Power meter has no strings attached

07 Aug 2002

Wireless test and measurement gear could soon make life easier for laser engineers.

Coherent, the US manufacturer of laser equipment, has successfully integrated Bluetooth radio technology into a power meter so that measurements can be viewed on a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA). The company demonstrated the technology earlier this year.

"The demo showed that we can take advantage of Bluetooth technology and apply it to laser measurement instruments," explained Roger Rypma at Coherent. "The idea is that someone in a laboratory or on a factory floor could eliminate lot of cable and make life a lot simpler."

As an example, Rypma cites an engineer trying to align and tune up a laser cavity. Often the engineer is adjusting a number of parts and needs to see the effects on laser power.

"He can hold the PDA in one hand and the tweak with the other hand so that he doesn't have to stretch to view the power meter," explained Rypma. "In theory, you could also link the PDA into other instruments, so if you wanted to switch over to your spectrum analyser or beam profiler you could click a button on the PDA and see that display."

Rypma told OLE that the price of the Bluetooth technology must fall before the idea of wireless lab equipment becomes cost-effective enough for the demo version to be commercialized.

"Right now, we don't plan to offer it as a standard product or option as the cost [of Bluetooth technology] is still a bit high. However, the price of that is going to come down very quickly."

Author
Oliver Graydon is editor of Optics.org and Opto & Laser Europe magazine.