Applied Industrial Optics Day 4
Sogol Borjian Borojeni <s.borjian@queensu.ca>
The final day of AIO 2016 kicked off with the “No way, It Can’t be That Small” session. Denis Donlagic (Univerza v Mariboru, Slovenia) presented “Micro-photonics Sensors Created Through Micromachining of Optical presented the technology behind”. Denis talked about the challenges in the micromachining of the optical fibers. He introduced the fiber doping and selective etching method in which choose of the dopant for micromachining is critical. GeO2, TiO2 and B2O3 are some of the common dopants for micromachining. P2O5is another common dopant which has high selectivity and can be easily incorporated in medium concentrations. He further introduced some examples on application of selective etching using P2O5in fabrication of micro-resonators, miniature pressure and strain sensors, all fiber microcells, micro-wires and nano-wires.
Andrea Giudice (Micro Photon Devices SRL, Italy) spoke about the “Miniaturized Optical Systems for Small Area Single Photon Avalanche Diodes”. Andrea described the single photon detectors and their application in biomedical, industrial, quantum cryptography and astronomy. Wide field rapid estimation fluorescence lifetime imaging, high speed two photon imaging for super resolution and high speed single photon counting for analysing biological systems like the protein synthetization by the RNA are possible using the miniaturized high coupling efficiency fiber receptacle systems.
The final speaker in this session, Roland Hass presented “Fiber-optical Photon Density Wave Spectroscopy Applied to Highly Concentrated Biotechnical Processes”. Roland introduced the application of photon density wave spectroscopy in continuous real time online monitoring of biotechnical processes such as beer mashing process, yeast fermentation, cultivation of microalgae.
In the session after the coffee break, “Quality and Quantity”, Peter Loock (Queen’s University, Canada) described “Watching Paint Dry and Other Exciting Processes Monitored by Thin Film Interferometry”. After a brief introduction to refractive index sensors, Peter described how refractometry can be used in paint and coating industry such as film thickness measurements which is critical in film drying process.
Next, Marion O’Farrell (SINTEF, Norway) spoke about “Custom-built FT-IR for Online Measurement of a Commercial, Protein Hydrolysis Process”. Marion described the optical design of SINTEF new FT-IR instrument. She further discussed some of the measurements and challenges in finding the optimal FOI (field of illumination) and FOV (field of view) and sample preparation.
And as the final speaker of this session, Carlos Bermudez (SENSOFAR metrology, Spain) introduced “Novel Stent Optical Inspection System”.
The afternoon session, “Bringin’ The Heat, Design and Application”, comprised four talks. Katarina Grujic (Teknova AS, Norway), started the session with her talk on “Optical Pyrometry in Harsh environments: Measurement of Extreme Temperatures in a Pilot Scale Acheson Furnace”. Katarina introduced the contact BBR probes which work well for measurements of extreme temperature. They are simple, flexible, economical, more stable and faster than TC measurement in dry applications and also in molten metal. Moreover, specially prepared blockbody is not necessary.
Marion Matters-Krammerer (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherland) talked about “Optics and Electronics: Co-design and Technology Merging”. Marion described how electronics and optics meet in terahertz spectroscopy and the success of terahertz spectroscopy medium and how large volume applications required co-design of electronics and optical components. She further elaborated by giving some examples, technology merging of lnP photonics and BiCMOS/CMOS electronics proposed for higher degrees of integration and high speed optical communication.
Next, Michael Schütz (Intego GmbH, Germany) spoke about the “Challenges and Solutions in Transferring Optical Technologies into High-Volume Inline Production Environments”. Michael discussed the challenges in the typical process of transferring the optical technologies by giving some examples such as microcracks in solar wafer/cells and bubble detection in sapphire boules.
Norbert Engelberts (Optimal Thermal Solutions BV, Netherlands) shared his views on “Thermal Simulation: a Must for Optimal Product Design”. Nobert explained how the thermal design of a system which is a very complex 3d problem including conduction-convection-radiation, can be simplified by an (analytical) computational study and an experimental test is always required to calibrate the model.
After the last coffee break of AIO 2016, and a final chance to network, attendees gathered for the last session of AIO 2016, titled “Monitoring Reality”. Torsten Frosch (Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Germany) detailed his research in a talk on “Raman Spectroscopic for Pharmaceuticals and Gas Sensing”. Torsten described how the motivation for development of a miniaturized highly sensitive Raman sensor leads to design of novel hollow core fiber structures. He also shared some of the interesting results on fiber-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of biomolecules and gas sensing. Torsten continued his talk on exciting topic of Fiber Array Raman chemical imaging.
Finally, myself (Sogol Borjian, Queen’s University, Canada) spoke about “Trace Aqueous Lead Sensing Using Silicon-on-Insulator Ring Resonators”.
And that brings us to the end of yet another Applied Industrial Optics conference. The planning for 2017 has already begun - join us in San Francisco, June 26-29, 2017!
