“First Tier” automotive suppliers make subassemblies from
parts provided by “Second Tier” manufacturers. These
subassemblies – for example, steering wheels – are inspected
when received at the automotive assembly plant. Any defects
found can cause a quality rejection (QR) of the entire lot of
subassemblies, with corresponding financial penalties against
the supplier. Even worse, workers will “pull the red line” to stop
the assembly line if a defective part is found. In this case there
are substantial financial penalties for the supplier, often based
on the time (to the minute) that the line is down.

Increasing resolution and faster frame rates have caused cameras for machine vision systems to steadily grow in their need for bandwidth. The popular Camera Link interface, however, tops out at 850 Mbytes/second and 10G Ethernet interface can only manage 1.2 Gbytes/second, even as an increasing number of cameras become available that can send more than 1 Gbyte/sec to a frame grabber. To address this shortfall, DALSA has developed a new interface – called HSLink* – that can serve a full range of camera types from 300 Mbytes/second up to 6 Gbytes/second while keeping implementation simplified and costs down. The HSLink interface is now in the process of becoming an open industry standard.

In the four years since its introduction, GigE Vision has more than lived up to its promises. Not only has it seen widespread acceptance as a standard interface, it has increased the range of vision applications that digital cameras and other peripherals can serve. Constant enhancements to the standard take GigE Vision well along the way to becoming the major industry interface for cameras operating to 120 Mbytes/second. Availability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, link aggregation and Power over Ethernet make GigE Vision the industrial camera interface of choice when cables longer than 10 meters are needed.

Through heat dissipation, thermally conductive adhesives and potting compounds play a pivotal role in the protection of today’s electronic circuitry.  In tandem with the great growth of the technological sector comes the need for a new generation of innovative, highly advanced solutions capable of reliable performance in the ever increasing temperatures of electronic devices. Master Bond’s white paper examines the challenges design engineers face as chip makers up the ante on microprocessor power and density, and how thermally conductive adhesives and potting compounds can manage heat while solving other application issues.

Applications that must meet stringent outgassing requirements now have more adhesive options than ever. If you suspect outgassing could potentially pose a problem in your application, specifying adhesives that comply with the ASTM outgassing standard makes sense.
Engineers often want to know whether an adhesive is low outgassing or generic. And while there are cases when nothing but a low outgassing product will do, the truth is that many so-called generic adhesives inherently have low outgassing levels. What's more, most bonding, potting, encapsulation and sealing applications don't need to meet a defined outgassing specification. Here's a guide to understanding when low outgassing adhesives are the right choice.

In this work we report on high-power diode laser modules covering a wide spectral range from 410 nm to 2200 nm. Driven by improvements in the technology of diode laser bars with non-standard wavelengths, such systems are finding a growing number of applications. Fields of application that benefit from these developments are direct medical applications, printing industry, defense technology, polymer welding and pumping of solid-sate lasers.

By exploiting the giant electro-optic effect of potassium tantalate niobate (KTN)
crystal, we have developed a wide-angle fast optical beam scanner and a fast
varifocal lens. These devices are applicable not only to optical communications,
but also to various other fields that use optical beams, so we are seeking sales
scenarios for KTN devices.

Fast varifocal lenses that respond as fast as 1μs, which is 1000 times faster
A new spectrometer fabricated using a combination of a KTa1-xNbxO3 (KTN) optical
beam scanner and a wavelength dispersion element. This spectrometer can measure
a wide optical spectrum in microsecond-order time. A high-speed spectrometer is
now being developed to observe ultrafast luminous phenomena.

Fast varifocal lenses that respond as fast as 1μs, which is 1000 times faster
than the conventional commercial devices. The lens structure is quite simple: a
potassium tantalate niobate single-crystal (KTN) block with four electrodes on
it. We were able to obtain both fast responses and large focal shifts by using
this simple structure and the large electro-optic effect of KTN. These lenses are
expected to be applied to new technical fields such as laser manufacturing.

