A: There is a Microsoft Windows XP update (KB925902) that causes an Illegal System DLL Relocation error with the Pyrocam III Control Console. Microsoft has released a hot fix for the problem with the RealTek Audio, and the fix also works for The Pyrocam III Control Console.
See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935448/
and scroll down to "Method 3: Install update 935448 from the Microsoft Download Center". Click the "Download the 935448 package now" link and follow the instructions.


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A: This is a known ActiveX issue with Microsoft. You can occasionally get an error message stating, "The system DLL user32.dll was relocated in memory. The application will not run properly. The relocation occurred because the DLL C:\Windows\System32\Hhctrl.ocx occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs. The vendor supplying the DLL should be contacted for a new DLL." There are two ways to get around this. First, you can just run the Setup.exe from the individual folders on the CD. Or second, you can click the below link and then click the Download button to download the WindowsXP-KB935448-x68-ENU.exe file. Run this to install the 935448 hot fix. You will not need to restart the computer. Then you can install the software from the Flash screen.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=74AD4188-3131-429C-8FCB-F7B3B0FD3D86&displaylang=en

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A: The latest releases of the Ophir-Spiricon software can be located at the address below.
http://www.ophiropt.com/laser-measurement-instruments/beam-profilers/services/software-download


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A: The initial release of the SP503U and SP620U cameras did not have the ROI feature enabled. Those cameras that do not have the ROI feature enabled will need to be returned for upgrading both hardware and firmware, and the latest version of software will need to be installed, which is available at;
http://www.ophiropt.com/laser-measurement-instruments/beam-profilers/services/software-download


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A: Ophir-Spiricon goes to great lengths to qualify scientific quality cameras with blemish free imagers. We also remove the protective windows from the CCD imagers to provide full spectral response and distortion free performance. These options are not available from commercial camera manufacturers. While commercially available cameras cost less, they do not provide the performance levels the Ophir-Spiricon cameras are capable of providing.


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A:Ophir-Spiricon prefers to replace the imager in the camera before replacing the whole camera, especially with the current economic situation. By clicking the below link you will be directed to the section of our web site where you can request an RMA to return your camera for array replacement.
http://www.ophiropt.com/laser-measurement-instruments/customer-support/customer-support/rma-bp

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A: After numerous requests for re-calibration of M² systems, in 2008 Ophir-Spiricon started a recalibration program for its M² systems. This program allows the equipment to be sent back to the factory to be inspected, lubricated and re-calibrated. This enables customers to comply with their ISO regulations. Please click the below link to be directed to a section of our web site where you can request an RMA to return your equipment for re-calibration.
http://www.ophiropt.com/laser-measurement-instruments/customer-support/customer-support/rma-bp

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A: The LBA-USB cameras pull power from the USB port and do not need a power supply. This is just a backup incase the USB power option has been turned off in the Device Manager or in the computer bios.

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A: It's possible that the USB power option has been turned off in the Device Manager or in the computer bios. Check to see if the USB power option has been turned on and if it is on and the cameras still will not power up, see the recommendation below.

There is also a known problem with the LBA-USB cameras sometimes blowing the USB power connection inside the camera. This is a known manufacturing defect and is covered under warranty. If your camera will not show up in the drop down camera list please contact the Service department for test procedures to verify if the USB power connection is blown inside the camera.

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A: The Ophir-Spiricon products that are compatible with Windows Vista are only tested and recommended for use under Windows Vista Business 32 bit. No 64 bit platforms, except for the new BeamGage which is supported with 64 bit.

