Amplitude, a long-time strategic investor in the French startup GLOphotonics, is pleased to welcome Trumpf and DMG-MORI as new partners in the company. GLOphotonics develops hollow-core fibers for low-loss delivery of high energy ultrafast laser pulses. This promising technology is already integrated in our main product offering and has the potential to significantly reshape the ultrafast laser micro-processing landscape.
Satsuma fiber-coupled femtosecond laser
Amplitude believes in the power of collaboration and openness in the photonics industry and is looking forward to working with its new partners to bring this new technology to the market.
Orlando, FL – September 28, 2017 – The Laser Institute of America (LIA) announces the technical program and conference highlights for the 36th annual International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO®). Industry visionaries, technical specialists, researchers, end users, and equipment manufacturers will convene at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, to explore advances in laser applications happening today in a wide variety of industries October 22-26.
“I am honored to have worked with the most innovative minds in laser applications to bring ICALEO’s program to life,” said congress general chair, Christoph Leyens, of TU Dresden and the Fraunhofer IWS in Dresden, Germany.
The opening plenary session explores medical and climate applications while giving a glimpse at new laser tools. The session will surely push the limits regarding traditional views of laser applications:
Mark Schnitzer, an associate professor at Stanford University, and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, works in neural circuit dynamics and optical imaging. His optical innovations are used to further neuroscience studies worldwide.
University of Colorado department of physics professor, Dr. Henry C. Kapteyn, builds new tabletop “x-ray laser” light sources and helps develop corresponding applications.
Jeff Deems is a researcher at CIRES, the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado where he also serves as the liaison for the NASA Airborne Snow Observatory. Deems specializes in laser mapping snow packs and developing lidar applications for avalanche forecasting and climate applications.
To close ICALEO, Dr. Leyens has invited plenary speakers from two groups that are spearheading adoption of additive manufacturing.
The accelerated certification of additively manufactured metals initiative director at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is Dr. Wayne King. He will discuss how his team is leading the transition from conventional manufacturing methods to metal additive manufacturing.
Florian Bechmann, head of Engineering & Technology (Concept Laser brand) at GE Aviation will explore technologies that advance manufacturing of jet engines and other airplane components using new tools such as additive manufacturing.
ICALEO has a strong emphasis on Laser Materials Processing and in recent years technical presentations have integrated additive manufacturing, often known as 3D Printing, with traditional subtractive technologies like cutting, drilling, and marking, as well as with welding, inspection and optical analysis. Sessions delving into the specifics of laser applications were organized by:
Laser Materials Processing Conference Co-Chairs: Klaus Kleine, Coherent Inc. and Friedhelm Dorsch, TRUMPF Laser- und Systemtechnik GmbH
Laser Microprocessing Conference Co-Chairs: Michelle Stock, mlstock consulting and Cather Simpson, University of Auckland
Nanomanufacturing Conference Chair: Yongfeng Lu, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Additionally, the conference offers a number of casual opportunities to meet new colleagues, connect with old friends, and share knowledge. From the opening music-filled Welcome Celebration, to the President’s Reception, and the Vendor Reception, ICALEO offers a wealth of fun networking events.
“ICALEO serves as a great platform for learning and networking,” said Gus Anibarro, LIA Education director. “You don’t get this kind of crowd anywhere else in the world. The attendees are made up of top-tier laser scientists and educators.”
The LIA Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon to be held on Wednesday, October 25, will be a highlight of the community. This year the prestigious Arthur L. Schawlow Award will be presented to Dr. Paul Seiler, former managing director of TRUMPF Laser GmbH. The recognition is in honor of his pioneering work utilizing lasers in machine tools for industrial applications. Dr. Seiler joins luminaries in the field of lasers including Milton Chang, Reinhart Poprawe, and Steven Chu, who were past recipients.
No conference in this day and age can be successful without sponsorships. IPG Photonics Corporation; EdgeWave GmbH; Innovative Laser Solutions; SPI Lasers; TRUMPF Inc.; Laserline Inc.; Light Conversion Ltd.; Lumentum; and Spectra-Physics, A Newport Company, have all demonstrated a commitment to furthering laser utilization in real-world applications by supporting ICALEO.
