If you talk to optics manufacturers, especially those at UKA Optics, you discover they believe that the life sciences market has become a bigger player in the optics business than it was in years’ past. The maker of optical filters on Long Island was quoted as saying that the “life sciences field is one of the most important one today”.
Researchers in the life sciences field use imaging instruments that provide large ranges of magnification and many are looking for off the shelf filters as a way to have quick access to low-cost, high-performance multi-element technologies. The filters and devices are being deployed in microscopy companies. In addition to the off the shelf need for lenses, there are also those in life sciences fields that require highly specialized lenses.
The field of photonics technologies and ophthalmology continues to expand and this means that the demand for lenses remains constant. Optics are key to a doctor being able to focus light into a patient’s eyes as a way to achieve varying levels of penetration during an eye examination. Laser assisted cataract surgery is a procedure that deploys a laser to get the cloudy eye lens out. Topography guided LASIK surgery uses ultraviolet radiation to “ablate the front surface of the eye lens. Optical coherence tomography, a process that penetrates into the patients’ retina also utilizes these specialized photonic technologies.
Changes in manufacturing technologies allow lens manufacturers to produce hard coated filters that provide higher than usual optical densities. The high density helps to avoid any damage being inflicted on the delicate biological samples collected from the eye and retina.
As researchers continue to explore and work more on the nano-particle scale, the manufacturing of optics to meet those demands continues to expand.
In addition to the life sciences field, biomedical technologies also use infrared and laser technologies and lens manufacturers prepare the lenses necessary to perform various testing and noninvasive imaging techniques.
The bottom line is that the lens manufacturing industry remains a viable one especially as the need for more specialized lens techniques continues to expand.