to draw something totally new. And even though your Lazer Shirt is magical, you can still toss it in the washing machine like every other t-shirt." The secret to Lazer Shirt is probably a UV-to-visible phosphor, although I was unable to find out exactly how it works.
Personally, I don't think I’ll be ordering a Lazer Shirt anytime soon. While fashion may be somewhat important to me, I'd rather see an increase in research activity surrounding the use of wearable photonics in soldier suits or medical monitoring applications. Embedded sensors that monitor heart rate, blood flow, and even monitor wound-healing progress while automatically (and wirelessly) reporting data back to a remote station seem like a much more admirable use of "wearable photonics". Fortunately, programs such as OFSETH, or Optical Fiber Sensors Embedded into technical Textile for Healthcare monitoring, is an EU-funded project that weaves sensors--based on Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), optical-time domain reflectometry, and macrobending effects--for patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor spontaneous respiration, which is constantly at risk of being impaired by anesthetic drugs or upper-airway obstruction.
There is also research at Eindhoven University of Technology on smart jackets for neonatal monitoring that use a combination of photonics such as reflectance pulse oximeters and embedded optical fibers. I have no doubt that these wearable photonics will save lives and improve healthcare for the next generation--photonics we can live by!
FIGURE: Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas wows in an illuminating jumpsuit. (Courtesy Studio XO)
So what's next beyond temporary, short-lived glow-in-the-dark fashions? The evidence points to wearable photonics that illuminate for long periods of time and offer unique and one-of-a-kind design capabilities, thanks to the advent of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and other flexible display technologies that can be woven into (or somehow incorporated) into wearable fabrics.
Case in point is a new stretchable optoelectronic panel from researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The stretchable polymer OLED device uses carbon nanotubes as the conductor and can be reversibly stretched by up to 50% strain without damage. The polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells (PLECs) were spin-cast on glass, laminated, and then peeled off. The blue emissive fluorene luminescent layer was sandwiched between two single-walled carbon-nanotube polymer electrodes. The sky-blue device has shape-memory capability and maintains stretchability for wearable photonic applications.
And just when you thought wearable photonics was limited to what designers hand you, how about a Lazer Shirt that lets you design your own glowing message or custom work of art?
VIDEO: How to create wearable art with the Lazer Shirt. (Courtesy Lazer Shirts)
Here is how the Lazer Shirt is described on the thinkgeek website: "Lazer Shirts are interactive white t-shirts that let you design your own creation with the power of UV light. Simply touch the ultraviolet Lazer to the shirt, press the button, and draw or write whatever you want. Step into the darkness and your shirt will glow, displaying your creative genius. When the design finally fades, you can use your UV light to draw something totally new. And even though your Lazer Shirt is magical, you can still toss it in the washing machine like every other t-shirt." The secret to Lazer Shirt is probably a UV-to-visible phosphor, although I was unable to find out exactly how it works.
Personally, I don't think I’ll be ordering a Lazer Shirt anytime soon. While fashion may be somewhat important to me, I'd rather see an increase in research activity surrounding the use of wearable photonics in soldier suits or medical monitoring applications. Embedded sensors that monitor heart rate, blood flow, and even monitor wound-healing progress while automatically (and wirelessly) reporting data back to a remote station seem like a much more admirable use of "wearable photonics". Fortunately, programs such as OFSETH, or Optical Fiber Sensors Embedded into technical Textile for Healthcare monitoring, is an EU-funded project that weaves sensors--based on Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), optical-time domain reflectometry, and macrobending effects--for patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor spontaneous respiration, which is constantly at risk of being impaired by anesthetic drugs or upper-airway obstruction.
There is also research at Eindhoven University of Technology on smart jackets for neonatal monitoring that use a combination of photonics such as reflectance pulse oximeters and embedded optical fibers. I have no doubt that these wearable photonics will save lives and improve healthcare for the next generation--photonics we can live by!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Photonics shows strength in Shanghai
Since first opening in 2006, LASER World of Photonics China has established itself as the leading lasers and optics tradeshow in China. It was very clear to me how energized the exhibitors and attendees were by the diversity and quality of products on display, the rapidly increasing scale of the industry in China, and the international feel of the event.
The show ran from March 20-22 in Shanghai’s New International Expo Center, and attracted 475 exhibitors from 19 countries, an increase of 32 percent from 2011. The number of visitors reached 34,300, a 19 percent growth over last year. The total exhibition space increased to 23,000 sq m, up 33 percent from 2011.