The Laser Institute of America (LIA) is the professional society for laser applications and safety serving the industrial, educational, medical, research and government communities throughout the world since 1968. www.lia.org, 13501 Ingenuity Drive, Suite 128, Orlando, FL 32826, +1.407.380.1553.
The 35th International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO®) took place at the Sheraton® San Diego Hotel and Marina this October, 2016. With a highly engaged group of attendees and a great mix of veterans in the field, students and new attendees, ICALEO met its goals of bridging the gap between academia and industry, highlighting new developments in laser technology, and providing a platform for global networking.
“This year’s ICALEO exceeded all expectations once again,” said Jim Naugle, Marketing Director of LIA. “The great location helped increase attendance from 2015. With 415 attendees from 20 different countries, with around 80 percent from academia and 20 percent from industry, you can see why this conference is so unique.”
Congress Technical Highlights Congress General Chair Silke Pflueger put together unquestionably the best plenary talks ever delivered at an ICALEO conference so far.
Nina Lanza from Los Alamos National Laboratory linked all humanity together in her opening plenary talk about the laser riding around in a vehicle on Mars. Since 2012, the laser in the ChemCam instrument aboard the Mars Science Lab ‘Curiosity’ rover has brought Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis capabilities and chemical analysis data back to Earth. Along with a Remote Micro Imaging camera, the ChemCam data has provided good signs for habitability of the planet. With its small 350-500 µm spot size, it is able to measure features up to 7 meters away from the rover and ablates material to perform depth sampling by pulsing, revealing “big results” that smectite clays are present underneath the red rocks on the surface of Mars and that dust all over the planet is hydrated. It is also showing the presence of methane, indicating that Mars is not a dead planet; it is active and full of surprises.
Next, Jim McBride from Ford Motor Company talked about the challenges of sensing on fully autonomous vehicles. Ford is developing a fleet of vehicles where a driver has no responsibility of driving, with the goal of having commercially available fully autonomous vehicles in 2021 and cost affordable vehicles in 2026. He explained the three types of sensors used on autonomous vehicles: Radar, cameras and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanners. He showed videos of the Ford Fusion Hybrid research vehicle driving completely autonomously on a recent successful 125 mile highway test through the Arizona/California desert using only the LiDAR scanners to image surroundings in a 360 degree view around the car at all times.
McBride showed how 95-99 percent of autonomous driving can be done with input from LiDAR scanners alone. Reading what he calls the pavement’s unique fingerprint: manhole covers, lane markings, tar strips, cracks and all details in a road, localizing the vehicle, the road, and obstacles, centering it within a few cm on the road, tracking obstacles and avoiding collisions is simple for LiDAR. Its data is overlaid on top of high definition 3D maps with road data that has the rules of the road, crosswalks, road signs and other important features, to make sure the road is traversable, using prior knowledge to identify what’s coming ahead and difficult topologies. It has its own light source and isn’t susceptible to shadows and the sun, unlike monocular cameras. And it is much better at tracking other vehicles than with Radar alone, which is noisy. Redundancy helps filter out echoes from challenges such as snow or heavy rain that may obscure the ground plane. With real-time planning without GPS, the laser scanners calculate where to go. But, there are some areas where it doesn’t suffice.
Sensor fusion helps in challenging situations: high closing velocities on two-lane highways when it’s hard to see objects coming, adverse weather and lighting, snow obscuring optics preventing the laser from making it to the ground plane, road debris, and human-negotiated arrangements like four-way stops and merge ramps. In merge scenarios with line of sight issues, sensing has to look in 360 degrees. When turning left or accelerating on a highway on ramp, thousands of possible trajectories are calculated, looking back in time for decision making. But, when fusing LiDAR scanners with other sensors, each still sees only part of the picture.
Albert Lazzarini, Deputy Director of LIGO Laboratory at California Institute of Technology presented the exciting new results about black holes made from the first gravitational waves detected by LIGO. The system involves an extremely stable laser injected into a complex cavity of a Fabry-Perot interferometer with ultra-pure super-polished suspended mirrors coated with forty quarter-wave layers to have reflectivity better than five 9’s. Servo-controlled ground isolations systems stabilize, attenuate and filter out ground motion with input from seismometers, so the laser light that makes about 140 bounces per second is sensitive enough to be considered a transducer for gravitational waves at the output of the interferometer.