Product	Software Version
LBA-USB	v4.83
LBA-FW	v4.83
LBA-PC	v4.18
M2-200	v4.58
Pyrocam III	v1.89
BeamStar	v1.52
BeamGage

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A: Usually this is because the camera has not been connected correctly. On desktop computers power can be pulled directly over the 6 pin to 6 pin FireWire cable. On laptops, you must use the supplied "Y" power adapter cable. The 6 pin to 6 pin FireWire cable must connect into the back of the camera and then connect into the female connection on the "Y" power adapter cable. Then the male connection of the "Y" power adapter cable is plugged into the laptop computer card. The same configuration is used for laptop computers that have built in IEEE 1394 except the 6 pin to 4 pin connector is used instead of the laptop adapter card. The round power connection must also be connected for the camera to show up in the camera list.

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A:Ultracal is a method of calibrating the zero level of the A to D converter precisely to the zero level of the CCD or other type camera. Ultracal has a number of features that make it much more effective than standard background subtraction. Ultracal works as follows:

• All incoming laser radiation is blocked from the camera, allowing any ambient radiation which will enter the camera during measurement, to still impinge upon the camera. (However, ambient radiation should be minimized under all cases.)
• The A to D converter is then set to capture frames from the camera, and adjust the zero level of the A to D converter. The zero level of the converter is adjusted until it and the baseline of the camera are as close as possible to each other. However, the digitizer is set slightly lower than the zero of the camera so that all noise components from the camera are digitized. This is assured by raising the camera DC level until the digitizer does not report any zero counts, i.e., all negative going noise from the camera/digitizer combination is at least one positive count. Once this baseline level is set, the software accumulates and averages 64 frames so that a baseline is obtained that is essentially free of random noise, but contains any offset or shading from the camera.
• In all subsequent laser signal frames this baseline is subtracted pixel by pixel from the signal frame.
• A unique characteristic of Ultracal is its treatment of what we call negative numbers. Consider that a given pixel signal is exactly at the same level as the average background obtained from the 64 frames. When these two are subtracted from each other, the output magnitude will be zero. On the other hand, if a small positive noise spike occurs on a given pixel, of say, 2 counts higher than the average, then the output from that pixel will be a +2. The third case would be when noise drives the pixel signal lower than the average; for example, 3 counts less than the average. When the average is subtracted from this signal, the resultant is -3 counts. Spiricon holds a patent in which these negative 3 counts are retained in the memory subsequent to the A to D converter. In other acquisition systems negative numbers resulting from background subtraction are truncated to zero.
• By maintaining the use of both positive and negative noise counts for each pixel in the sensor, the negative signals can offset the positive signals, and thus the background averages much closer to zero. This enables much more accurate measurement of beam width and other beam characteristics.

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A: There is no NIST standard laser beam by which beam analyzer results can be compared and verified. Spiricon engineers, however, have generated mathematically derived beams, added mathematically derived random noise to the beam, and then performed various beam measurements. Since the original beam was mathematically derived, the accuracy of the beam measurements can be verified under realistic conditions.

• This process verifies the accuracy of the software, but does not do any verification of the accuracy of the camera/acquisition combination.
• Camera/acquisition system combination verification can be performed by making very accurate measurements of characteristics such as beam width vs. intensity on the camera to verify that the camera is linear. The beam can also be moved about the camera to make sure that it is uniform. This type of measurement must be verified by meticulous measurements.

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A:

• CCD camera manufacturers typically quote a signal-to-noise ratio of 50 to 60db. This refers to the peak signal before saturation divided by the RMS noise. This is a 20 log function, so 60db would be equivalent to a dynamic range of 1000, whereas 50db would be a dynamic range of about 300. However, it should be noted that this is comparing peak signal to RMS noise. The peak-to-peak noise is about 6 times the RMS noise. Therefore, the dynamic range in terms of peak signal to peak-to-peak noise ranges from about 50 to 180. With 8-bit digitizers, i.e., 256 counts, this means that the bottom 2-5 counts in the digitizer are noisy.
• The Pyrocam III pyroelectric camera also has a 60db signal-to-noise ratio. However, this is a worst case pessimistic specification. Typically the dynamic range is about 70db, which means the dynamic range is about 500 relative to peak-to-peak noise. This makes the camera very useful with 10 and 12-bit digitizers

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A: The amount of power or energy that the camera can take depends on the type of camera sensor.