Most of the major North American and European manufacturers of lasers, optics, and cameras exhibited at the show. Some were able to benefit from many years of operating subsidiaries in China; for example, Avantes China held a celebration marking its fifth anniversary and disclosed plans for growth that included expanding from four to five locations.
The vast majority of exhibitors were Chinese, including names increasingly familiar to me such as Castech, China Daheng Group, Crystech, Han’s Laser Technology, Luster LightTech, Pinnacle Scientific, Wuhan HuaGong Laser Engineering, Wuhan Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies, and Xi’an FocusLight Technologies. A section of one hall was devoted to the Machine Vision Exhibition Pavilion, which attracted approximately 100 Chinese and international exhibitors.
The Photonics Congress China was held in parallel to the tradeshow and featured the International Conference on Laser Processes and Components, the Conference on Laser Technology and Optoelectronics, an OIDA Fiber Communications Workshop, and the OSA Energy Photonics Workshop. During the Laser Processes and Components conference, I presented some of the global laser marketplace data researched by Strategies Unlimited, a summary of which was published in Laser Focus World.
The audience of approximately 300 also heard from Prof. Youliang Wang, Chinese Optical Society Laser Processing Committee, who discussed the state of the laser industry in China. The first point he made was that the central government is firmly behind the industry. The current president of China and general secretary of the Communist Party, Hu Jintao, has said, “We should redouble our efforts to research, produce, and use lasers.”
Wang also noted that two laser companies are now listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SXSE): Wuhan Golden Laser www.goldenlaser.cc (SHE: 300220) and Shenzhen Sunshine Laser and Electronics (www.sunshine-laser.com) (SHE: 300227). He said that the laser processing industry is growing quickly and embracing fiber lasers, but that much work needs to be done. According to Wang, there are 50 domestic high-power laser companies but only 13 of them are well known and have a strong intellectual property position and R&D operations.
He urged the domestic laser industry to become more “self-directed” and innovative, and to overcome the lack of management experience, R&D, and skilled technicians. He further stressed that China must avoid becoming just another laser marking market.
Dr. Bo Gu, a well-known figure in the industry who has held management positions in both China and the US, also spoke on China and the global laser industry. He first urged the Chinese laser industry to develop a leader mentality. China has trailed in the invention and development of new technologies by only a few years, including laser technologies. However, “the cost of being second is huge.”
Higher margins go to the leaders (up to 60 percent)—as latecomers enter markets, prices and margins drop. Market data from Strategies Unlimited shows that approximately 90 percent of the value of the global laser industry now comes from companies headquartered in the US, Germany, or Japan.
Gu said that the advancement of lasers and laser technology was called for in the government’s Twelth Five-Year Plan and that once such a commitment was made, resources were allocated to ensure it happened. To drive this change, Gu said Chinese companies should:
* Invest in R&D
* Acquire overseas companies or create joint ventures (which may not provide access to leading edge technologies but might reduce the trailing time)
* Participate in exchange programs with international companies (given the political world, probably more feasible with European companies)
* Invest in and set up overseas centers to attract talent and learn (probably only feasible for larger companies such as Huawei).
Shanghai was a noticeably different city from the one I visited five years ago while attending another tradeshow. In a sense, the Chinese laser market is growing and changing even faster than the social and infrastructure changes that are transforming the country. Hoping to keep pace, I’ll be writing much more about the industry in this blog and in the pages of Laser Focus World.
The show ran from March 20-22 in Shanghai’s New International Expo Center, and attracted 475 exhibitors from 19 countries, an increase of 32 percent from 2011. The number of visitors reached 34,300, a 19 percent growth over last year. The total exhibition space increased to 23,000 sq m, up 33 percent from 2011.
Most of the major North American and European manufacturers of lasers, optics, and cameras exhibited at the show. Some were able to benefit from many years of operating subsidiaries in China; for example, Avantes China held a celebration marking its fifth anniversary and disclosed plans for growth that included expanding from four to five locations.
The vast majority of exhibitors were Chinese, including names increasingly familiar to me such as Castech, China Daheng Group, Crystech, Han’s Laser Technology, Luster LightTech, Pinnacle Scientific, Wuhan HuaGong Laser Engineering, Wuhan Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies, and Xi’an FocusLight Technologies. A section of one hall was devoted to the Machine Vision Exhibition Pavilion, which attracted approximately 100 Chinese and international exhibitors.