All LIGO science data is publicly available on the center’s open website, and since it came online, a total of three events have been observed that are bringing new information – that black holes in binary systems exist. Two identical signals were seen simultaneously by systems in two locations in eastern Washington State and near Baton Rouge in Louisiana. After correcting for differences in orientation and background noise and removing the few-second offset between the locations, it was determined that the gravitational wave signal seen here on Earth corresponded to events that occurred 1.4 billion years ago between two black holes of 29 and 36 solar masses respectively. Signals show how they behave when they interact and provide an estimate of where the event was located in the universe.
Laser Materials Processing (LMP) Conference Technical Highlights The LMP Conference, chaired by Christoph Leyens from Fraunhofer IWS, brought together laser, manufacturing and materials science disciplines and presented talks on laser drilling, cladding, cutting, welding, additive manufacturing/3D printing and materials for lightweight construction.
A highlight of the lightweight construction talks was about carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), which are used in many industrial sectors. Sven Bluemel from Laser Zentrum in Germany presented information that will help optimize laser cutting processes in his talk Time Resolved Analysis of Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Processing of CFRP (LMP8-803). Bluemel synchronized a CMOS camera and strobe light with a fiber guided nanosecond pulsed laser to analyze the plasma plume during laser cutting of 3D CFRP parts with different processing parameters. Analysis of pictures of the cutting process and resulting plume showed how the plume varied with pulse energies and changed during processing so ablation thresholds and process boundaries could be set.
Ti6AL4V is the major industrial alloy used in aerospace, medical implants, automotive fuel nozzles and many other applications, and many talks and posters mentioned 3D printed devices using its power feedstock. Dirk Herzog from Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, spoke about how different powder feedstocks affect the quality of parts produced by laser melting or laser fusion in his talk Relationship between Powder Characteristics and Part Properties in Laser Beam Melting of Ti6AL4V and Implications on Quality (LAM1-705). His work characterized the three forms of Ti6AL4V powders IGA, PA and ICP, from several manufacturing sources by SEM, particle size distribution, chemical composition and flowability from five different methods that test static and dynamic states. He created laser beam melted parts and measured properties such as density, static strength, yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, elongation and Vickers hardness. He found that all three powders produced dense specimens and can be used, and he presented the differences between them and made recommendations.
Laser Microprocessing (LMF) Conference Technical Highlights “2016 was another great year for the Microprocessing Conference,” said LMF Conference Chair Michelle Stock, from mlstock consulting. “We heard about applications as diverse as wearable electronics and writing skin by 3D printing cells with ultrafast lasers. We gained more insight into how to improve processing speed and precision with new beam delivery and beam shaping techniques.”
A highlight in the smart and wearable gadget area was Alan Conneeley’s invited talk Laser Micromachining of Contactless RF Antenna Modules for Payment Cards and Wearable Objects (LMF5-M501) involving work at the National University of Ireland in Galway. Conneely presented several successful applications of laser ablation for next generation contactless payment cards and flexible wearable devices. Antennas were formed from copper laminated epoxy tape on plastic and flexible substrates as well as on copper PCBs. Laser processing allowed much smaller resolution antenna features to be designed and fabricated compared to chemically etching copper. New antenna designs using this process have a higher density of turns in a given area enabling contactless cards and payment systems to meet design goals for Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) industry standards.
Two talks on how lasers interact with transparent materials were another conference highlight. Thomas Hermann from Photonik-Zentrum Kaiserlautern, Germany spoke about a new laser technique to modify the surface of bulk glass in his talk Selective Glass Surface Modification with Picosecond Laser Pulses for Spatially Resolved Gloss Reduction (LMF4-M402). Specular gloss, sheen and haze are important in devices such as automotive headlamps and mobile screens. His work investigated how the surfaces change with single, double and more than two pulses per location, pulse energy, line distance and the influence of substructures. He demonstrated that glass with dramatic gloss reduction by direct laser structuring still had high transmission, and the process uses no chemicals, no masking, is fast and flexible, and leaves sharper features on the surface compared to chemical etching.