• CCD cameras typically saturate at about 0.3µW/cm² CW, and 3nJ/cm² pulsed
• Pyroelectric solid-state cameras typically saturate at 3W/cm² CW and 10mJ/cm² pulsed.

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A: Sampling and attenuating the beam is done in a two-step process.

• A high quality beam splitter is used to pass typically 90% of the beam through the beam splitter, and reflect or split typically 10% of the beam 90° away from the input path.
• The beam splitter is typically quartz for the UV to Near IR, and AR coated ZnSe for CO2, or a transmitting or reflecting grating.
• The beam splitter is typically quartz for the UV to Near IR, and AR coated ZnSe for CO2, or a transmitting or reflecting grating.
• The splitter can be wedged to eliminate interference from the reflections from two surfaces, or thick enough that the back side reflection does not overlap the front side reflection.
• The beam splitters are polarization sensitive, and this factor should be considered.
• This sampled beam is then typically attenuated with high quality uniform neutral density filters.
• ND filters from 450nm to 2µm can be bulk absorbing BK7 glass, and achieve excellent results.
• In the UV, quartz plates with surface reflecting coatings can be used. However, great care must be taken to minimize interference fringes.
• At 10.6µm flats of CaF2 absorb about 50% per mm thickness, and can be used to attenuate CO2 beams.
• Attenuation in the 2mm to 10mm region is difficult, and is best done by multiple beam splitters.

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A: With extremely fast P6 computers the acquisition speed is now limited only by the camera. This is typically 30Hz in the U.S. with the RS-170 standard, and 25Hz in Europe with the CCIR standard.

• Pyroelectric cameras can acquire data with pulse repetition rates up to 1kHz, but output data at approximately 60Hz.
• Shutters enable CCD cameras to split out single pulses out of a pulse train up to 10kHz pulse repetition rate.

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A: The most reliable synchronization is to have the beam analyzer camera system trigger the laser. Then 100% synchronization is achieved.

• When triggering the laser is not possible, then the camera can sometimes be triggered from the laser. The LBA provides both Trigger In and Trigger Out functions.
• A very simple system is Ophir-Spiricon's Video Trigger, in which the camera is free running, and the software simply looks to see if a signal of a pre-determined minimum magnitude is present from a pulse. If it is, then that signal is acquired and displayed. If no signal is present, then that frame is discarded. This video trigger system achieves about 98% reliability.
• An optional optical accessory can also be used to synchronize with the pulsed source.

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A: Different measurements have different accuracy. The accuracy is also dependent upon the conditions of the signal coming into the camera. Ideal conditions consist of signal that nearly saturates the camera, and the 1/e² width covers about 50% of the pixels. In this case the error of most measurements is less than 1%, but no greater than 5%. When fewer pixels of the camera are covered by the beam, or when the beam intensity is reduced, measurement accuracy is compromised. However, Ophir-Spiricon's Ultracal system maintains excellent accuracy down to very few pixels and very low intensity. Refer to Ophir-Spiricon's published articles for specific details.

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A: When using a camera with a lens, the operator must perform a spatial calibration to obtain accurate dimensional results. To do this, you must set up the camera lens system to view an object of a known dimension. The object to be viewed must contrast against its background to yield well defined edges. Use the following procedure.

• In the Camera Dialog Box, set the "Pixel Scale" V value to 1.
• In the Beam Display Toolbar Dialog Box check "Cursors" and "Crosshair"
• In the Camera Dialog Box set the "Resolution" to 1X.
• On the Beam Display Toolbar set "Crosshair" to Manual and "Cursor" to Manual.
• Set the LBA into "CW Mode" and start it "Running."
• Place an object containing at least one known dimension into the imaging plane of the camera lens system, and focus the optics. (A good object might be a circular disk with a diameter of 1cm.) The object should be large enough to fill over 50% of the display height. You can hardware zoom to enlarge the object if necessary. Orient the object so that the calibration dimension aligns vertically on the Y axis cursor. You can use the Pan and Cursor controls to achieve a good alignment.
• With the mouse and left button move the cursor to one edge of the object
• With the mouse and left button move the crosshair to the object's opposite edge. The Delta = value on the screen will contain the pixel count between the known calibration dimensions. Divide this number into the calibration dimension to yield the correct "Pixel Scale" value.
• For example, if a 1cm distance produced a delta count of 176, then the "Pixel Scale" value would become .00568cm, or 56.8µm.

