PanEuropean optoelectronics.

Anglia Components has signed a Pan-European distribution agreement with Isocom Components the leading manufacturer of high performance infrared optoelectronic devices. Anglia now stocks Isocom Components full range of cost effective opto isolators including equivalents for all the popular commercial industry standard types, including discontinued models.

LtoR:John Bowman, Anglia with
Karl Murray, Isocom Components

“Isocom Components is one of the most respected brands in the worldwide optoelectronic industry”, says John Bowman, Anglia’s Marketing Director. “We are very impresses by the short leadtimes that the company offers which is due to its expertise and flexible manufacturing processes, and Isocom Components can also carry out special parametric selections to meet customer’s specific circuit design requirements.”

Karl Murray, Sales and Marketing at Isocom Components adds: “We are excited to join Anglia, especially as they are now bringing their famed customer service – which is renowned in the UK and Ireland – to customers all across the EU. Anglia’s innovative supply chain programs, including sampling, 90-day credit and customer loyalty schemes fit well with Isocom Components technological advantage and customer support ethos.”

Isocom Components opto isolators are approved to the leading recognised industry standards and all devices are available in various lead forms and in tape and reel packaging. The company also offers optoswitches and solid state relays.

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@angliaLive  @BWW_Comms #Electronics #PAuto #Europe

Emitters, Detectors and LEDs for Wearables.

Marktech the designer and manufacturer of standard and custom optoelectronics components and assemblies, including UV, visible, near-infrared (NIR), and short wavelength infrared (SWIR) emitters, detectors, InP epiwafers and other materials, has announced its dedicated offerings for wearables.

Their standard and custom emitters and detectors, in both multi-wavelength and hybrid designs and in UV, visible, infrared, and SWIR ranges, are routinely specified within consumer- and hospital-grade flexible, stretchable and wearable devices. Some of the most common wearable applications supported by Marktech include consumer-grade fitness trackers; high-end cardiac, oxygen, and blood pressure monitors; audiological diagnostic devices, used to detect inner ear abnormalities and damage; non-invasive optical chemical sensing; and indoor/outdoor UV-level detection.

For wearable designs requiring more advanced onboard monitoring and detection capabilities, Marktech offers a number of multi-wavelength emitter-detector combinations. These combinations may be seamlessly integrated into a single package along with a multi-wavelength range detector. In addition, their Silicon and InGaAs photodetectors may be similarly combined with its GaP Schottky UV photodiodes, creating an expanded spectral detection range of approximately 150 nm to 1750 nm. Optoelectronics assemblies are available in plastic, ceramic, and glass-to-metal (hybrid) package types. A number of options are also available to effectively address specialty requirements for hermetic sealing, temperature extremes, and humid or moisture-rich environments.

In addition, their high-brightness LEDs and LED emitters are routinely specified for wearable displays and remote physiological monitoring requirements. Standard LED emitters are offered in wavelengths from 280 nm to 1720 nm, with expanded wavelengths by special request. The LED emitters can be further optimized for low power consumption. Such optimizations can result in increased wearable device battery life, while still maintaining required output levels. The achievement of operating currents of 2 mA or less are also possible. In applications requiring the incorporation of a white LED, an assortment of color temperature and CRI are available, as well as lower-profile direct-attach (DA) type chip packages.

@marktechleds #Medical

Position direct-write laser application

One of the many varied and interesting research projects at the University of Southampton’s ORC (Optoelectronics Research Centre) (GB) involves direct UV laser writing of integrated optical circuits on specialised glass substrates and on its own patented ‘flat’ optical cable. With application potential from telecom network components through to lab-on-a-chip (LOC) biological and chemical sensors, the photonic circuits are produced with the help of nanometre level precision positioning systems and motion controls from Aerotech.

The types of optical components that are typically written into the substrates include curved or straight waveguides and splitters that channel light around the circuit; and Bragg gratings which can be used to measure the refractive index of fluids or other materials. These refractive index sensors are now built into complete optical microchip solutions for bio/chemical sensing by the ORC spin out company Stratophase Ltd. The basis principle involves passing a sample material over a sensing window and the wavelength of the light reflected from the Bragg grating confirms that its refractive index is within a certain band. With a typical sensitivity of one part in a million, these devices are proving an excellent solution for a wide range of commercial bio/chemical detection applications from sugar concentrations in foods, to toxin, virus and bacteria discovery for pharmaceuticals, and petro-chemical quality control processing.

