Luna receives large purchase order for tunable lasers from robotics company

Luna Innovations Inc of Roanoke, VA, USA (which makes high-speed fiber-optic-based test products for the telecoms industry and distributed fiber-optic-based sensing products for the aerospace & defense and automotive industries) is to supply an “industry-leading” robotics company with a significant number of its Phoenix tunable lasers worth more than $6m, to be delivered over four years (with deliveries beginning this summer).

Designed with systems integration in mind and suited to a wide range of fiber-optic sensing instrumentation, the Phoenix is a miniaturized, tunable external-cavity laser offering high performance in a compact footprint, which provides improved scalability, ruggedness and speed compared with similar lasers on the market, it is claimed. These features are suited to robotics applications because they enable the maximum precision and repeatability needed to measure and control very fine movement.

Laser-based fiber-optic sensing systems are now widely deployed across many industries due to the benefits of optical fiber over traditional techniques in terms of precision and scalability. Advanced robotics increasingly relies on optical-based measurement systems as a core component. Luna says that the Phoenix laser delivers the high performance needed to maintain maximum precision and reliability for these applications.

“Luna’s collaboration with an industry-leading robotics company demonstrates how far our optical sensing technology has advanced,” says president & CEO Scott Graeff. “The technology has matured to the point where it is being used in precise applications – requiring the ultimate in performance, reliability and quality,” he adds. “From a commercialization standpoint, an order of this magnitude, combined with our existing platform, will allow us to achieve greater economies of scale on our existing and future products.”

Tags: Laser diodes

Visit: www.lunainc.com