Optical Sensors

The optical detection devices and systems invented and prototyped at PARC range from miniaturized differential refractometers, to wavelength-encoded optical sensors, to novel flow cytometers, to hyperspectral cameras. We leverage our deep in-house expertise in microsystems, electronics, light emitters, software and algorithms to develop custom optical sensors and detection systems.

The core inventions used in PARC’s optical detectors are usually clever combinations of hardware and software, merged to achieve uncompromised or improved detector performance while reducing hardware size, cost and complexity. These detectors are commonly used for various applications and therefore embedded into different measurement systems. For example, PARC’s wavelength shift detector has been demonstrated in a broad variety of applications for Fiber-Bragg grating readout and for picometer wavelength determination of individual laser pulses and for optical calorimetry.

In these applications, PARC provides not only the customized proprietary sensors and detection systems, but also helps the users of these systems evaluate and understand the data. We always draw from a large pool of experience when applying our optical sensors, newly developed or well established, to new sensing applications.