SPIE Awards for New Products

The winners of the 2011 Prism Awards were recognized at Photonics West on January 25 at a gala banquet at SPIE’s Photonics West Conference. SPIE gives the award “to products that challenge conventional ideas, solve problems, and improve life through the generation and harnessing of light.”

The award winners were:

Physical Optics Corporation, in the category of Defense and Security, for their Mobile ELISA-based Pathogen Detection, a plug-and-play USB-powered biohazard detection system based on a disposable microfluidic chip for multiple-threat detection and a highly sensitive portable microfluidic fluorescence measurement unit.

MERMEC, in the category of Detectors, Sensing, Imaging, and Cameras, for their T-Sight 5000 diagnostic system, which is mounted to the front of high-speed trains and performs an in-depth inspection and analysis of tunnels and clearance profiles on railways, capturing image data of obstacles that may hinder the safe transport of rail passengers and cargo.

Nanoplus, in the category of Green Photonics and Sustainable Energy, for their DFB laser at 3 μm, designed for detection of molecular constituents in gas phase.

Amplitude Systèmes, in the category of Industrial Lasers, for their Satsuma HE, a compact, fiber laser designed to deliver ultrashort pulse duration (as low as 250 fs), high repetition rate (1 MHz or more), and high energy (up to 10 µJ).

89 North, in the category of Life Sciences and Biophotonics, for their Heliophor, a pumped-phosphor light engine for quantitative fluorescence miscroscopy.

Optotune, in the category of Optics and Optical Components, for their Laser Speckle Reducer, designed to reduce speckle contrast in laser illumination.

OEwaves, in the category of Other Light Sources, for their Ultra-Narrow Linewidth Laser, a narrow linewidth semiconductor laser designed to expand the range of advanced sensing and detection.

PD-LD, in the category of Scientific Lasers, for their LabSource, VBG-stabilized dual laser source, a dual-laser source designed for use in Shifted Excitation Raman Difference Spectroscopy (SERDS).

WITec, in the category of Test, Measurement, Metrology, for their True Surface Microscopy, designed to follow the surface topography with high precision, so that even rough or inclined samples stay in focus while performing confocal (Raman) imaging.