By Clinton Shaffer

Photonics West serves as the perennial indicator of market trends for the photonics and optics industries. At this years event, held last month in San Francisco, one of the pervasive themes I observed at both the technical conference and the exhibition was the increasing role photonics and optics are playing in the development of advanced biomedical technologies. That trend is poised to continue well into the future.

I touched on this topic in my article Executive Perspectives On The World Of Optics And Photonics, which recapped a special panel session held during Photonics West 2014. The majority of the C-level panelists representing some of the most prominent technology providers in the industry agreed that the medical and life science markets were key to their companies success in 2013 and would continue to be a major area of emphasis moving into 2014.

The strong connection between optics and photonics and the biomedical sector was a theme repeated at many of the booths I visited on the Photonics West exhibit floor. What follows is a sampling of noteworthy new components and systems from the show that are representative of the cutting-edge solutions available to OEMs in the medical and life science industries.

Part of the appeal of photonics technology in the biomedical industry is its ability to miniaturize designs, and Coherents BioRay lasers only 95 mm long and weighing in at less than 70 g are perfectly aligned with that concept. While they were designed for integration into small, point-of-care medical devices, they can also be used as a cost-effective alternative for instrumentation in life science research and diagnostic applications. The lasers low heat output (up to 50 mW) and focusing optics also contribute to easy integration. They are currently available at five visible wavelengths: 405 nm, 450 nm, 488 nm, 520 nm, and 640 nm.

Another interesting Coherent product tailored to biomedical applications was the Fidelity femtosecond fiber laser. Its short pulsewidths (sub-70 fs at 1055 nm) and high-power capacity make the Fidelity ideal for applications in optogenetics, a booming field of research in the biomedical industry. Used in conjunction with a tunable femtosecond laser, the long wavelengths from the Fidelity can be used to activate specific groups of neurons, while the tunable laser interrogates others.

An additional application for Fidelity is second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging for preclinical purposes. The lasers wavelength is long enough for deep tissue penetration, but not so deep that the backscattered SHG is too weak.

The 6-watt LS-6 light source from Excelitasis another compact photonic product designed specifically for healthcare and life science applications. It generates light over a continuous spectrum, providing micro-second duration pulses ranging from UV to IR. Its broad range and high efficiency make it useful for applications like drug discovery, in-vitro diagnostics, proteomics, and absorption analysis, among others.

The LS-6 boasts an enhanced enclosure design, in which the flash lamp, power supply, and trigger circuit all reside within an electromagnetic interference (EMI) suppressant enclosure. In addition, the light source uses Xenon flash lamps, which are associated with high stability (<1 percent CV) and long lifetimes.

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Photonics And The Future Of Medicine