Photonics & Imaging

How Corning’s Hyperspectral Imaging in the Sky Sees the Unseen

New satellites equipped with Corning’s advanced hyperspectral-imaging technology can detect pipeline leaks and other environmental issues, providing precise monitoring and exploration capabilities for businesses and governments.

OPO Lasers Put Optical Components to the Test

Optical parametric oscillator (OPO) lasers have long been utilized in sophisticated test and measurement applications such as mass spectrometry, photoacoustic imaging, and spectroscopy.

How to Innovate and Overcome the Challenges of Blue Laser Beam Shaping

The blue laser has become the ideal light source for high-reflective metal processing, offering substantial advantages in various industrial applications such as cutting and welding.

Blue Laser Power Beaming for Planetary Exploration

Any plan for the long-term exploration or habitation of the Moon and Mars will almost certainly entail the use of multiple habitats, vehicles and remotely located equipment, all of which will require power sources.

10 Tech-Savvy Holiday Gifts for Engineers

Choosing a present for an engineer is almost as daunting as performing the tasks of an engineer. With that in mind, we here at Tech Briefs aim to make your life easier with regards to the former.

Laser Setup Probes Metamaterial Structures with Ultrafast Pulses

A new laser-based technique could speed up the discovery of promising metamaterials for real-world applications.

Cell Labelling Method from Microscopy Adapted for Use in Whole-Body Imaging

Processes and structures within the body that are normally hidden from the eye can be made visible through medical imaging. Scientists use imaging to investigate...

Optimal Information About the Invisible

Researcher are finding ways to estimate a target location when light gets deflected by a disordered structure.

INRS Researchers Design the World’s Fastest UV Camera

Imagine being able to snap a picture of extremely fast events on the order of a picosecond.

Method Detects Defects in 2D Materials

To further shrink electronic devices and to lower energy consumption, the semiconductor industry is interested in using 2D materials but manufacturers need a quick and accurate method for detecting defects in these materials to determine if the material is suitable for device manufacture.

New Products

See the new products, including new Vision hardware from Beckhoff; Renishaw’s new Central manufacturing connectivity and data platform; Weidmuller USA's new open operating system, u-OS; a Digital Valve Controller featuring the Device™ technology; and more.

Building More Dexterous Robots

MIT researchers have developed a camera-based touch sensor that is long, curved, and shaped like a human finger. Their device provides high-resolution tactile sensing over a large area. The sensor, called the GelSight Svelte, uses two mirrors to reflect and refract light.

Vote for Tech Briefs’ 29th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards

These 12 products are the nominees for the 2020 Tech Briefs Readers’ Choice Product of the Year.

Use SLEAP to Track Sheep — or any Other Animal

The desire to understand how the brain generates and patterns behavior has driven rapid methodological innovation in tools to quantify natural animal behavior.

Alternative Transparent Coating Suitable for Optics with Vacuum Deposition Layer

Researchers have developed a viable dust, water, and ice mitigation optical coating for space flight, aeronautical, and ground applications. The innovation of the LOTUS coating prevents contamination on sensitive surfaces.

Self-Organizing Lasers Could Lead to New Materials

Researchers from Imperial College London and University College London have demonstrated the first spontaneously self-organizing laser device, which can reconfigure when conditions change.

Algae-Powered Devices Inspired by Bioluminescent Waves

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed soft devices containing algae that glow in the dark when experiencing mechanical stress, such as being squished, stretched, twisted, or bent.

Laser Attack Blinds Autonomous Vehicles, Deleting Pedestrians and Confusing Cars

Research reveals that expertly timed lasers shined at an approaching LIDAR system can create a blind spot in front of the vehicle.

Laser-based System Achieves Noncontact Medical Ultrasound Imaging

Researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and their collaborators at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Ultrasound Research and Translation have developed a new medical imaging device: the Noncontact Laser Ultrasound (NCLUS).

Comparing Sensitivity of Thermal Imaging Cameras Modules

Engineers developing products or systems incorporating thermal cameras need to clearly understand the critical design specifications, including scene dynamic range, field of view, resolution, sensitivity, and spectral range, to name a few.

Chalcogenide Materials: Revolutionizing Optical Performance in Response to Germanium Export Constraints

Chalcogenide materials have emerged as a disruptive force in the optics industry, significantly enhancing optical performance in response to germanium export constraints. Their exceptional optical properties, adaptability, and precision engineering capabilities position them as invaluable assets for top optical performance.

New Products

See the new products, including CamTest TempControl from TRIOPTICS, Semtech Corporation's Transimpedance Amplifiers, Kaman Precision Products' ThreadChecker, Keysight Technologies' oscilloscopes, and more.

Researchers Demonstrate Noise-Free Communication with Structured Light

Researchers have outlined a new optical communication protocol that exploits spatial patterns of light for multi-dimensional encoding in a manner that does not require the patterns to be recognized, thus overcoming the prior limitation of modal distortion in noisy channels.

Researchers Create World’s Smallest LED And Holographic Microscope

Researchers have developed the world’s smallest LED. It enables the conversion of existing mobile phone cameras into high-resolution microscopes. Smaller than the wavelength of light, the new LED was used to build the world’s smallest holographic microscope.

New Blue Light Technique Could Enable Advances in Understanding Nanoscale Technologies

With a new microscopy technique that uses blue light to measure electrons in semiconductors and other nanoscale materials, a team of researchers is opening a new realm of possibilities in the study of these critical components, which can help power devices like mobile phones and laptops.