Years
Electro Optics
Benno Oderkerk, director and founder of Avantes, believes that finding skilled workers will be crucial for enabling growth
How does spectroscopy differ now to your predictions when Avantes first formed? When we started the company 23 years ago (1994), because of my background in sensor technology I believed that, in the end, a spectrometer would be nothing other than a smart sensor. It took over 20 years, but what you see
now is that spectroscopy is becoming a very common technology being applied in many different application fields as a kind of smart sensor.
When we first entered the field of
spectroscopy, spectrometers were large, benchtop laboratory instruments. Then, around 10 to 12 years ago, they became smaller, handheld devices that allowed scientists to take the lab to the sample. At first, it was a case of trying to convince – mainly the scientific world – that these portable instruments could work almost as well as the larger laboratory spectrometers. Nowadays, the questions are
completely different. People want to push the technology further – for example they want to integrate spectrometers onto a tractor, or for it to be robust enough to work in an automotive production environment. So, it took quite a while for the handheld
technology to be accepted. Then it took another period of time before spectroscopy was accepted as a ‘smart sensor’.
How has the operation of Avantes adapted to these technology developments? For Avantes there have been huge changes. We used to build our spectrometers in a very manual way, but nowadays we are focused on automated production techniques. So, we have robotic-type systems for producing spectrometers, because we cannot get employees trained fast enough to sustain our growth. The whole production area for Avantes is completely different to what it was even three or four years ago.
In the next three or four years, the challenges will be mainly in optimising our production process to build spectrometers automatically.
What will be the most significant developments in spectroscopy? What we already see now is what are called ‘fit for use’ devices, so tiny devices that are small enough to be integrated onto a chip. This introduces a whole new field of applications. You can imagine these kinds of sensors in wearable devices – like in a watch – or integrated into a phone. These chips would need to be at the right price point ($5-10) in order to realise these types of devices, but then you could use them
“There needs to be, within Europe, a lot of educational programmes that support photonics”
for all kinds of uses – for example health and environmental monitoring and food sensing. These kinds of applications will become available to the consumer market once spectrometers reach the right size and cost.
Will be the biggest driver for future growth? We see three basic target markets for our large OEM customers as being the largest drivers. One is medical applications, or critical
Dr Graeme Malcolm OBE, CEO and co-founder of M Squared Lasers, notes that businesses and governments must be prepared for the quantum age
When asked about the future of technology and computing, quantum is front-of-mind for those in the know. What’s little known by many outside
this group of people working closely in the quantum technology space, is that at the heart of the quantum revolution is the lesser-known photonics industry. Lasers and photonics tools have always been used in computers, but as they have increased in accuracy and capability, we have started to see much smaller-scale, quantum devices being developed. We can now use lasers to cool down atoms, and turn lattices of ‘entangled’ atoms into semiconductors with extraordinary processing powers, far removed from those of conventional computers. These come with a
14 Electro Optics December 2017/January 2018
whole new set of engineering challenges. Lasers have long been used in computers,
and many other technological devices we rely on today. The next revolution will see the realisation of increased accuracy, capability and speed. Conventional information processing is based on storing and processing data as bits, units of information that have two possible states, 0 and 1. Quantum computation similarly uses units of information that can be 0 or 1, but also a quantum-mechanical superposition of both at the same time, known as qubits. This will scale computing power exponentially. Early stage feasibility has been demonstrated
that, once truly scalable, these computers will transform our ability to solve problems that cannot be done with classical computers.
As Google, Microsoft and IBM are close to
creating quantum computers, very soon, digital industries will not be looking back and the transformative effects will be seen across many sectors, from financial services to medicine. But as the technology industry rapidly becomes more specialised and sophisticated, it’s less and less likely that businesses can find the skilled work they need unless there is a strategic response to the changing face of industry. Take my business – we need photonics specialists, and the vast majority of people walking through the door have PhDs in photonics or quantum physics. It’s only through close ties with industry that universities will be able to produce the next generation of specialists. Instead of teaching students code that
hasn’t been used in Silicon Valley for years, universities need to work with universities to identify the cutting edge of research, and to make sure they are providing students with the correct skills to reach this point. It’s not just upskilling the next generation and plugging the skills that collaboration between industry and academia will stimulate, but also the growth of the tech sector and
@electrooptics |
www.electrooptics.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
