The European magazine for photonics professionals November 2005 Issue 133 PRODUCT GUIDE COMPANY PROFILE SENSORS Avalanche detectors JDSU invests in Mobile LIDAR help speed up low-light operations outside clean up pollution measurements optical telecoms problems in Canada MEDICINE OPTICAL GLUCOSE SENSOR TARGETS THE HUMAN EYE Is your current optical software slowing you down? Get results faster with ASAP 2005. Bio-Optic Systems If your current optical software program is holding you back, Coherent Systems look no further than ASAP 2005. Twenty years of continuous Displays development and commercial use allow ASAP 2005 to simulate Imaging Systems the physics of more optical systems than any other software Lightpipes program available. With ASAP 2005, you get unmatched capability, Reflectors/Luminaires flexibility, speed and accuracy—everything you need to create Stray Light Analysis without compromise. Interoperable with popular CAD programs, including CATIA®, SolidWorks® and Rhinoceros®, as well as the finite-difference code FDTD Solutions™, ASAP 2005 lets you jump straight into the optical-modeling process. And since Optical Software for ASAP 2005 will model the finest details, you can depend on your simulation results to mirror real-world performance. Design better Physicists and Engineers products and reduce your development timeline with ASAP 2005. ASAP 2005 Optical Modeling Software: Design | Model | Analyze Engineering | Software | Training ISO 9001:2000 Certified 800.882.5085 USA|Canada 1.520.721.0500 Worldwide EDITORIAL Editor Oliver Graydon Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1015 [email protected] Technology editor Jacqueline Hewett Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1194 [email protected] Issue 133 November 2005 Contents Reporter James Tyrrell Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1256 NEWS [email protected] 5 Business Thales sells its high-tech optics unit • Samsung Production editor Alison Gardiner Technical illustrator Alison Tovey dominates OLED market • Alight buys VCSEL ideas EUROPE/ROW SALES 9 Editorial Life after telecoms International advertising sales manager Adrian Chance Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1193 10 Analysis SEDs face up to flat-panel giants [email protected] Senior sales executive Cadi Jones TECHNOLOGY Tel: +44 (0) 117 930 1090 [email protected] Thales waves goodbye to its 11 Applications Start-up offers desktop 3D display • Nuna wins photonics business p5 Sales executive Ami Wilson solar race in record time • NIR sensor is a boost to car makers Tel: +44 (0) 117 930 1284 [email protected] 14 R&D Polymer photovoltaics reach efficiency highs • Chips give US SALES OFFICE hope to optical buffers North American advertising sales manager Rob Fisher Carl Zeiss licenses femtosecond microscopy know-how IOP Publishing Inc, Suite 929, 150 South 15 Patents Independence Mall West, Philadelphia PA 19106, USA Tel: +1 215 627 0880 Fax: +1 215 627 0879 FEATURES [email protected] 19 Eye sensor offers instant blood glucose readings ADVERTISING PRODUCTION A pain-free optical technique for measuring blood glucose levels Advertising production coordinator Teresa Honey Are SEDs the answer to the could prove to be a big hit with diabetics when it comes to the TV of the future? p10 Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1040 market. Oliver Graydon reports from Photonex 2005. [email protected] CIRCULATION AND MARKETING Product manager Angela Peck 20 LIDAR road trip uncovers pollution secrets Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1025 Mobile LIDAR came under the spotlight at SPIE Europe’s recent [email protected] Remote Sensing event held in Bruges, Belgium. James Tyrrell ART DIRECTOR caught up with Environment Canada’s Kevin Strawbridge to Andrew Giaquinto discover the benefits of taking a high-power laser on the road. PUBLISHER Geraldine Pounsford Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1022 23 JDSU pins profitability on diversified business [email protected] In fiscal 2005, nearly half of JDSU’s revenue came from Electroluminescent lining activities other than optical telecommunications. Jacqueline PUBLISHING DIRECTOR lights up handbag p13 Richard Roe Hewett finds out about the firm’s diversification plans. OPTO & LASER EUROPE Dirac House,Temple Back, 25 Avalanche design boosts detection of light signal Bristol BS1 6BE, UK. Measuring low light levels can be a challenge, especially at high Tel: +44 (0)117 929 7481 Editorial fax: +44 (0)117 925 1942 speeds. Tim Stokes explains why avalanche photodiodes are Advertising fax: +44 (0)117 930 1178 often an attractive solution to the problem. Internet: optics.org/ole ISSN 0966-9809 CODEN OL EEEV PRODUCTS SUBSCRIPTIONS Complimentary copies are sent to qualifying 29 Monochrome camera • Supercontinnum generator • LED panel individuals (for more details see optics.org/ole/ JDSU turns to DPSS lasers subscribe). For readers outside registration to drive its business p23 requirements: £111/7160 ($199 US and Canada) REGULARS per year. Single issue £10/714 ($18 US, Canada and Mexico). CONTACT: