5. Industry Numbers – Public Photonics Companies
2009 2010
Revenue
($millions)
2,741,289 3,085,292
No. of Employees
(000s)
7159 7415
5
Public companies that are focused on
optics and photonics create more than
10% (>$3 trillion) of all U.S. public company revenues
and 6% (7.4 million) of public company jobs.
Source: Table 2.2 Optics and Photonics, Essential
Technologies for Our Nation. Data from 282 of the
285 unique public companies listed as members,
employers, or exhibitors by SPIE & OSA.
6. Communication
• Gigabit+ Internet
• Terabyte data storage
• Faster and smaller computing
6
IT and Telecom Industry:
• $4.7 trillion globally
• 6% of total world GDP
11. Defense
• Night vision goggles
• Laser range finders
• Secure optical communication
• Directed energy weapons
11
http://www.northropgrumman.com/Capabilities/ChemicalHighEnergyLaser/TacticalHighEnergyLaser/Pages/default.aspx
18. References & Acknowledgements
REFERENCES
• Harnessing Light committee of the National Research Council. (2012). Optics and
Photonics, Essential Technologies for Our Nation. Bellingham, WA: SPIE. Retrieved
from http://spie.org/Documents/AboutSPIE/PDF/HLII-OpticsandPhotonics.pdf
• National Photonics Initiative. (2013). Lighting The Path to a Competitive, Secure
Future. Bellingham, WA: SPIE. Retrieved from http://spie.org/Documents/AboutSPIE/
NPI-Lighting-the-Path_24May2013.pdf
18
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. F031543.
Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
• SPIE, OSA
• University of Michigan
• Graduate Committee of the Society of Women Engineers @ UM
• Dr. Michelle Stock
Good afternoon. My name is Elizabeth Cloos and I am from the University of Michigan where I am pursuing a PhD in Optics. Today I will explain to you about that marvelous thing called Light! And how the way we interact with light is changing our world and why we, as engineers, need to be aware of its impact on our lives and careers.
15 mins to talk, 5 mins for question
-- arrive 30 mins before event begins
Submit presentation by email to randi.rosenbluth@swe.org save as LT_Name by Monday at noon
Look around you – your phone, computer, TV – all are modern-day technologies made possible largely by photonics.
Optics and photonics are the science and application of light. Specifically, photonics generates, controls and detects particles of light to advance manufacturing, robotics, medical imaging, next-generation displays, defense technologies, biometric security, image processing, communications, astronomy and much much more.
Simply put, photonics is addressing and solving the challenges of a modern world. It enhances our quality of life; safeguards our health, safety and security; and drives economic growth, job creation and global competitiveness.
Photonics is an emerging technology just like electronics was last century. Back then few people knew about electronics but today everyone knows that they enable the high-tech world. Photonics is what is enabling this century.
Optics and Photonics has a long history in our nation. In the early 1900s, optics in America came to life in Rochester, NY in the research labs of Eastman Kodak and Bausch & Lomb. Now, photonic technologies are being developed in every state of the union and are in every single work place and home. Photonics is essential to technological progress here and around the entire world.
Photonics enables progress in many industries, but I would like to highlight 5 specific ones here today: Communications, Manufacturing, Health Care, Defense and Energy.
But first, a few numbers to give you a sense of magnitude.
Public companies that focus on optics and photonics employ over 7.4 MILLION people and make over $3 trillion per year in revenues. These companies comprise less than 2% of the 17,000 public companies in the U.S. If photonics already has this much of an economic impact, imagine what the future holds. Let me show you a bit of what that future looks like.
The first major enabled industry might be the most obvious: Communication. Photonics has increased the capacity of the Internet by nearly 10,000-fold over the past two decades. This has enabled music streaming, video conferencing, and increased data sharing. It is why we no longer have to listen to dial-up internet. As a child of dial-up, I am very thankful for this.
Along with increased data transfer, optics makes increased data storage and faster and smaller computing possible. Companies like IBM are now working to integrate photonics into the actual computers themselves which could open the doors to Terabit or higher download speeds (http://www.extremetech.com/computing/142881-ibm-creates-first-cheap-commercially-viable-silicon-nanophotonic-chip#disqus_thread)
The future for this industry is to increase network capacity by 100 fold. Photonics will make this happen by improving all aspects of the network, by bringing optical fiber to every home, and switching all data transfer to optical links.
For NASA, the future of communication is already here. They recently launched the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) satellite which is now orbiting the moon and communicating to the earth via an infrared laser. The use of a laser enables “speed of light” communication at rates up to 622 megabits per second with detectors as small as half a meter in diameter. This is the future, brought to you by optics.
The next enabled industry is manufacturing. Laser processing of materials has enabled more efficient cutting, drilling, sintering, and welding of materials for industrial use. It has sped up automated manufacturing processes and have reduced material waste.
Optics has also enabled nanofabrication by using lasers to precisely fabricate nanoscale features through lithographic techniques. This enables even smaller integrated circuits and microelectromechanical systems. The challenge moving forward is to decrease the size of the features even further but optics is moving in that direction through innovative focusing techniques.
