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SPIE Photonics West

Powering up for San Fran

SPIE Photonics West promises to deliver a swathe of information on industrial lasers and material processing in San Francisco from 2 to 7 February

This year SPIE Photonics West will host an estimated 23,000 attendees, 1,350 exhibitors, and more than 5,200 papers when it opens its doors on 2 February. 

The show has three major conference tracks: Bios, which highlights new discoveries and research in biophotonics, biomedical optics, and imaging; Opto, which will showcase optoelectronics, photonic materials, and related devices; and Lase, which will focus on industrial lasers, laser sources, and laser applications.

Lase 2019

Lase 2019 will feature 900 papers and presentations covering a range of topics including laser manufacturing, laser materials processing, micro and nano packaging, fibre, diode, and solid-state lasers, laser resonators, ultrafast lasers, semiconductor lasers and LEDs, and 3D fabrication technologies.

The plenary session of the conference will take place on 4 February and will feature Earl Maize from JPL, who worked on the Nasa Cassini Mission, Yuji Sano, from the Japan Science and Technology Agency and manager of the ImPact programme, and Günther Tränkle, from the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut in Germany.

The conference is in four programme tracks: 

  • Laser sources, which will have conferences on: solid-state lasers; fibre lasers; high-power lasers for fusion research; components and packaging for laser systems; high-power diode laser technology; and vertical external cavity surface emitting lasers (VECSELs).
  • Nonlinear optics and guiding, which will have conferences on: nonlinear frequency generation and conversion; real-time measurements, rogue phenomena and single-shot applications; and laser resonators, micro resonators and beam control. 
  • Micro and nano applications, which will have conferences on: laser applications in microelectronic and optoelectronic manufacturing; laser-based micro- and nanoprocessing; synthesis and photonics of nanoscale materials; frontiers in ultrafast optics: biomedical, scientific and industrial applications; and laser 3D manufacturing.
  • Macro applications, which will have conferences on laser 3D manufacturing, free-space laser communications, and high-power laser materials processing – applications, diagnostics and systems.

The Lase 2019 symposium will be chaired by Xianfan Xu, from Purdue University in the USA and Beat Neuenschwander, from the Bern University of Applied Sciences’ School of Engineering and Technology in Switzerland. It will be co-chaired by Koji Sugioka, from the Riken research institute, Japan, and Reinhart Poprawe, from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Germany.

Awarding innovation

The Prism Awards, now in its 11th year, is also hosted at Photonics West, and celebrates outstanding examples of the imaginative range and innovation reach of photonics research and development.

The award is divided into categories including imaging and cameras, vision technology, detectors and sensors, test and measurement, diagnostics and therapeutics, transportation, light sources, optics and optomechanics, scientific lasers and industrial lasers. 

This year’s finalists for the industrial lasers category include US firm NLight for its Corona fibre laser technology – see page 30 for the latest model of the family; Israeli high-tech firm Civan Advanced Technologies for its HP Laser and Coherent Beam Combined (CBC) technology for material processing; and German laser manufacturer Trumpf, for its TruPrint 5000 3D printer, featuring three 500W fibre lasers, which was launched at Formnext last year.