IOPP Magazines, WDIS Ltd, 37 People Units 12 & 13, Cranleigh Gardens Industrial Estate, The European magazine for photonics professionals Southall, Middlesex UB1 2DB, UK. November 2005 Issue 133 38 Calendar PRODUCT GUIDE COMPANY PROFILE SENSORS Avalanche detectors JDSU invests in Mobile LIDAR help speed up low-light operations outside clean up pollution Tel: +44 (0)208 606 7518. Fax: +44 (0)208 606 7303. measurements optical telecoms problems in Canada E-mail: opto&[email protected] © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd. The contents of OLE do not represent the views or policies of the Institute of Physics, its council or its officers unless so identified. This magazine incorporates Opto & Laser Products. Printed by Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, UK. MEDICINE OPTICAL GLUCOSE SENSOR TARGETS THE HUMAN EYE Cover (OLE) Eye sensor promises easy glucose tests for diabetics. p19 For the latest news on optics and photonics don’t forget to visit optics.org NEWS BUSINESS 5 EDITORIAL 9 ANALYSIS 10 ACQUISITIONS Thales sells its high-tech optics unit The French defence giant Thales has sold its High Tech Optics Member firms of (HTO) division to the private Thales HTO unit investment firm Candover for FRANCE 8220 m in cash. HTO consists of Thales Angenieux SA 13 firms spread around the globe Thales Cryogenie SA that each specialize in a different Thales Laser Diodes SA aspect of photonics such as optical Thales Laser SA coatings, polymer optics, infrared vision systems and laser diodes THE NETHERLANDS (see box). Thales Cryogenics BV Thales HTO employs around 1400 staff and reported an annual SINGAPORE revenue of 8124 m last year – Thales Electro Optics PTE Ltd making it just a small part of the Thales group which has 60 000 JAPAN employees and generated a rev- Thales Optical Coatings Thales Laser Co Ltd enue of 810.3 bn in 2004. Optical expertise: Thales HTO specializes in making thin-film coatings, high-power “With this sale, Thales has laser diodes, a wide range of optical components and IR vision systems. US divested non-core businesses,” Thales Optem Inc said Jean-Loup Picard of Thales. European buyouts. “HTO fits Can- (Springer), entertainment (Gala Thales Polymer Optics Inc “It has been our strategic intent to dover’s investment criteria per- Bingo) and packaging materials refocus the business on our core fectly: it is a global leader in its field, (Innovia Films). The firm typically UK activities to strengthen our posi- it has a niche position in industry invests in firms to unlock their Thales Optics Ltd tion as a large systems integrator with significant growth potential growth potential and then 3–5 Thales Optical Coatings Ltd and equipment and services and enjoys long and established years later either sells them on or provider in defence and security. relationships with its large cus- floats them on the stock exchange. GERMANY This divestment will provide fur- tomer base,” explained Cyril Zivré, A spokesman for Candover told Thales Optische Systeme GmbH ther considerable financial director of Candover. OLE that it would be “business as resources for both organic and Since its formation in 1980 Can- normal” for Thales HTO cus- HUNGARY external expansion in such areas.” dover has invested in 125 buyouts tomers, but that the unit will be Thales Hungaria Optikai Rendszered Candover is a private equity worth a total of over 825 bn in changing its name in the future to KFT organization that specializes in sectors as diverse as publishing reflect its new ownership. AWARDS Optical scientists land Nobel prize The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics Glauber is credited with estab- quency combs. has been awarded to three scientists lishing the basis of quantum optics Frequency combs are generated working in the field of optics. One by showing how quantum theory by sending femtosecond laser half of the SEK10 m (81.07 m) has to be formulated to describe pulses down an optical fibre result- prize goes to Roy Glauber of Har- the detection of photons. ing in a series of regularly spaced, vard University in the US “for his Glauber’s work clarified the fun- discrete emission lines extending contribution to the quantum the- damental differences between the optical frequencies into the ory of optical coherence”. thermal light sources such as light near-infrared. The remaining SEK5 m will be bulbs, which have a mixture of fre- These frequency combs have split by John Hall from the Univer- quencies and phases, and coherent been used to probe the fine struc- sity of Colorado in the US and sources of light such as lasers and ture of atoms and the properties of Theodor Hänsch of the Ludwig- quantum amplifiers. atomic nuclei, as well as to develop Larry Harwood, University of Colorado Maximillians University in Ger- Hall and Hänsch, meanwhile, a number of applications including John Hall from the University of Colorado. many for their “contributions to the have been recognized for their extremely accurate atomic clocks development of laser-based preci- work on using lasers to carry out and improved GPS technology.