From major universities to mid-size technology
companies to startups, ASE's contract engineers have
been a critical part of the product development cycle.
University of Rochester, NY
Laboratory for Laser Energetics 
Managers at LLE, home of the world's most powerful UV-laser, needed a new ultra-fast laser system to produce a petawatt pulse in order to continue their program experiments. They relied on ASE Optics for help with many optical systems, from design to implementation. During our 10 year partnership with this federally funded energetics laboratory, we have contributed to:
- Diagnostics for laser beam alignment systems
- Matrix-based procedures to optimize an off-axis optical system
- Long working-distance reflective imaging systems
- Stability analysis for optical path components
- Laser performance diagnostics
- Systems to monitor and inspect containment cell laser damage
- Ultra-fast laser pulse-stretching systems
LLE values our high-performance, cost-effective solutions in optical and optomechanical engineering. We find this diversity of challenges stimulating, and are happy to be involved with such an important center of American fusion energy research.
Geospatial Systems Inc. (GSI)
Geospatial Systems Inc. is a Rochester, New York, developer of multispectral imaging systems for commercial and military applications. When GSI won a contract to develop a Multi-Object Spectrometer (MOS), ASE Optics was called on to design the complex optical and opto-mechanical systems.
The MOS can simultaneously analyze the visible spectra of hundreds of astronomical objects. Our engineers incorporated a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) — an optical MEMS array of tilting mirrors — to direct the individual pixels of an astronomical image into a transmission grating spectrometer.
The innovative use of reflective aspheric optics allowed the spectrometer to maintain high resolution across the image field, providing new and powerful capabilities to astronomical researchers.
Lumetrics Inc.
High-Tech Rochester is a non-profit economic development organization. When they discovered an innovative non-contact metrology approach “orphaned” at Eastman Kodak Company, they brought in ASE Optics to help investigate potential product development opportunities. We reviewed the technology and conducted marketing research.
In 2003, ASE Optics founded Lumetrics Inc. with the initial goal of licensing and commercializing this revolutionary Kodak technology. Using custom components and subsystems designed by ASE Optics, they created the Lumetrics OptiGauge™. This renowned metrology tool can measure the physical thickness of multilayer materials from 12 microns to 8 millimeters, to a precision of 100 nanometers. It's used in laboratories and production lines alike for optical thickness measurement and gauging.
We continue to provide strategic support to Lumetrics for its evolving line of innovative thickness measurement products and systems.