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A: The largest beam that can impinge directly on the camera depends on the size of the camera sensor.

• Ophir-Spiricon offers CCD camera types, i.e. 1/1.8" format, 1/2" format, and 35mm format. The 1/1.8" format cameras, such as the SP620U and GRAS 20 can image beams as large as 7.1mmW x 5.4mmH. The smaller camera format, such as the SP503U can image beams at 6.3mmWx4.7mmH.
• Beams can be measured in the infrared with the Pyrocam III
• Large format digital cameras are available for high resolution and large area such as the L11058 that can measure beams up to 20mmWx13.5mmH.
• For beams larger than those mentioned above, there are two techniques for measuring the beam.
• One is to use a beam expander in reverse to reduce the beam width by a known factor, so that it does fit onto the camera.
• The second method is to impinge the beam on a scattering reflecting surface, and then image that surface with a lens on the camera. In this case there is no limit to the size that the beam can be.

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A:The smallest beam depends on the pixel pitch in the camera.

• For 1/1.8" format cameras the pixel pitch is typically 4.4µm. At least 7 X 7 pixels should be illuminated on the camera. This means the beam should be at least 40µm to measure effectively.
• For focused spots in the range of 10µm, a microscope objective or a re-collimation and refocus with a long focal length lens can be used. Then resolution of the camera can be effectively magnified by about a factor of 10, so that resolution less than 1µm is obtained. Thus a focused spot beam could be as small as 7µm, and an effective measurement could still be made.

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A: The answer depends on what information is wanted from the beam width.

• The most representative measurement of a beam width in determining how the beam will propagate is the Second Moment measurement. However, the Second Moment measurement can have problems if there is diffraction in the beam before measurement, which puts a significant amount of energy in the wings. This energy may diverge faster than the rest of the beam, and if it is included in the measurement, it will give a beam width much wider than reality. However, an aperture can be used to limit the beam width measurement to energy inside these diffraction rings.
• A second very good measurement of beam width is the software equivalent knife-edge measurement. This measurement is less sensitive to diffraction in the wings of the beam, although it will give a beam width measurement which is weighted by energy out in the wings. It is less sensitive to noise.
• Sometimes the most important information is not the beam propagation characteristics, but how much energy is near the peak of the beam. In this case, a percent of peak beam width measurement would be more useful.

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A: The Pyrocam III needs a window for protection against foreign objects entering the camera, and destroying the crystal. This could happen by someone poking a brush or Q-tip to clean off lint, etc. The window also protects the sensor from the effects of humidity. The window must have anti-reflection coating, or the two surfaces of the window will create interference fringes from a collimated light source which show up on the sensor as ripples in the beam. With anti-reflection coating the reflections, and thus the interference fringes, are minimized, and the sensor sees only the beam energy.

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A: The problem we are seeing in the images you provided is what is referred to as "image tarring". This occurs when there is another process going on during the data acquisition from the camera. We also see that there are two beams on the screen at the same time. Some of which are of the same intensity and some which are what we call "Ghost Beams". These occur from a couple of things. One, it could be from a beam splitter causing a back reflection and we are picking it up on the camera. Two, it is more likely that this is a ghost beam from the laser being pulsed. We see this when the triggering on the camera is not properly set such that we are having the pulse arrive during the reset time of the array. Third this could be from using too much electronic shutter. The electronic shutter can be used as a slight attenuator, but when two much electronic shutter is used, we typically see vertical blooming.