The Photonics Congress China was held in parallel to the tradeshow and featured the International Conference on Laser Processes and Components, the Conference on Laser Technology and Optoelectronics, an OIDA Fiber Communications Workshop, and the OSA Energy Photonics Workshop. During the Laser Processes and Components conference, I presented some of the global laser marketplace data researched by Strategies Unlimited, a summary of which was published in Laser Focus World.
The audience of approximately 300 also heard from Prof. Youliang Wang, Chinese Optical Society Laser Processing Committee, who discussed the state of the laser industry in China. The first point he made was that the central government is firmly behind the industry. The current president of China and general secretary of the Communist Party, Hu Jintao, has said, “We should redouble our efforts to research, produce, and use lasers.”
Wang also noted that two laser companies are now listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SXSE): Wuhan Golden Laser www.goldenlaser.cc (SHE: 300220) and Shenzhen Sunshine Laser and Electronics (www.sunshine-laser.com) (SHE: 300227). He said that the laser processing industry is growing quickly and embracing fiber lasers, but that much work needs to be done. According to Wang, there are 50 domestic high-power laser companies but only 13 of them are well known and have a strong intellectual property position and R&D operations.
He urged the domestic laser industry to become more “self-directed” and innovative, and to overcome the lack of management experience, R&D, and skilled technicians. He further stressed that China must avoid becoming just another laser marking market.
Dr. Bo Gu, a well-known figure in the industry who has held management positions in both China and the US, also spoke on China and the global laser industry. He first urged the Chinese laser industry to develop a leader mentality. China has trailed in the invention and development of new technologies by only a few years, including laser technologies. However, “the cost of being second is huge.”
Higher margins go to the leaders (up to 60 percent)—as latecomers enter markets, prices and margins drop. Market data from Strategies Unlimited shows that approximately 90 percent of the value of the global laser industry now comes from companies headquartered in the US, Germany, or Japan.
Gu said that the advancement of lasers and laser technology was called for in the government’s Twelth Five-Year Plan and that once such a commitment was made, resources were allocated to ensure it happened. To drive this change, Gu said Chinese companies should:
* Invest in R&D
* Acquire overseas companies or create joint ventures (which may not provide access to leading edge technologies but might reduce the trailing time)
* Participate in exchange programs with international companies (given the political world, probably more feasible with European companies)
* Invest in and set up overseas centers to attract talent and learn (probably only feasible for larger companies such as Huawei).
Shanghai was a noticeably different city from the one I visited five years ago while attending another tradeshow. In a sense, the Chinese laser market is growing and changing even faster than the social and infrastructure changes that are transforming the country. Hoping to keep pace, I’ll be writing much more about the industry in this blog and in the pages of Laser Focus World.
Monday, March 12, 2012
OFC/NFOEC welcomes 12,000 attendees to the "Age of Abundance"
With its attendance increasing for the fourth year in a row, the 2012 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/ National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC), held March 4-8 in Los Angeles, CA, also included an expanded show floor with 560 exhibitors. And while attendee figures and exhibit space were certainly abundant, the biggest message I took back from OFC/NOFEC 2012 was the numerous Plenary and special presentations from companies like Facebook and Google exclaiming that today's society should continue to enjoy the "Age of Abundance" in terms of the availability of communications bandwidth.
In the Tuesday morning Plenary sessions that opened the conference, Google VP, Access Services, Milo Medin presented his keynote entitled "Bandwidth, Optics and the Age of Abundance." Medin described how 16 years ago, the @Home Network--a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002 founded by Medin, William Randolph Hearst III, and cable companies TCI, Comcast, and Cox Communications--offered 4-5 Mbps download speeds at $40 a month, but was generally viewed as offering "too much bandwidth." Just 4 years later, however, it would have a million subscribers and we all know that while 4-5 Mbps is adequate for many, the growing desire to stream videos and download gigabit data files is demanding ever-higher bandwidth offerings from cable, optical fiber, wireless, and satellite providers alike.
If you missed Medin, you can see an introduction to his Plenary here:
And even more enlightening is this video from Google itself, which introduces their gigabit fiber-to-the-home network initiative:
While the video is a bit dated, it explains how Google plans to offer an "open access" network and teach other networking companies what they learn. Google Fiber (Mountain View, CA) even had a booth (#906) at OFC/NFOEC.
