Industrial Optics

Avantier Inc. is a premier provider of industrial optics for enterprises worldwide. Optics are foundational to advancements in semiconductor, laser, and machine vision technologies, as well as in material science and environmental monitoring. In semiconductor manufacturing, precision optics enable the intricate patterning and inspection processes essential for creating increasingly smaller and more powerful chips. Lasers, fundamentally optical devices, rely on advanced optics for beam shaping, delivery, and control, driving innovations in manufacturing, medicine, and communication. Machine vision systems depend heavily on optics for image capture, processing, and analysis, empowering automation, quality control, and robotics across industries. These sectors collectively represent a significant driving force for optical innovation and development.

Advancing Material Science and Environmental Monitoring Through Optics

Optics play a critical role in advancing materials science and environmental monitoring. In materials science, precision optics are essential for characterization techniques such as microscopy, spectroscopy, and diffraction, enabling researchers to probe the structure and properties of materials at the atomic and molecular levels. This drives innovation in fields like nanotechnology, energy materials, and biomaterials. In environmental monitoring, optical sensors and imaging systems are indispensable for detecting pollutants, measuring air and water quality, and tracking climate change. Additionally, they play vital roles in agriculture, such as in drones for crop monitoring and soil analysis.

Avantier contributes by developing specialized optical components, sensors, and optical systems that enable accurate, real-time analysis of environmental technical applications.

The Role of Optics in Industrial Manufacturing

In recent years manufacturing has been transformed by the adoption of optics in new and innovative ways. Optics can be used both to enhance existing manufacturing workflows and open new frontiers. Contactless probing and processing enable factories to view, elucidate, and even change the properties of a component from a distance or from the other side of an isolating window. Scanning machinery can provide a bird’s eye view of extremely large areas, and light can guide automated tools to work precisely in minuscule parts.

Types of Industrial Optics Produced By Avantier

At Avantier, we are well-equipped to both design and manufacture high quality optics for a wide range of industrial purposes. From rapid prototyping to small scale production to volume production, our firm has the flexibility to get it done. We produce both optics used for inspection and control as well as those that act directly on a product to change its properties and complete a step in manufacturing. Industrial optics produced by Avantier include:

Fiber optics
Optical sensors for remote sensing and infrared sensors for drones
Custom Optics for Machine Vision Cameras
Metrology equipment
Laser materials processing assemblies
Photolithography assemblies

Optics underpins the accuracy and precision of numerous metrology, sensing, and encoder instruments. Interferometry, a technique leveraging light interference, enables incredibly precise measurements of length and distance. Optical sensors detect and measure physical quantities such as temperature, pressure, and displacement with high sensitivity. Encoders, crucial for position feedback in control systems, often employ optical principles to generate digital signals corresponding to angular or linear displacement. The integration of optics into these instruments has revolutionized measurement capabilities across various industries, from manufacturing to scientific research.

Examples of Industrial Optics in Action

Photolithography involves using light to create precisely patterned thin films over a substrate (often silicon). This protects the substrate during later implantation, deposition, or etching steps. Either ultraviolet, deep ultraviolet, extreme ultraviolet, or X-ray light may be used; the type of light used is chosen based on the minimum feature size required.

Since lithography can create precise, very small patterns (patterns that might be just 20 nanometers in size) it is used in the production of microprocessors, solid-state memory and other microelectromechanical systems.

Laser materials processing is another example of industrial optics in action, and can be used in applications ranging from macroscopic processing (such as metal drilling) to micromachining of parts from 1 mm down to 1 μm and even submicron processing (typically of semiconductors). Industrial laser processing is a rapidly growing field, and optical advancements are enabling higher precision results with near-polished quality.

Optical-based metrology includes interferometry, spectroscopy, fiber-optic and integrated-optics-based optical micro sensors, as well as video and microscopy systems. Optical metrology can provide real-time feedback and is, by its nature, both nondestructive and contactless. The market for optoelectronic sensing equipment is fast growing, and the development of smarter sensors and more 3D imaging solutions is currently underway.

Avantier’s Industrial Optics Design and Customized Solution

Optical engineers and designers at Avantier have over five decades of experience producing industrial optics. We produce the highest quality and cost saving components, as well as optical systems used for both manufacturing processes and the control of manufacturing. We partner with large enterprises that need dependable volume production, as well as small businesses and individuals who require a single specialized part or assembly. We can work with you at any stage of the process, from concept design through prototyping and ultimately to production to meet each of the requirements for research and development. Please contact us for more information on our optical manufacturing capabilities.