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On the flip side of laser cutting is laser sintering. In 2014, a key patent on laser sintering is going to expire and we are going to see an explosion of 3D printing (http://qz.com/106483/3d-printing-will-explode-in-2014-thanks-to-the-expiration-of-key-patents/), printing that will produce goods that can be sold as a finished product rather than the novelties produced by fused-deposition based 3D printers. This is only the beginning.
http://spie.org/Documents/resources/Free%20Posters/Photonics-Healthcare-Poster-2012-lr.pdf
The third industry is health care. It is obvious that optics improves the quality of lives by the use eye glasses. But, optics enables a lot more than vision. Advanced optical techniques are allowing us to see and treat the body is a way never seen before. We now can: 1. detect cancer by measuring the increased oxygen around a tumor, 2. overcome the winter blues with a “happy” lamp, 3. whiten teeth, 4. correct vision permanently with LASIK, and even 5. get blood sugar level without using a needle.
Materials used to interface with the human body are also improving. Researchers at Tufts University can make biocompatible optics from silk of a silkworm. They boil regular silk thread and purify the protein in it and pour it into a mold. The resulting optic is both biocompatible and biodegradable.
One supposed application for the silk optics is to determine if food products have been tainted by bacteria. A silk optic material can detect the presence of the bacteria, and change colors if it is present. And because it is made of silk, it doesn’t matter if the sensor is accidentally consumed along with the food product, say in a bag of store-bought spinach.
This is optics. This is the future.
The next major industry that optics is involved in is the Defense industry.
When US soldiers step onto the battlefield, their safety and ability to efficiently carry out their mission rests largely on optics and photonics technology. Soldiers carry night vision goggles to see in the dark; they use laser range finders and target designators to direct weapons precisely; they determine the location of hostile forces using high-resolution images acquired from drones; and they utilize high-speed, secure, optical communications to receive intelligence from control centers sometimes thousands of miles away. The ability to gather and transfer information quickly can be the deciding factor in times of conflicts. As such, current and future US superiority in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (IRS) and high-power laser capability is, and will continue to be, determined by photonic technologies.
While defense needs are unique, the advanced technologies developed to meet those needs can be leveraged to drive new generations of high-tech commercial applications: highspeed, secure Internet; faster and more powerful computers and mobile devices; advanced medical imaging, diagnostics and treatments; enhanced environmental sensing; and lightweight and portable sources of renewable energy. Coordinated investment and associated technology development in remote sensing, photonic integrated circuit manufacturing, advanced lasers, and cybersecurity will help ensure future military and economic security.
One specific optical advantage is EOTech’s Holographic weapon sites. The holographic site projects a 3D image of a reticle onto the target plane. There is no actual dot being projected on your target. You eye only perceives it to be there. These unique optics can range and aim on one screen that can be seen with both eyes open. By being able to quickly acquire targets and maintain a full field of view, these optics enable quick assessment of dangerous situations and keep our law enforcement and soldiers safe.
Lastly, there is the energy industry. The impacts of optics on energy is really best split into three parts.
First, energy generation is being revolutionized by solar power. There is enough power from the sun to power the whole world many times over. All we need to do is capture and store it. Engineers are developing more efficient solar cells and solar collectors that will power homes, cars, and anything connected to the grid. Potential new energy sources based on Nuclear fusion like at the National Ignition Facility, which is ignited by high-power lasers, also offer the potential for clean, safe, abundant energy in the future.
Second is in the usage of energy. Solid-state lighting, such as LEDs, developed through photonics research, could cut US lighting electricity usage by about 45 percent by 2030. In electronics more efficient displays mean better battery usage and in your homes it means less energy wasted and less money spent.
Lastly, photonics are helping out long established energy industries. Fiber optic sensors in oil pipelines can immediately detect leakages.
Optics has completely changed the energy industry and will continue to do so.
Now that we know that optics is enabling the future, what can we do about it? Well, there are two really neat initiatives to help advance the effects of optics and photonics even more.
The first is a global initiative called “The International Year of Light”. It purpose is to highlight the importance of light and light-based technologies and promote improved public and political understanding of the central role of light in the modern world. The International Year of Light is supported by 100 partners from more than 85 countries, coordinated by the European Physical Society and already has UNESCO endorsement. The United Nations General Assembly will soon be voting on its adoption.
The second is called the “National Photonics Initiative” and is a collaborative alliance among industry, academia and government seeking to raise awareness of photonics. The goal is to drive US funding and investment in key photonics-driven fields critical to US competitiveness and national security. Much of this presentation is based off of material from their website of lightourfuture.org.
I hope I have peaked your interest today in the study of light. If you want to learn more about the photonics industries or the physics of light, I encourage you to check out the societies listed here. Each of them have educational resources about optics and photonics and ways to connect with your local optics and photonics industry.Optics4Kids.org is a great basic optics outreach demonstration site and Photonics.com provide industry-level news where you can subscribe to their magazine Photonics Spectra for free.
In summary, optics and photonics are changing the world by enabling advancements in communications, manufacturing, health care, defense, and energy. This advancement is being driven by new global and national initiatives. As engineers, we have a huge role in this future in terms of technological advancement and advocacy.
I encourage each and every one of you to think about how optics and photonics can enable your industry. Light is already shaping our technological future. The question now is just how is it going to shape yours?
Analyze the enabling power of light in other industries. Develop a broad understanding of optics and photonics technologies.