In another transparent material talk, Geoffrey Lott from Electro Scientific Industries in Portland, Oregon, covered Enhanced Drilling of Transparent Materials with Ultrashort Laser Pulses (LMF4-M407) and found that using a water bath improved the taper while performing bottom-up percussion drilling of sapphire. In addition to optimizing the laser-only ablation process, the back side only water bath removed ablated material that was recast onto the sidewalls more efficiently than drilling without one, reducing the biggest process limitation, and allowing higher maximum drilling depths. The water bath’s enhanced debris removal through capillary action also removed the taper and any dependency on drilling speed, so the process was demonstrated on CT90 glass as well with similar excellent results.
With numerous talks on battery applications this year, one of the most well-attended talks was Joanna Helm’s from Fraunhofer ILT, Connecting Battery Cells by Aluminum Ribbon Bonding using Laser Micro Welding (LMF8-M802). She presented her work that integrated a laser welder with a conventional wire bonder complete with automated ribbon supply and integrated cutter for high speed, efficient bonding when connections to large numbers of battery cells are needed. She demonstrated initial results of connecting 6082 aluminum alloy ribbon with two welds on the two poles of a battery pack using an SPI 400 W fiber laser with different process variables such as weld depths, weld lines, overlap, laser power and pulling angle. Mechanically robust connections were made, and characterization and optimization for defect reduction is ongoing.
Many talks featured medical applications, and Togo Shinonaga’s invited talk from Okyama University, Japan, Control of Surface Profile in Periodic Nanostructures Produced with Ultrashort Pulsed Laser (LMF6-M601) showed how creating structures on the surface of a biomaterial with lasers may eventually be able to control cell spreading. He demonstrated that cells aligned to grooves that were cut with 100-1000 nm periods in titanium plates, and determined the optimal laser properties for creating favorable directions, aspect ratios and heights of the channel structures.
Nanomanufacturing Conference Technical Highlights The Nanomanufacturing Conference, chaired by Professor Yongfeng Lu from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, had many talks on using lasers for nanoscale manufacturing, and had sessions on photovoltaics, advanced energy devices, battery materials and 2D materials.
Costas Grigoropoulos from the University of California Berkeley gave an invited talk, Laser-Assisted Processing of Layered Dichalcogenide Semiconductors (Nano1-N101) about their new laser-assisted doping process that allows high performance devices to be fabricated from ultra-thin films of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). The laser-assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition process used multiple lasers at different wavelengths and standard dopant gases to dissociate gas molecules and create vacancies in the thin film to be doped. Thin film transistors were formed on a flexible polymeric substrate with single and bilayer flakes of MoS2 and single crystal WS2 and WSe2 materials as the active semiconductor channel. The successful doping process was selective and tunable, and device performance was reliable and stable for months.
Another invited talk addressed the topic of 3D IC fabrication, important as more microelectronic devices become smaller, lightweight and lower power. Koji Sugioka spoke about his research team’s work at the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics in Japan in his talk Tailored Femtosecound Bessel Beams for Fabrication of High aspect-ratio through Si Vias (Nano1-N102). To create small holes in 50 µm and 100 µm thick silicon that are taper free and almost taper free, the group used laser drilling in air with two different Binary Phase plates (BPP) that filter the bessel beam’s phase and reduce the amount of energy needed to fabricate TSVs. Compared to Gaussian-shaped beams and Bessel beams that used an Axicon lens alone, SEM images before and after cleaning confirmed the vias could be produced with superior profiles.
A well-attended talk from the Advanced Energy session on generating flexible printed “batteries” for the next generation of bendable, wearable and portable devices was given by Anming Hu: High Performance Hybrid Supercapacitors on Flexible Polyimide Sheets using Femtosecond Laser 3D Writing from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. He demonstrated writing 3D battery-style supercapacitor cells by laser radiating nanoparticles on Kapton insulator tape that produced porous carbonized structures that changed their conductivity from insulating to conducting. After charging to 3.7 V for 3 minutes, they powered 1 cm x 1 cm LEDs and retained 97 percent efficiency over 2000 cycles for more than a month, behaving similar to a coin-style battery.
