AP Technologies will be exhibiting the latest developments in ultra-compact spectrometers, Silicon Photomultipliers, Liquid Crystal optical components at the Electronics Design Show on stand K48.
Compact spectrometers
Following our recent appointment as UK distributor for OTO Photonics we will be exhibiting compact Czerny Turner (CT) spectrometers and ultra-compact Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) based microspectrometers.
OTO’s microspectrometers utilise innovative semiconductor grating chip technology. This “non-spherical, mass-producible” grating replaces the “collimator-plane grating-focusing mirror” optical structure used in traditional spectrometers – combining grating and focusing functions into one micro-sized component. The microchip concave grating technology leverages patented algorithms to calculate curvature and ray-tracing to eliminate aberrations and achieve high resolution of 2nm.
When combined with OTO’s high-precision optomechanical designs and software the MEMS grating technology enables microspectrometers which push the performance envelope to deliver the benefits of high accuracy, ultra-compactness, shock resistance, weather resistance and low cost.
OTO spectrometers cover the spectrum from 180nm to 1700nm with and are offered in a wide range of standard configurations of detector, grating pitch and slit size to suit common applications:-
- Electro-optical inspection – i.e. LED testing, solar panel & thin film measurement
- Colour matching & management
- Environmental monitoring – i.e. water- and air-quality control
- Biomedical measurement – Blood & DNA analysis
It is also possible to define detector, resolution and bandwidth for specific applications and all OTO spectrometers can be supplied with WiFi connectivity.
OtO’s unique “stray light calibration” process optimises the performance of standard low cost spectrometers to achieve stray light levels as low as 0.01% – better than models costing $30,000 and upwards.
Liquid Crystal Fast Optical Shutters, Polarisation Modulators & Variable ND Filters.
Liquid crystals are materials in a phase in between a liquid and a solid crystal. They consist of rod-shaped molecules that are ordered, making the material birefringent. At the same time the molecules can move with respect to each other and their orientation can be controlled by an applied electric field. This gives the possibility to use liquid crystals to modulate the properties of light passing through them. Product examples include fast optical shutters, variable neutral density filters, polarisation modulators, and variable phase retarders.
LC-Tec’s Liquid Crystal Fast Optical Shutter (FOS) devices replace conventional beam choppers with compact, planar, low voltage and vibration-free devices with no moving parts. Applying a drive voltage results in a change in transmittance of the light passing through the shutter structure meaning it is also possible to achieve analogue grey-scale operation between fully-open and fully-closed states. The PolarView®ND variable neutral density filter optimises the technology for broadband applications such as still and video photography by combining flat spectral response with excellent off-axis loss and wavelength shift performance.
The patented PolarSpeed® shutter offers unprecedented 30µs symmetrical switching.
LC-Tec also supply Liquid Crystal Fast Polarisation Modulator (FPM) devices which switch between two output polarisation states, for example linear-linear or left- and right-handed circular polarisation. Major applications include 3D-projection where LC-Tec’s technology can be found in 3D cinemas worldwide.
Other applications include 3D displays, cameras and microscopes where LC-Tec’s low wavefront aberration performance maintains excellent image quality.
Silicon Photomultipliers
APT are the UK distributor for SensL Technologies – the world’s leading commercial supplier of Silicon photomultipliers. SiPMs are silicon-based detectors which offer the single-photon sensitivity of conventional vacuum photomultiplier tubes with all of the advantages of a solid-state construction such as low voltage operation, compactness, ruggedness and reliability. SiPMs are displacing vacuum PMTs, APDs and photodiodes in many low light applications due to their combination of performance, price and high volume availability.
SiPMs are now the dominant detector technology in many medical imaging (PET, CT, SPECT) and radiation detection (Gamma, Neutron) applications but are less well-known in other sectors so Photonex and the Electronics Design Show are both great opportunities to learn more about this exciting technology.
Please take the time to visit APT on stand K48 to discuss your application and learn if our range of spectrometers, LC optical components, SiPMs, UVC-NIR LEDS, laser diodes, silicon and lead-salt detectors etc. meet your needs.