Northrop Grumman Cutting Edge Optronics has developed a new laser diode array package with minimal bar-to-bar spacing. These High Density Stack (HDS) packages allow for a power density increase on the order of ~ 2.5x when compared to industry-standard arrays.

This work contains an overview of the manufacturing process, as well as representative data for 5-, 10-, and 20-bar arrays. Near-field and power vs. current data is presented in each case. Power densities approaching 15 kW/cm2 are presented. In addition, power and wavelength are presented as a function of pulse width in order to determine the acceptable operational parameters for this type of array. In the low repetition rate Nd:YAG pumping regime, all devices are shown to operate with relatively low junction temperatures

From inspecting the packaging of consumer goods to surveilling traffic to identifying cells with fluorescence, vision techniques are increasingly being used in every industry imaginable. Whether you are using vision to improve the quality of your finished goods, guide your robot, or add traceability to improve your process, here are five considerations to keep in mind when you choose your vision system.

Vision and robotics systems are able to be programmed within one application with LabVIEW and the ImagingLab Robotics Library for DENSO. This paper will cover the calibration between the vision and robot systems to use the same coordinate system.

                    
A new laser beam scanning phenomenon has been discovered in KTN crystal by NTT Photonics Laboratories and was named “space charge limited electro-optic effect”. This phenomenon is caused by electron injection into KTN crystal. Since the injected electrons exist as true charges in the crystal, they terminate the electric field originating from the anode, and the electric field becomes non-uniform between the electrodes. KTN crystal has an extremely large quadratic electro-optic effect. The electric field induces graduation of refractive index inside the crystal and the optical beam traveling through the crystal is continuously and cumulatively deflected.

The new optical beam scanning phenomenon was discovered using KTN crystal.
Theoretical and experimental investigation by NTT Photonics Laboratories has revealed Novel Optical Beam Scanning Phenomenon that the beam scanning phenomenon is based on a new concept; electron injection into KTN crystal. This is the first demonstration of a novel optical beam scanning phenomenon without moving parts. This phenomenon was named “space-chargecontrolled electro-optic effect” by NTT Photonics Laboratories.

National Instruments has been a leader in machine vision and image processing for nearly a decade. NI vision software is available in two packages -- the NI Vision Development Module and NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection (AI). The Vision Development Module contains hundreds of vision functions to use with National Instruments LabVIEW, NI LabWindows/CVI, C/C++, or Visual Basic to program powerful vision inspection, alignment, identification, and measurement applications. Vision Builder AI is an interactive software environment for configures, benchmarking and deploying machine vision applications without programming. Both software packages work with all NI vision frame grabbers and the NI Compact Vision System. This white paper outlines 10 important points to consider when choosing vision software.

The use of proper lighting is often overlooked when designing a machine vision application. More robust and accurate
inspections can be achieved when appropriate lighting techniques are utilized. With the NI 17xx Smart Camera Direct
Drive integrated lighting controller, LED lights can be powered directly from the camera without requiring an external
controller, providing a quicker and lower cost development cycle.

Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) has emerged as the most widely produced laser gain
host and has enjoyed recent popularity as a substrate material for
optical components.

VLOC specializes in high laser damage threshold
coatings for optics and crystals used in OPO,
SHG, Q-switched and other non-linear
applications in the ultraviolet to near infrared
spectral range. Coatings are routinely performed
on a wide variety of substrates with diameters
ranging from 1mm up to 230mm and laser rods
up to 350mm in length. VLOC utilizes proprietary
deposition designs in support of high quality
coatings required to meet stringent customer
specifications.

VLOCLightweighted optics have been used by NASA, Department of Defense, aerospace companies, universites and other organizations. The use of lightweighted optics provides 75-90% in mass reduction. These optics are commonly used in aerospace, metrology, and astronomical applicaitons.

VLOC uses proprietary production technologies in designing and fabricating larger diameter windows for high power laser astronomy, metrology, and aeronautic applications.