When a similar UV writing process is directly applied to the special flat optical cable which is manufactured at the ORC, the potential for these types of sensors may be produced without the need to connect high loss pigtail connections between optical fibre and optical material substrates - and may be applied for multiple sensor solutions over extremely long distances for applications that could include biological and chemical monitoring in supply pipes and rivers. The work in this area is at an early stage but the potential outcome using such techniques may also lead to the ‘holy grail’ of producing complete active switching circuits for optical computing.

As opposed to more traditional photolithography mask processing methods for these types of devices, the direct write approach benefits from single-step integration and is consequently much faster and very adaptable for rapid prototyping/short production runs at reasonable costs. The basics of the direct writing process involves modifying the core layer material by manipulating the substrate under the focussed UV laser, so clearly the precision and dynamic performance of the positioning system is fundamental and an intrinsic ‘enabling technology’ for the success of the process.

The high power UV laser is directed through an interferometer to produce an intense dual beam interference pattern at the target area. During the writing process, its focal length is held constant and the overall positioning system flatness, derived from pitch, roll, yaw and Abbe errors from both X and Y axes, must maintain sub-micron tolerances. Furthermore, the writing process needs to be continuous as the core materials are adversely affected by heating, so the control of the UV lasers’ power and firing pattern is completely synchronised with the on-the-fly compound translation of the X and Y axes. This synchronisation is another key factor for the process and is carried out within the Aerotech controller by an advanced software feature called PSO or Position Synchronised Output.

PSO triggers the UV laser in real time during continuous motion, processing high speed encoder feedback in conjunction with XY position array information for the particular feature being written. In this way, not only is each feature held to nanometre level tolerances in all planes, but the accuracy and repeatability from feature to feature and the distance between them is also realised with fantastically high precision.

The positioning system used at the ORC is an Aerotech ABL9000 series air bearing stage complete with the A3200 Digital Automation Platform motion control system with FireWire® networked Ndrive linear stage amplifiers. With a 300 mm x 300 mm travel range, this brushless linear servomotor driven, ultra-high precision stage features a balanced air-on-air preload system for maximum stiffness and glass scale encoder feedback with an encoder resolution of just one nanometre. The H-bridge design maintains both axes and their respective encoders at the same level which co-locates the centrelines of mass, force and feedback - effectively ensuring that errors are minimised for best performance straightness and flatness. With dual linear motor driven Y axes and active yaw control, the ABL9000 is able to produce perfectly parallel scans, straight lines and interpolated curves over its entire working surface. Each axis is also factory calibrated by them against a laser interferometer with the error map information added to the controller. In operation this ensures optimum translation stage accuracy.

The combination of Aerotech’s BLM series brushless linear servomotors and HLe series linear servo amplifiers provide the smoothness and stability required for nanometre resolution positioning whilst ensuring the required high bandwidth, zero crossover distortion and ultra-quiet EMC characteristics which are essential for this application.

The A3200 Digital Automation Platform provides fully deterministic PC based motion control with advanced diagnostics, set-up and tuning features that ensure perfect results. As well as the PSO feature mentioned earlier, the A3200 includes trajectory generation with multi-block look ahead to minimise geometry errors in tight profiles by regulating the speed and/or the position on each axis. The ORC use G-code programming for their particular application but the A3200 is also equipped for programming in their own AeroBASICTM or in C, C++, and Visual Basic®. For complete application integration the optional Ncontrol® SDK software development kit may be used with Windows® based ActiveX components, C++, VB and .NET class libraries. There are also a number of advanced software and hardware features available to optimise throughput performance and further improve overall machine operation.

The complete system was supplied to the ORC on a customised granite base with an additional fixed bridge arrangement that provides a stable platform for the ORC supplied interferometer optical system. The scope of supply also included direct drive rotary and vertical lift stages with comparable resolution and precision that are used together for pre-alignment of the substrate. Full cable management was included in the design which greatly assisted commissioning at the ORC.

The excellent performance of the ABL9000 series has now been enhanced with Aerotech’s PlanarHD air bearing stage. The new stage is aimed at high throughput scanning and ultra-high precision step-and-settle applications found in semiconductor processing and other emerging MEMS/Nano technologies. The design features larger air bearing surfaces for improved load carrying and higher dynamic characteristics. A brief performance specification includes 2 m/sec scan velocity and peak acceleration to 5 g - with a positioning resolution of up to 0.25 nanometres, repeatability to 50 nanometres and accuracy to +/- 300 nanometres.