2010 Prism Award finalists revealed

11 Nov 2010

SPIE and Photonics Media announce short-list for awards night at Photonics West in January, with fiber laser and ultrafast technologies featuring among the nominations.

Nominations for the 2010 Prism Awards, the international competition for companies working in the photonics industry, have been announced by organizers SPIE and Photonics Media.

Each of the nine awards, in categories ranging from life science and biophotonics to defense and security, feature a short-list of three nominees, with the winners to be revealed at a gala dinner during SPIE’s Photonics West event in San Francisco next January.

Cutting-edge technologies
In all, 26 companies are represented, with Photonis USA the only company to gain two nominations – one in the “Information and Communications” category, and a second in “Life Science and Biophotonics”.

The short-list highlights the increasing influence of cutting-edge laser technologies, with fiber lasers and ultrafast technologies making a noticeable impact. Fiber laser vendor IPG Photonics is nominated in the “Industrial Lasers” category for its 1.5 kW quasi-continuous-wave source. In a category that reflects the wave of advanced lasers now emerging for materials processing applications, IPG will be up against Amplitude Systemes’ “Tangerine” ultrafast fiber laser, as well as the “Smart Light” ultrafast laser technology platform developed by US company Raydiance.

Similar themes are evident in the life sciences category. Genia Photonics is nominated for its picosecond fiber laser platform, which features adjustable pulse duration and output power, and will be challenging for the award along with JenLab and Photonis USA.

Winners will be announced at a gala dinner held in San Francisco on January 26, and the full list of nominees in their respective categories can be seen below (in alphabetical order):

2010 PRISM Award Finalists:

Defense and Security
• Block Engineering (LaserScan Defense)
• CVI Melles Griot (Xsquared ™ High Extinction Rate Polarizer)
• Headwall Photonics (Hyperspec Point and Stare Sensor)

Detectors, Sensing, Imaging, and Cameras
• Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation (Electronically Steerable Flash Lidar)
• General Electric (TrueSense Personal Water Analytics)
• Specim, Spectral Imaging Ltd. (Thermal hyperspectral imagers)

Industrial Lasers
• Amplitude Systemes (Tangerine)
• IPG Photonics (YLR-150 1500-QCW-AC)
• Raydiance (Smart Light Active Pulse Management)

Information and Communication
• * entrant disqualified *
• PHOTONIS USA (Optical Receiver Module)
• Pixel Qi Corporation (3Qi Screen)

Life Sciences and Biophotonics
• Genia Photonics (Synchronized Programmable Picosecond Fiber Laser)
• JenLab GmbH (MPTflex)
• PHOTONIS USA (Gen2 UltraFast™ Time-of-Flight Detector)

Optics and Optical Components
• Edmund Optics (TECHSPEC Plastic Hybrid Aspheric Lenses)
• Molecular Technology GmbH (Focal-piShaper Beam Shaping Optics)
• Semrock (VersaChrome Tunable Bandpass Filters)

Other Light Sources
• Energetiq Technology, Inc. (EQ-99 LDLS™ Laser-Driven Light Source)
• Innovations in Optics, Inc. (1240B-100 UltraViolet LED Projector)
• Texas Instruments DLP (DLP LightCommandar)

Scientific Lasers
• Coherent Inc. (Legend Elite Duo HP)
• EKSPLA (NT200 series nanosecond tunable wavelength lasers)
• MPB Communications/European Southern Observatory (Visible Raman Fiber Amplifier)

Test, Measurement, Metrology
• 4D Technology Corporation (PhaseCam Sq Dynamic White Light Interferometer)
• Anasys Instruments Corp (NanoIR)
• EXFO Life Sciences & Industrial Division (X-Cite XP750)