Networking and Access to Industry Leaders ICALEO not only offers the industry’s most comprehensive technical content but also offers access to influential leaders at Fortune 500 companies across manufacturing industries in Automotive, Aerospace, Commercial Electronics, Communications, Medical Device, R&D and Semiconductors.
The Sunday Welcome Celebration, complete with music from the industry’s own Ron Schaeffer, Henrikki Pantsar and guest musician Matt Henry, and Monday night’s President’s Reception were well-attended opportunities to meet members of the LIA Executive Committee and Board of Directors, as well as connect with colleagues from around the world.
Dr. Kaushik Iyer, a first-time attendee from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Department, said the conference was the “perfect size, excellent content, global networking!” Mr. Christoph Mittelstädt from BIAS, Bremer Institut für angewandte Strahltechnik GmbH, said ICALEO is “one of the best technical conferences I attend all year!”
The Vendor Reception & Tabletop Display hosted a pavilion full of sponsors and vendors where Ken Dzurko, General Manager of SPI Lasers, said “LIA does a great job creating a comfortable, relaxed mood right for exchanging ideas at this one-of-a-kind event that’s really the world’s premier gathering of scientists interested in laser applications.”
Nikolas von Freyhold, Industrial Laser Product Manager from ICALEO sponsor JENOPTIK appreciates the fact that he can reach people who use lasers in both industry and academia at ICALEO. “This is a good place to spread the word about our application lab and interest in demonstrating what our newest femtosecond lasers can do,” he says.
Neil Ball, President of Directed Light, Inc. and newly-honored LIA Fellow, calls ICALEO “bar none, the best networking opportunity and the best opportunity to look forward and see what applications are on the horizon. As a laser professional and exhibitor, there is only one event on my calendar that is a must exhibit every year, and that would be ICALEO. Nowhere on the planet do you have the opportunity to network with the industries’ elite decisions makers.”
LIA Awards Highlights of the year mentioned at the LIA Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon included launching the industry’s first web-based Laser Safety Hazard Analysis system – The EVALUATOR, many education and outreach activities, and reducing student membership rates by 50 percent.
Executive Director Peter Baker was honored as the first recipient of the new LIA Leadership Award, and he received a standing ovation after his look back over more than two decades at the LIA and entertaining talk about life and leadership lessons. Retiring next April, Baker publicized the job opening and encouraged people to apply for Executive Director of the LIA, saying “it is a great job and you couldn’t wish for better bosses. People crave a job that is meaningful, and at LIA we’re saving eyesight, preventing skin damage, and helping create laser technologies, products and services that make the world a better place.”
During the luncheon, the Arthur L. Schawlow Award was presented to Prof. Yongfeng Lu. This is LIA’s highest achievement award, created to honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions in laser applications. Named after the Nobel Laureate and founder of LIA, it has been presented since 1982. The 2016 winner, Yongfeng Lu, an LIA Board Member, Past President, Treasurer, Fellow, Lott Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with hundreds of published papers, research projects and products, presented the Honored Speaker Address, A Small World With Lasers. He took the audience on a journey through the past to witness his 25 years of laser processing and material characterization experience, and to all the countries where his work occurred, summarizing each with a single phrase.
LIA also honored Silke Pflueger and Neil Ball, elevating them to the highest level of membership as LIA Fellows.
By a unanimous decision, the first place ICALEO Poster Award went to Kohei Asano and his colleagues from Osaka University, the Industrial Research Institute of Ishikawa, and Yamazaki Mazak Corporation in Japan for their poster Copper Layer Formation Produced with 100 W Blue Direct Diode Laser System (P110).
The First Place Student Paper Award winner was Christian Hagenlocher from IFSW in Stuttgart, Germany, for his paper Space and Time Resolved Determination of Thermomechanical Deformation Adjacent to the Solidification Zone during Hot Crack Formation in Laser Welding (1202).
The closing plenary session highlighted lasers used in emerging areas with talks on paint stripping, the dairy industry, and a report from Magnus Bengtsson from Coherent, Inc. about the latest trends in the major electronics component market segments.
ICALEO 2016 proceedings are now available for sale online at www.lia.org/store. Visit www.icaleo.org for more information on ICAELO 2017, which will be held Oct. 22-26 in Atlanta, GA.
Debbie Sniderman is CEO of VI Ventures, an engineering consulting company.
