Photonics West exceeds expectations, breaks attendance record
The first Photonics West conference (San Jose, CA) was a success, attracting record attendance, according to organizer SPIE (Bellevue, WA). More than 7000 people attended the seven-day conference, which included several separate symposia: Biomedical Optics (BiOS), Lasers and Applications and Optoelectronic and Micro-Optical Devices (OE/LASE), and Electronic Imaging. Exhibitors were generally pleased; those who remembered last year`s dismal turnout for OE/LASE in Los Angeles were pleasantly surprised, commenting that it "was definitely worth being here this year." Attendees responded positively to the breadth of the technical papers and product displays, which resulted from SPIE`s intent to create an interactive environment for the show and to demonstrate the industry`s evolution toward integrated technologies.
Among the products introduced at Photonics West was the Coherent (Santa Clara, CA) Sabre large-frame ion laser, which is the first high-power ion laser to incorporate a sealed- mirror tube. The device delivers 25 W all-lines visible and 7 W all-lines UV and is tunable from 330 nm to visible wavelengths. Exhibiting at the conference for the first time was Gateway Photonics (St. Louis MO), a company established to meet the diode-laser needs of original equipment manufacturers who were previously customers of McDonnell Douglas. "Our long-term goal is to reinstitute a high-volume, low-cost production line, similar to that of McDonnell Douglas," said company founder Dana Marshall.