|
Ocean Optics - Inventor of the World's First Miniature Spectrometer
|
|
Ocean Optics is the
world leader in solutions for optical sensing. We enable
diverse applications in medical and biological research, environmental
monitoring, life science, science education and entertainment lighting
and display. Our extensive line of complementary technologies includes
spectrometers, chemical sensors, metrology instrumentation, optical
fibers and thin films and optics. Recognized as the inventor of miniature
fiber optic spectroscopy, we’ve sold over 130,000 spectrometers
worldwide since 1992.
 Background
Ocean Optics began in 1989, when University
of South Florida researchers developed a
fiber optic pH sensor as part of an instrument designed to study the role
of the oceans in global warming. They soon formed Ocean Optics, Inc., and
their ingenious work earned a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. While designing the
pH-monitoring instrument, the researchers wanted to incorporate with their
sensor a spectrometer small enough to fit onto a buoy and were surprised
to discover none existed. So, they built their own. In 1992, the founders
of Ocean Optics filled a substantial need in the research community and
changed the science of spectroscopy forever by creating a breakthrough
technology: a miniature fiber optic spectrometer nearly 1,000 times
smaller at 1/10 the cost of previous systems.
By April 1992, just 30 days after the
successful completion of Phase II of the SBIR grant, Ocean Optics, Inc.
introduced the S1000 -- "The World's First Miniature Fiber Optic
Spectrometer." As a result of the dramatic reduction in size and cost of
optical sensing systems, applications once deemed too costly or
technologically impractical using conventional spectrometers were not only
feasible, but practical.
Now almost 15 years later, we've placed
almost 100,000
systems worldwide and enabled thousands of different applications -- from
cancer detection and color matching to plasma monitoring and particle size
analysis. Our spectrometers have been specified everywhere from research
vessels in the Gulf of Mexico to the Mars rover.
Markets Served
Ocean Optics has developed a diversified set of manufacturing arts that
are essential to components in four key photonics segments: Optical
Sensing, Optical Networking, Display Optics and Biophotonics. Primary
markets include consumer electronics, process control, environmental
monitoring, life sciences and medical diagnostics. Our systems have been
used everywhere from in vivo to the ocean floor; on the Mars Rover and the
Mir space station; and in Florida's orange groves and South America's rain
forests.
Spectroscopic techniques supported include:
- UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy
- On-line spectroscopy
- Spectroradiometry
- Color spectroscopy
- Raman spectroscopy
- Fluorescence spectroscopy
- Fiber optic chemical sensing
- Spectral modeling
- Spectral imaging
Major Products/Services
- Fiber optic UV-VIS-NIR spectrometers
ranging from miniature, modular systems to process
analyzers
- Low-cost Raman spectrometers for process
control and other applications
- Fiber optic chemical sensors for
measuring oxygen and pH
- Patterned dichroic optical filters and
precision coatings for display and telecommunications applications
- Optical fibers, assemblies and probes
- Optical networking products, including
A/R coatings, spectrum analyzers and optical filters for DWDM
Locations
Ocean Optics is headquartered in Dunedin, FL., and has a full-service sales
office in The
Netherlands, Germany and China -- all supported by a worldwide network of distributors.
Manufacturing facilities are located in Orlando, FL., and Largo, FL.
For all Ocean Optics locations, click here.
|