From stars to phones, smart payment cards to medical implantable materials, lasers are reaching into more areas where traditional machining and processing methods don’t offer much needed precision, accuracy or sensitivity. LIA’s 35th International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO®) is the premier conference focusing on the research and scientific aspects of materials processing with lasers where attendees can learn about the latest developments and network with others.
This year’s conference will be held on Oct. 16-20 in San Diego and attendance is expected to be one of the best. With more than 200 scheduled presentations, invited speakers, 65 peer-reviewed talks, and biophotonics now being covered in every conference, ICALEO offers many new advances in laser technologies and how to apply them.
“The fundamentals of laser technologies and how to apply them, that are displayed here at ICALEO, are the foundations of new and unique products that can spur entire industries,” says LIA Executive Director Peter Baker.
Opening & Closing Plenaries The Congress is again chaired by Silke Pflueger of Direct Photonics, and many new application areas will be highlighted in the opening and closing plenary talks. On Monday, three speakers will cover Lasers on Mars: Exploring the Red Planet with ChemCam Instrument Onboard the Curiosity Rover, Sensing Challenges for Fully Autonomous Vehicles, and First Observations with Advanced LIGO and the Beginning of Gravitational Wave Astronomy.
Thursday’s closing plenary talks on Lasers in the Dairy Industry – from Milk to Sperm, Lasers in Mobile Electronics, and High-power Laser Paint Stripping for Large Aircraft are compelling reasons to stay through the afternoon.
Hot Topics in the Laser Materials Processing Conference Returning for his second year as chair, Christoph Leyens from Fraunhofer IWS says the LMP conference brings together laser, manufacturing and materials science disciplines. Traditionally it is the largest attended and broadest spectrum conference within ICALEO. This year expect a lively, in-depth look at the latest news, science, technology and applications in laser drilling, cladding, cutting, modeling and simulation.
The major pillar of this year’s conference is laser welding with seven sessions spanning the entire week. Leyens says highlights within welding are hybrid welding technologies and welding non-conventional materials such as ceramics and specialty metallic materials.
Additive manufacturing is the next area Leyens says is hot with five Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM) sessions throughout the week. “Laser technologies have become very important in 3D printing in the recent past, and recent developments in brilliant sources are making AM technologies more efficient,” he says.
Something new in LMP this year is the specialty Session 8 on Photonics for Lightweight Construction. Its speakers will present R&D results and a broad overview of lasers used to construct lightweight materials, ranging from carbon fiber reinforced plastics to lightweight metals.
Hot Topics in the Laser Microprocessing Conference Attendees at the 11 sessions of the Laser Microprocessing Conference will hear about the state-of-the-art in laser micro-material processing. According to conference chair Michelle Stock from mlstock consulting: “There’s a tremendous amount happening in the laser and microprocessing world this year that is interesting, and people will be excited about many of the important topics at the LMF conference. We were easily able to fill our sessions with robust, high-quality talks with a global perspective. Most of the submissions (about one-third) were from Asia, then from Europe, then the USA.”
Stock says the highlight of the entire conference is in the smart gadget area where many companies are using laser processes to improve, miniaturize or work with new materials for smart phones and computers. Most of the smart gadget talks are in Sessions 4 and 5 on Tuesday.
Alan Conneely’s invited talk, Laser Micromachining of Contactless RF Antenna Modules for Payment Cards and Wearable Objects, is the first in Session 5 (M501). “Cards and wearable objects for smart payments is something that consumers will really be excited about, and we haven’t seen many papers on the application space using lasers for processing RF antenna modules yet,” Stock says.
Schematic showing how a card reader (left) inductively couples with a coil on module contactless payment card (right) through its secondary antenna module for power harvesting and communication from Alan Conneely’s upcoming ICALEO presentation
Biological applications are another highlight and a growth area for laser applications in general as well as in the LMF arena. There are two entire sessions on Microprocessing for Biological Applications. The invited paper, Control of Surface Profile in Periodic Nanostructures Produced with Ultrashort Pulsed Laser (M601) given by Togo Shinonaga from Japan’s Okayama University, discusses laser material processing and insight into controlling structures in titanium and other titanium alloys.
