At Photonics West, Prism Awards recognize products for biophotonics, 3D printing, industrial processing, research

(Image: Nufern representatives accept their 2017 Prism Award for Photonics Innovation. Courtesy SPIE.)

Nine new products providing new capabilities in detecting disease, assessing water or food quality, and enabling advanced precision manufacturing have been named winners of the 2017 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation. Winners from six countries were announced at a banquet during SPIE Photonics West (San Francisco; January 28 – February 2).

Winning companies and products are:
• Additive Manufacturing — 3D Printing: PolarOnyx (USA) Tungsten LAM: femtosecond fiber laser 3D printer, combining additive and subtractive manufacturing
• Biomedical Instrumentation -- Rapid Biosensor Systems (UK) TB Breathalyser: disposable medical device for a fast test for active infectious tuberculosis, offering simplicity, low cost, and accuracy
• Detectors and Sensors -- ALPhANov (France) GoSpectro: connects to a smartphone to characterize light sources in a matter of seconds, enabling material or chemical analysis in liquids associated with color-based reagents to assess water or food quality
• Imaging and Cameras -- TruTag Technologies (USA) Model 4100 Handheld Hyperspectral Imager: captures and processes a full multi-megapixel hyperspectral datacube without utilizing external processing, to decode the provenance of pills, foods, and embedded objects
• Industrial Lasers -- QD Laser (Japan) 1030- and 1064-nm Ultra-short Pulsed Seeder for Fiber Laser: enables nonthermal precise microprocessing and provides strong competitive light source to mode-locked lasers
• Materials and Coatings -- Crystalline Mirror Solutions (Austria) xtal mir: ultralow-loss mid-IR optical coating based on substrate-transferred single-crystal semiconductor multilayers, enabling discoveries in optical trace gas detection
• Metrology -- Leica Geosystems (Switzerland) BLK360: laser scanner enables 360-degree reality capture for virtual retailing, space mapping, or stage calibration for film and visual arts, within minutes
• Optics and Optical Components -- Nufern (USA) NuBEAM Flat-top fiber technology: effective beam shaping and beam control offer easy integration, efficient light transmission, robustness, small footprint, low maintenance, cost-effectiveness, for material processing, illumination, detection, defense, and medicine
• Scientific Lasers -- Thorlabs (USA) Mid-infrared Supercontinuum Laser: femtosecond fiber-laser pumped MIR SC source offers wavelength coverage from 1.2 µm to almost 5 µm with high repetition rate, with applications in environmental sensing of greenhouse gases to standoff detection in the field.

SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs said, “Events such this are essential to the industry’s ability to serve society effectively. They provide the opportunity to share ideas and needs, to find the collaborators and inspirations required for technology innovation, and to gain the knowledge needed to feed breakthrough thinking.”

The Prism Awards were developed to recognize innovative products that are newly available on the open market. Categories have been added, removed, and updated over time to reflect trends in the industry. Entries were judged by an independent panel of experts including industry executives, leading academic researchers, venture capitalists, and past Prism Award winners. Industry leaders presenting the awards were:
• Katharine Schmidtke, Facebook, Strategic Sourcing Optical Technology
• Vincent Mattera, II-VI, President and CEO
• Basil Garabet, NKT Photonics, CEO
• David Bohn, Microsoft HoloLens, Director of Optical Engineering
• Louay Eldada, Quanergy, CEO and Co-Founder
• Edgar Auslander, Oculus Research at Facebook, Head of Partnerships, VR and AR
• Sarah Boisvert, Fab Lab, Founder; Potomac Photonics, Chief 3D Printing Officer
• Michelle Mihevc, FATHOM, Co-Founder and Principal
• John Ryan, WireTheWorld, CEO and Founder.

Source: SPIE