A new technique applied to avalanche photodiodes improves the operating range or sampling rate of OTDRs, says Ben White. An optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) is a fibre optic network test instrument that measures the characteristics of an optical fibre. It can determine the fibre’s length and attenuation and detect a variety of fault types. The network test instrument works by ...
University of Sheffield spin-out Phlux has announced its first product, a family of 1,550nm avalanche photodiodes. Called Aura, the infra-red devices are built using antimony alloy modified InGaAs. “The resulting sensors can be operated with APD gains up to 120, enabling even the smallest signals above the noise floor of a connected trans-impedance amplifier to be amplified,” according to the ...
Custom lithium battery pack maker Alexander Battery Technologies has installed “the world’s most advanced laser welding machine”, it said, at its factory in Peterlee, UK. “The EV Flex laser welder uses machine vision and configurable optics to produce micrometer-accurate welds between the terminals on a battery cell and busbar,” according to the company. “Employing optical laser depth detection, the EV ...
Belgian research lab Imec is claiming to have created a metal halide perovskite LED stack that emits 1,000x more light “than state-of-the-art OLEDs”, it said. With the assistance of an external laser, the same stack exhibited the electrically-pumped amplified spontaneous emission that would be necessary in a laser. The “result is a milestone towards a perovskite injection laser, promising applications ...
Inorganic perovskite materials are easy to prepare and process, and are suitable for making lasers, according to research at Pusan National University. The perovskite of interest is CsPbBr3, which had to be formed into ‘nano-sheets’ within a particular structure, invented by the Pusan team, to achieve sufficient gain for lasing. Update: Imec announced electrical pumping of a perovskite LED Not ...
Rohm has developed a 120W 905nm infra-red laser diode for lidar. Called RLD90QZW8, “original technology allows Rohm to reduce the temperature dependence of the laser wavelength to just Δ11.6nm – 0.10nm/°C”, said the company. “This makes it possible to narrow the bandpass filter while extending the detection range.” 120W is at 38A where the diode drops 13V (50ns pulses, 0.05% ...
Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand can’t quite point to a patch of free space and measure any microwave field that exists there, but they almost can. In a proof of concept, they positioned a passive glass sensing capsule up to 30m away from novel type of reader, and then interrogated the cell with lasers. “Importantly, compared ...
German factory automation company Sick has introduced 3d inspection cameras that can measure down to 800nm. Called Ruler3002, 3004, 3010, the cameras work with fields of view down to 26.6mm. “The addition of a high-powered blue [450nm] laser enables the three cameras to achieve the rapid exposure times necessary to capture the minutest three-dimensional details,” claimed the company. They “have ...
Yokogowa has added HCDR (high close-in dynamic range) mode and SMSR (side mode suppression ratio) mode to its AQ6370 optical spectrum analyser. Found in AQ6370E, HCDR mode allows measurement of a single longitudinal mode laser with a high close-in dynamic range – CDR is a metric important when developing lasers and optical devices. SMSR mode is intended to halve SMSR ...
Pepperl+Fuchs has combined laser pulse ranging and piezoelectric 2D scanning to create 3D point clouds. Adopting mems scanner technology from the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (Fraunhofer ISIT), the proof-of-concept, dubbed R3000, sweeps a 40° x 30° cone at ranges “from a few centimetres to several hundred meters with millimetre accuracy,” according to P+F. “Ambient light and other environmental influences ...
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