A breakthrough lidar sensor architecture for self-driving vehicles, a sensor detecting nano-vibrations of the body with applications in elder-home healthcare and smart cars, and a light source capable of remotely delivering high-luminance broad-spectrum white light are among innovative new products named as winners in 10 categories of the prestigious 2018 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation.
Organized by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and sponsored by Photonics Media, the Prism Awards have for 10 years honored groundbreaking technology and product inventions within the high-impact industry of optics and photonics.
Winners from four countries were announced by industry leaders this evening (31 January) at SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco, California (US) at a gala banquet that has become the largest annual global gathering of CEOs, VIPs, and entrepreneurs in photonics.
The winning companies and products are:
- Detectors and Sensors: NKT Photonics (Denmark) LIOS EN.SURE Long Range DTS and RTTR, a long-range optical-fiber-based temperature- and strain-sensing measurement system designed to monitor underground transmission and distribution power cables, and overhead transmission lines
- Environmental Monitoring: Block Engineering LLC (USA) LaserWarn Analyzer, uses Quantum Cascade Lasers (QCLs) combined with mid-infrared spectroscopy to detect and identify chemical clouds in seconds
- Illumination and Light Sources: SoraaLaser (USA) LaserLight Fiber Module, the world's first white-light, high-luminance, remotely delivered white laser light module, enabling the highest luminance light source available
- Imaging and Cameras: Luminar (USA) Model-G 3D LiDAR, sensor architecture delivering more than one million data points per second, with each point capable of reliably detecting less than 10% reflective targets at more than 200 meters away
- Lasers: Class 5 Photonics GmbH (Germany) Supernova Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplifier, providing options for tunability, multiple outputs, and CEP stability to allow tailoring for custom multicolor experiments at full system performance and unprecedented stability over days
- Life Science Instrumentation: Quantumcyte (USA) Q1 - ArraySeQ, enabling phenotypic profiling of single cells over thousands of cells simultaneously, and correlating that information to the genetic data collected from each cell
- Material Processing and Additive Manufacturing: LIMO GmbH (Germany) Activation Line UV-L750, optical beam-delivery and beam-shaping system for UV laser lift-off of flexible OLED displays, which may be used for solid-state laser annealing as well
- Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics: ContinUse Biometrics (Israel) SmartHealth Mod, first-ever sensor capable of simultaneously monitoring several bio-parameters continuously and from a distance, by detecting nano-vibrations of the body
- Optics and Optomechanical Components: AdlOptica Optical Systems GmbH (Germany) foXXus -multi-focus optics, a highly flexible optics tool that gives lasers improved process performance at lower costs
- Test and Measurement: Spheryx, Inc. (USA) xSight, the first quantitative measurement of both size and composition in complex fluid samples in their native environments - in real-time in a matter of minutes - to detect dangerous or damaging particles or simultaneously detect different particles of the same size
Presenting the awards were leaders from the photonics industry:
• Kathleen Burke, Vice President and General Counsel at MKS Instruments
• Debbie Gustafson, CEO of Energetiq Technology
• Uwe Higgen, Managing Partner at BMW i Ventures
• Akira Hiruma, President and CEO of Hamamatsu
• Ray O. Johnson, Bessemer Venture Partners, former CTO, Lockheed Martin
• Wilhelm Kaenders, Co-Founder and President TOPTICA Photonics
• Peter Leibinger, Vice Chairman of the Managing Board of TRUMPF
• Eric Mottay, CEO of Amplitude Systèmes
• Darius Sankey, Managing Director at Innovation Acceleration Capital
• Danielle Wuchenich, Liquid Instruments & Lockheed Martin
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