“These materials are interesting biomaterials because of their inactivity and lack of biofunction. Adding functions such as periodic nanostructures which can control cell spreading may help improve how well a body tolerates or integrates a metal implant such as a new joint. As manufacturers work to develop new and improved devices, the information provided in talks like this one will prove valuable additions to the body of knowledge,” says Stock.
The healthy trend of work on ultra-fast and ultra-short pulse lasers continues, and Stock says there is an explosion of interest in understanding them in microprocessing applications. The transparent material processing session, LMF Session 4, is heavily influenced by the types of lasers that are available today.
There is also a new LMF session on microwelding of thin metals due to a high interest in batteries, an application space where lasers have made a lot of progress and are well understood as a tool. The talk Connecting Battery Cells by Aluminium Ribbon Bonding using Laser Micro Welding (M802) by Johanna Helm from Fraunhofer ILT is a great example of a session to attend.
Hot Topics in Nanomanufacturing Returning as chair, Yongfeng Lu from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says attendees at this year’s Nanomanufacturing Conference will learn how to use lasers for nanoscale manufacturing and hear about applications and theories for controlling and measuring nanoscale materials.
Highlights of this conference include a new topic on Laser technology for Energy Development (LED) with three separate sessions on Photovoltaics and other advanced energy devices and battery materials. “Lasers can be used to improve capacities and reliability of batteries in electric vehicles, and they are becoming more important as market demands for batteries increases,” Lu says.
Another hot area is 2-dimensional materials, presented in the Nanomaterials Session. “As more electronic devices like cell phones are becoming smaller, lighter, faster and energy-saving, 2D materials are becoming more important,” Lu says. Costas Grigoropoulos’s invited talk from U.C. Berkeley on Laser-assisted Processing of Layered Dichalcogenide Semiconductors (N101) discusses using lasers for doping materials that are only a few atomic layers thick, is not to be missed.
Selective laser doping of layered semiconductors from Prof. Grigoropoulos’ upcoming presention on a new method for digitally controlled and air-stable doping of TMDC’s for high-quality and high-fidelity nano devices
Lu also highlights Koji Sugioka’s invited talk on Tailored Femtosecond Bessel Beams for Fabrication of High aspect-ratio through Si Visa(TSVs) (N102). “In the past, the aspect ratio of holes produced by lasers was limited. The work that Dr. Sugioka from the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics in Japan will present involves reducing hole diameters with ultrafast lasers while maintaining hole lengths in silicon. This could benefit microelectronic devices like cell phones where substrates or printed circuit boards (PCBs) can’t be made too thin because they are subject to stresses,” says Lu.
Business Forum & Panel Discussion Klaus Löffler from TRUMPF Laser and Systems GmbH is looking forward to chairing the Business Forum & Panel Discussion for his fifth year. In addition to providing industry news and the status and overview of the global laser market, the session will present specialty stories from business owners from different parts of the world, working in different areas of lasers, followed by a roundtable discussion and question and answer session.
“This year’s interesting, dynamic, business owners will give insights into how they started their businesses, the success factors of their companies, and mistakes to avoid. It promises to again to be a lively session,” says Löffler.
LIA Past President, David Belforte, will present an overview of the laser market. Professor Michael Schmidt, whose company started in Germany in 1993 and provides contract R&D in optics and laser technology for industrial customers, will also be speaking. Gilbert Haas from Haas Laser Technologies will talk about his successful business based on laser optics. In addition, there will also be a presentation on developing, producing and selling lasers.
“We need more scientists to follow their dreams, which may include starting their own businesses. A business owner needs exposure to both R&D and sales aspects, and this session helps remove the disconnect that typically exists at scientific conferences. These speakers have interesting life stories that will hopefully motivate all types of attendees to start their own businesses,” Löffler says.
Not-to-Miss Networking & Other Events The number one reason participants come to ICALEO is to network, and there are plenty of ways to meet others from around the globe, even before traveling to San Diego. On Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the Lasers Today blog, use the hashtag #ICALEO. At the conference, first-timers can expect to have a ribbon on their conference badge.
