2016 Prism Awards honor nine companies for their photonics innovations

The 2016 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation, presented February 17, 2016, at SPIE Photonics West (San Francisco, CA), honored nine new products that provide valuable new capabilities such as more effectively identifying drugs to target specific diseases; enhanced detail-rich portable imaging; sensing tools for medical diagnostics, astronomy, and other applications; and 3D printing of precision glass.

Winning companies and products are:

Biomedical Instrumentation
Biodesy (USA). The Biodesy Delta utilizes an ultrafast mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser to enable real-time protein analysis with greater sensitivity, lower cost, and high throughput. The optical system is effective in identifying first-in-class medicines against any protein target and enabling drug discovery against protein targets thought to be intractable.

Detectors and Sensors
Spectral Engines (Finland). The Wireless IR Analyzer is a miniaturized, robust infrared (IR) spectrometer capable of covering IR ranges above 1.7 µm with no loss in performance. Fast and stable operation, integrated data analysis algorithms, and a Bluetooth connection make this device a pocket-sized IR spectroscopic lab.

Displays and Lighting
Dolby, Christie, and Necsel (USA). In the Dolby Vision Cinema Laser Projector, three companies have combined their expertise to create a greatly enhanced premium cinema experience with high contrast, high brightness, a wide color gamut, and excellent 3D performance.

Imaging and Cameras
First Light Imaging (France). The C-RED One shortwave-infrared (SWIR) camera improves noninvasive detection and diagnostics for diseases and research, and opens a new era in astronomical, biomedical, industry, and defense imagery.

Industrial Lasers
LightFab (Germany). The LightFab 3D enables true 3D structures in pure glasses without design limitations, making possible the mass production of micro 3D glass for fields as diverse as optics, precision mechanics, electronics, chemistry, and medicine.

Materials and Coatings
Nanoco (UK). Non-toxic, cadmium-free quantum dots enable a broad range of new applications in display and lighting, from high-end televisions and horticulture lighting to bioimaging and solar.

Optics and Optical Components
Boulder Nonlinear Systems (USA). Large-aperture, low-size, -weight, and -power wide-angle beam steering enable electro-optics technologies for defense, aerospace, energy, automotive, and telecommunications, in applications from small satellites to agile long-range laser systems.

Other Metrology Instrumentation
4D Technology (USA). The FlexCam is a compact, vibration-insensitive, high-resolution 3D metrology module that meets the need for fast, scalable, cost-effective defect and roughness metrology for flexible electronics, including wearable health/fitness monitors, organic LED displays, thin-film solar devices, and low-cost mobile devices.

Lytid was among winners of the 2016 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation announced at a gala banquet on Wednesday, February 17th, during SPIE Photonics West.

Scientific Lasers
Lytid (France). TeraCascade is a compact, user-friendly, easily transportable, high-frequency terahertz laser source that transforms state-of-the-art quantum cascade laser technology into a user-friendly tool that works with nearly every terahertz detector on the market.

The Prism Awards were developed to recognize innovative products that are newly available on the open market. Each category is meant to isolate a specific contribution in photonics, in a technology area or sector of the industry. 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.

The awards are sponsored by SPIE and Photonics Media.