My recommendations would be for running the camera synced to the laser pulse via the connection on the side of the camera. This will also help when trying to do single shot acquisition. The camera needs to be pre triggered by 12 uS so the camera is readied and has just started integrating when the laser pulse arrives at the CCD imager.

By putting the software into Single Shot mode it will only take one frame from the camera. However, by putting the camera into triggered mode, it waits until the trigger pulse arrives at the camera to start the integration of the CCD imager. Once the pulse arrives, the camera takes the image and stops. This mode is probably the most difficult to setup and function properly. We typically recommend that the software be set to Video Trigger and the camera to run in CW mode if you are trying to avoid seeing blank images coming from the camera until you are more comfortable with the operation of the equipment. Once you are more comfortable with how the interaction with the software, camera, and laser are working then making changes to the setup like externally triggering the camera and doing single shot data acquisition are a little easier.

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A: Not currently. However, BeamGage will work with 64 bit operating systems within the next few months.

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A: A. The largest laser beam we have measured has been 3 meters. This was done with the addition of a cctv lens and then a spatial calibration to give the equivalent pixel size with the lens at the distance we observed the laser. We achieved this by imaging a target that the laser fell upon. The target was in motion slightly to eliminate any speckle. Most applications the beams are less the 10mm, these can be accommodated by large array cameras and attenuation. When a beam gets larger say up to 25mm a reducing telescope can be used to bring it down to size to fit on the array. Our largest array currently is 26x39mm and has a USB interface

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A: On the profiling side it depends on the camera you are using. A standard CCD imager can look at profiles down in the Nanowatts.

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A: The camera works as an integrating device and thus can measure a profile of pulses down to the femtosecond range. In slowly pulsed systems it is always advisable to use a trigger into the camera to synchronize pulses.

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A:

1. An explanation of how we do this is given in our catalog introduction and on our website.
2. A recent check of our 5000W head by PTB in Germany shows excellent agreement between our calibration and their standards as enclosed here. The following is the correspondence between our sensor and their standard at powers up to 1400W (the highest available at PTB).

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A: Try using the back side USB ports. They are generally connected directly to the PC motherboard and work better, whereas front side USB ports are connected through extension cables and may be subject to signal loss interference.

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A: A computer is required. The prices mentioned above do not include a computer. The computer required is an IBM compatible PC. The 2 GHz dual core processor style is recommended with as much as 2G of RAM and a 256MB graphics card. Less processor speed and memory will reduce the update rate of high resolution camera based beam profilers.

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A: Cameras are typically included with the LBA, BG or BS systems. Replacement cameras can be purchased separately.

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A: The Spiricon BeamGage and LBA systems as well as the Ophir BeamStar beam profiling systems come with a camera included. Additional or replacement cameras are available as are software upgrades. It is no longer possible to use your own camera with these advanced laser beam analyzer systems.

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A: The wavelength response depends primarily on the camera used, but also on the optics used for beam sampling.

• CCD cameras can see 266nm to 1.3µm
• Our Pyrocam III cameras can see 190nm to >1000µm
• InGaAs cameras are available for the 900 - 1,700nm wavelength region.

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A: Yes. BeamGage, LBA, and BeamStar support USB and Firewire cameras that interface to desktop as well as laptop computers. PCMCIA cards are provided with Firewire camera based systems to supply high performance Firewire ports for laptop users.

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A: The new BeamGage application permits users to add additional calculations and computed results. These results are displayed on the screen, logged, and printed just as the standard calculations that are included with the application. Pass/Fail criteria may also be constructed with theses user defined computations.

Data files from BeamGage are available in HDF5 format which is an open source format compatible with tools like MatLab. LBA data can be exported in a number of formats such as ASCII, so that the data can be loaded into other programs for additional processing.

