Ocean Optics - Corporate Profile



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Ocean Optics is a leading supplier of solutions for optical sensing – fundamental methods of measuring and interpreting the interaction of light with matter. We enable diverse applications in medical and biological research, environmental monitoring, life science, science education, and entertainment lighting and display. Our extensive line of complementary technologies includes spectrometers, chemical sensors, metrology instrumentation, optical fibers, and thin films and optics. Recognized as the inventor of miniature fiber optic spectroscopy, we’ve sold almost 100,000 spectrometers worldwide since 1992. Ocean Optics is part of the Halma Group of safety and detection companies, a United Kingdom-based multinational corporation with 2003 sales of nearly $550 million.

Spectroscopic techniques supported include:

UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy
On-line spectroscopy
Spectroradiometry
Color spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy
Fluorescence spectroscopy
Fiber optic chemical sensing
Spectral modeling
Spectral imaging

Background

Ocean Optics began in 1989, when University of Florida researchers developed a fiber optic pH sensor as part of an instrument designed to study the role of the oceans in global warming. They soon formed Ocean Optics, Inc., and their ingenious work earned a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. While designing the pH-monitoring instrument, the researchers wanted to incorporate with their sensor a spectrometer small enough to fit onto a buoy and were surprised to discover none existed. So, they built their own. In 1992, the founders of Ocean Optics filled a substantial need in the research community and changed the science of spectroscopy forever by creating a breakthrough technology: a miniature fiber optic spectrometer nearly 1,000 times smaller at 1/10 the cost of previous systems.

By April 1992, just 30 days after the successful completion of Phase II of the SBIR grant, Ocean Optics, Inc. introduced the S1000 -- "The World's First Miniature Fiber Optic Spectrometer." As a result of the dramatic reduction in size and cost of optical sensing systems, applications once deemed too costly or technologically impractical using conventional spectrometers were not only feasible, but practical.

Now almost 15 years later, we've placed almost 100,000 systems worldwide and enabled thousands of different applications -- from cancer detection and color matching to plasma monitoring and particle size analysis. Our spectrometers have been specified everywhere from research vessels in the Gulf of Mexico to the Mars rover.

Markets Served

Ocean Optics has developed a diversified set of manufacturing arts that are essential to components in four key photonics segments: Optical Sensing, Optical Networking, Display Optics and Biophotonics. Primary markets include consumer electronics, process control, environmental monitoring, life sciences and medical diagnostics. Our systems have been used everywhere from in vivo to the ocean floor; on the Mars Rover and the Mir space station; and in Florida's orange groves and South America's rain forests.

Major Products/Services

Fiber optic UV-VIS-NIR spectrometers ranging from miniature, modular systems to process analyzers
Low-cost Raman spectrometers for process control and other applications
Fiber optic chemical sensors for measuring oxygen and pH
Patterned dichroic optical filters and precision coatings for display and telecommunications applications
Optical fibers, assemblies and probes
Optical networking products, including A/R coatings, spectrum analyzers and optical filters for DWDM

Locations

Ocean Optics is headquartered in Dunedin, FL., and has a full-service sales office in The Netherlands, Germany and China -- all supported by a worldwide network of distributors. Manufacturing facilities are located in Orlando, FL., and Largo, FL.
For all Ocean Optics locations, click here.