The "Age of Abundance" is further evidenced in how network IP transit costs continue to decline as bandwidth grows, from $1200/Mbps in 1998 to $3.25/Mbps in 2012, according to Medin and a 2011 broadband economics study by Google. Medin says this pace can only be maintained using "optical" transport. Sounds like good news for optics, right? Not so fast. Sadly, and this is perhaps the most disturbing message that I gathered, all of this bandwidth must grow without increasing the price to the customer--much more than what it is already. This means that huge bandwidth gains will require new networks or upgrades to existing networks, at nearly frozen equipment prices. Looking at this from the viewpoint of all my friends in the telecom industry trying to make money on the components and network equipment side of the business, it's a grim scenario indeed. Maybe space-division multiplexing will be the savior? See supporting materials on space-division multiplexing at www.ofcnfoec.org/Home/Program/Workshops-and-Panels/Space-Division-Multiplexing.aspx and www.ofcnfoec.org/Home/Program/Workshops-and-Panels/Space-Division-Multiplexing.aspx.
Regardless of the means to the bandwidth-nirvana end, OFC/NFOEC certainly showed a wealth of integrated photonics architectures, few-moded and multicore fiber options, new high-speed coherent communications equipment, and a seeming mood of confidence that the technologists will somehow pull through and provide yet more bandwidth without significantly raising prices. But I sense that much of the exuberance could be waning for many of the "veteran" optical fiber crowd as some companies still struggle to grow telecom financial margins. While a gigabit of bandwidth seems like plenty to me, I can't help but wonder what new bandwidth-sucking applications will be around in 2020 and what the network of the future will actually look like!
In the Tuesday morning Plenary sessions that opened the conference, Google VP, Access Services, Milo Medin presented his keynote entitled "Bandwidth, Optics and the Age of Abundance." Medin described how 16 years ago, the @Home Network--a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002 founded by Medin, William Randolph Hearst III, and cable companies TCI, Comcast, and Cox Communications--offered 4-5 Mbps download speeds at $40 a month, but was generally viewed as offering "too much bandwidth." Just 4 years later, however, it would have a million subscribers and we all know that while 4-5 Mbps is adequate for many, the growing desire to stream videos and download gigabit data files is demanding ever-higher bandwidth offerings from cable, optical fiber, wireless, and satellite providers alike.
If you missed Medin, you can see an introduction to his Plenary here:
And even more enlightening is this video from Google itself, which introduces their gigabit fiber-to-the-home network initiative:
While the video is a bit dated, it explains how Google plans to offer an "open access" network and teach other networking companies what they learn. Google Fiber (Mountain View, CA) even had a booth (#906) at OFC/NFOEC.
The "Age of Abundance" is further evidenced in how network IP transit costs continue to decline as bandwidth grows, from $1200/Mbps in 1998 to $3.25/Mbps in 2012, according to Medin and a 2011 broadband economics study by Google. Medin says this pace can only be maintained using "optical" transport. Sounds like good news for optics, right? Not so fast. Sadly, and this is perhaps the most disturbing message that I gathered, all of this bandwidth must grow without increasing the price to the customer--much more than what it is already. This means that huge bandwidth gains will require new networks or upgrades to existing networks, at nearly frozen equipment prices. Looking at this from the viewpoint of all my friends in the telecom industry trying to make money on the components and network equipment side of the business, it's a grim scenario indeed. Maybe space-division multiplexing will be the savior? See supporting materials on space-division multiplexing at www.ofcnfoec.org/Home/Program/Workshops-and-Panels/Space-Division-Multiplexing.aspx and www.ofcnfoec.org/Home/Program/Workshops-and-Panels/Space-Division-Multiplexing.aspx.
Regardless of the means to the bandwidth-nirvana end, OFC/NFOEC certainly showed a wealth of integrated photonics architectures, few-moded and multicore fiber options, new high-speed coherent communications equipment, and a seeming mood of confidence that the technologists will somehow pull through and provide yet more bandwidth without significantly raising prices. But I sense that much of the exuberance could be waning for many of the "veteran" optical fiber crowd as some companies still struggle to grow telecom financial margins. While a gigabit of bandwidth seems like plenty to me, I can't help but wonder what new bandwidth-sucking applications will be around in 2020 and what the network of the future will actually look like!
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