Photonics improves LiDAR by unlocking new levels of reliability and scalability for automotive technologies. In the early days of autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), mechanical spinning LiDAR sensors were the industry standard. Still, they came with major trade-offs in size, cost, and durability. Today, the automotive world is shifting toward solid-state, photonics-enabled systems.

Cryogenic cooling boosts IR tech by reducing thermal noise in detectors, enabling higher sensitivity and precision in fields from astronomy to military imaging.

It’s almost show time with both Automate 2025 and the CLEO Conference just around the corner. Let’s take a look at two of the photonics industry’s most-anticipated shows.

Laser precision allows for better quality welds, faster throughput, reduced post-processing costs, and access to new domains of application. So, bring on, right? Well ...

Micro-optics is revolutionizing optical systems by enabling miniaturization, enhanced functionality, and improved performance in consumer electronics, automotive, biomedical technologies, and more.

Transducers are electro-mechanical devices that convert electrical energy to mechanical energy or vice versa. A well known and widely used transducer is the so-called "voice coil" transducer that is based on electromagnetic principles and finds applications in speakers and sub-woofers.

At Photonics West 2017, Frank Weiss with G&H offered practical advice on considerations one should take into account when specifying fiber optics for deployment in rugged environments, including life cycle requirements, the pitfalls of underspecifying, and the potential headaches that can be involved in not paying close attention to export control parameters.

The pco.dimax cs camera with its true 12-bit performance is ideal for providing crisp, brilliant color images for all car safety testing applications involving onboard, offboard, and sled testing. This high speed video presents car safety testing situations recorded with the pco.dimax cs camera.

In this video, one of Zygo’s applications engineers provides a demonstration of the ZeGage^TM 3D optical surface profiler as it measures the roughness of the surface of a sealing valve used in the automotive industry. That might sounds fairly unremarkable, but check out how the system does on a rickety plastic table in a machine shop full of noise and vibration.

John Franks of Umicore tells about the lenses the company provides for applications involving automotive night vision, defense, security and surveillance, thermography, and personal thermal vision. He also shares some exciting news about new catalog lenses that are currently available.