The Welcome Celebration begins on Sunday, and networking continues throughout the week during numerous refreshment breaks and at the 5k run Tuesday morning with the Running Club, a big hit among runners in its fifth year. The President’s Reception Monday evening is a great way to meet LIA executive officers and chairs of the conferences one-on-one in a casual meet and greet format.
Other networking opportunities include the Awards Luncheon on Wednesday where the winner of this year’s Schawlow Award will be honored and at the Closing Plenary Session on Thursday where prize winners for the 18th Annual ICALEO Student Paper Awards will be announced from the approximately 25 that were judged.
The Vendor Reception Tuesday night will be the prime time to meet and see demonstrations from Platinum sponsor IPG Photonics Corporation, Gold sponsors Edgewave GmbH, SPI Lasers, Teradiode, Inc. and TRUMPF Inc., Silver sponsors Laserline Inc., Light Conversion Ltd. and Lumentum, and Bronze sponsors JENOPTIK Laser GmbH and Spectra-Physics, A Newport Company. With over 45 vendors in attendance, this reception will provide attendees the opportunity to network with a wide variety of experts in the field.
The poster presentation gallery, displayed on Tuesday and Wednesday, will have 40 posters and a new flash session, which allows presenters three slides and three minutes to present key points. About 20 poster presentations will be part of the speed session on Tuesday.
Debbie Sniderman is CEO of VI Ventures, an engineering consulting company.
ICALEO® 2016 is right around the corner! In preparation for the event, we’ve compiled a quick guide of points of interest for laser professionals in San Diego, where the conference is held this year.
It’s time to discover the best in Electro-Optics & Photonics – and one of the most beautiful, engaging cities on the West Coast!
Find some time during your ICALEO 2016 trip to explore San Diego’s Harbor.
When the sessions and seminars are over for the day, many ICALEO visitors may wish to explore the city and its culture. Who can blame them? With a gorgeous coastline, average October highs in the low 70s, and a rich history, there is plenty to see and do while in town for the conference.
Here’s how to explore like a pro after-hours at ICALEO San Diego:
Museums of Interest
The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is home to permanent and traveling exhibits focusing on “furthering the public understanding and enjoyment of science and technology.” Located in Balboa Park, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is also home to the world’s first IMAX dome theater. Featuring state of the art projection systems, the theater also hosts planetarium shows hosted by the San Diego Astronomy Association. The center also hosts bimonthly workshops on 3D printing technology with San Diego State University. While the museum typically caters to a younger crowd, there is something here for everyone.
Located right around the corner from the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center is the San Diego Air and Space Museum. Charting the history of flight from a 1700’s hot air balloon through the space age, the San Diego Air and Space Museum is a celebration of aviation and spaceflight advancements. Visitors can enjoy seeing both original and recreated air & spacecraft, as well as learn the history behind them. The museum is currently hosting the exhibition Da Vinci: The Ultimate Inventor. Showcasing the art, inventions, and machines developed by Leonardo Da Vinci with a focus on transportation, military, and mechanical designs, the exhibit is sure to enthrall any visitor.
Other Points of Interest
The USS Midway Aircraft Carrier also serves as a museum featuring over 60 exhibits, including over 20 restored aircraft. The USS Midway was one of the US’s longest serving aircraft carriers, seeing over 200,000 sailors in its time. Self-guided tours are included with admission,as you make your way through the restored aircraft carrier, covering over 50 years of Navy history. USS Midway is home to multiple flight simulators and interactive exhibits, sure to entertain and educate. On average, guests spend over 3 hours on the carrier, so plan accordingly!
Activities by the Coast and Downtown
For those looking to take advantage of the warm weather and gorgeous coast, Pacific Beach is not too far away from Sheraton® San Diego. This beach town provides sun, surf, and sand by day and vibrant nightlife, after sunset. Catch waves early in the day and grab a drink at one of the many restaurants or bars, afterwards.
Registration for ICALEO® is now open. With less than a month until the event, do not delay and miss your opportunity to learn, observe, and network at this premiere laser event. Information about the event can be found at https://www.lia.org/conferences/icaleo. Before attending, be sure to check out the top five things to see and do at ICALEOfor 2016.
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The Laser Institute of America (LIA) is the international society for laser applications and safety. Our mission is to foster lasers, laser applications, and laser safety worldwide. Visit us at www.lia.org
