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Photonics: The key to life in the 21st century

"The more you know about it, the more you can make it work for you"

Written by The Welsh Opto-electronics Forum

Full Article

This article will give you a taste of the technology that now affects everyone’s life, and is becoming increasingly important in the 21st century. The 19th century is often seen as the golden age of steam, the 20th century an incredible advancement in electronics; whilst the 21st century is set to be age of photonics or light.   This article will also give you an insight into careers that make use of this technology.

 WHAT ARE PHOTONICS and OPTO-ELECTRONICS?

Photonics and Opto-electronics are often used interchangeably. However, photonics is concerned with the generation (e.g. lasers), control (e.g. optics) and the detection (e.g. photo-multipliers) of light.  Opto-electronics is the innovative combination of optics and electronics hardware to produce an exciting new range of products.  More ...

 WORLD LEADERS

Wales has many companies working in this area and several of them are recognised as world leaders in the technology. The work can be exciting; to stay in this position the companies need to use state of the art technology in design, manufacturing and testing. More ... 

 OPTO-ELECTRONICS IN THE HOME

Without realising it, you are using opto-electronics throughout the day; look around for these examples, and imagine how modern life would be without them.  More ...

 IS OPTO-ELECTRONICS HARD TO UNDERSTAND?

Yes and No! If you are a research worker developing a new blue laser for use in the next generation of computer discs, you will be using skills that require more than a University degree, but the great importance of opto-electronics is that it finds many applications in life where what it does is important, and it is not necessary for the user to appreciate completely how it does it.  More ...

 WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ARE THERE FOR CAREERS USING OPTO-ELECTRONICS?

Because it finds application in so many fields, careers that need an understanding of opto-electronics are numerous: doctors use lasers for surgery as do civil engineers for surveying; biochemists use the detection of light emission to monitor the effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs, and even supermarket managers rely on the everyday bar code scanner used for controlling their stock. More ...

 CAREERS INVOLVING OPTO-ELECTRONICS

Careers using opto-electronics are for people with a wide range of skills and knowledge at different levels, and include the manufacture of components, design, assembly and testing of systems, technical sales and fundamental research. More ...