An ActiveX server provides LBA data, results, and beam image to another Windows application. You can also tell the LBA to Start, Stop, Calibrate and load a configuration via ActiveX. The ActiveX server works locally or over a network. Examples are provided with LBA for LabView, Excel and Visual Basic.

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A: No. The BeamGage, LBA, and BeamStar beam profiling applications are designed specifically to use our own cameras that have been licensed to the application. Please inform your Ophir-Spiricon Sales Engineer if you require multiple application compatibility when purchasing a camera based beam profiling system.

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A: No. However, all files from Spiricon's earlier beam analyzers, including the LBA-100A, can be imported into the LBA system and BeamGage will import archived LBA data.

Since BeamGage supports the open source format, HDF5, so it can also import HDF5 files from other applications.

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A: Most items are available off-the-shelf. Some specialized CCD cameras are ordered as required, and may have 4-8 week delivery.

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A: Yes, it is possible to print the sales literature page by page from our web site at www.ophir-spiricon.com by using your web browser's print function. The complete catalog is also available as either an electronic or printed, hard copy.

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A: Yes, our beam profiling and power/energy measurement systems, once installed in a computer becomes a LabView virtual instrument, and can be controlled by a remote computer, or via ActiveX.

An ActiveX server provides beam profile, laser power/energy data, computational results, and beam image. You can also tell the application to Start, Stop, Calibrate and load a configuration via ActiveX. The ActiveX server works locally or over a network. Examples are provided to quickly get you up and running.

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A: There are no current plans for making a higher resolution Pyrocam.

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A: M² measurements are supported with the M²-200, and M²-200s. These automated instruments measure M² automatically for R&D and Production environments. We also offer M² accessory software to manually analyze the M² of a laser system.

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A: 10, 12 and 14 bit systems are useful with new, low noise digital cameras. These are especially useful for viewing and measuring low level beam structure.

10, 12 or 14 bits provide better signal-to-noise ratios. This is especially useful when there is significant low level structure in the wings of a laser beam. 8 bit cameras benefit when summing or averaging is required to bring the signal out of noise. 10, 12 or 14 bit digitizers divide the noise into finer increments for a better definition of the systems noise content thus offering a more accurate analysis of the performance of the laser under test.

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A: No. The LBA-100A is no longer provided. A trade-in allowance is provided for users who wish to trade-in an LBA-100A towards an LBA, BeamStar, or BeamGage system.

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A: Currently USB and Firewire cameras that interface to BeamGage include; SP503, SP620, GRAS20, SCOR20, Pyrocam III pyroelectric camera for UV and Far IR operation, and L11058 Large Format CCD as well as the FX50 and FX33 firewire CCD cameras.

These cameras must be licensed by Ophir-Spiricon for the beam analysis application that is intended to be used. Cameras may be licensed to multiple beam profiling programs.

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A: Ophir-Spiricon's Ultracal system that provides precise camera baseline settings to enable very high precise beam measurements. BeamGage and LBA utilize UltraCal to assure accurate spatial analysis including beam widths, power/energy density calculations and divergence angle measurements.

Ophir-Spiricon's commitment to innovation and improvement never sleeps. With the introduction of BeamGage, Ophir-Spiricon has again shown our ability to offer the most technically advanced laser test and measurement products to the laser industry.

Ophir-Spiricon's beam profilers offer the industry's highest resolution capability, with up to 1600 X 1200 pixels and a system dynamic range of up to 64db.

Ophir-Spiricon is famous for our total dedication to customer service. Just give us try, see for yourself.

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A: For more details please contact Ophir-Spiricon LLC :

60 West 1000 North	sales@ophir-spiricon.com	Toll Free No.: 1-800-383-0814
Logan, UT 84321	www.ophir-spiricon.com	Tel:  + (435) - 753 3729
USA		Fax: + (435) - 753 5231

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A: BeamGage has the most extensive set of ISO and non-IS0 beam diagnostics computations assembled in a beam profiling tool.

BeamGage is the first fully scalable beam analysis system. Any number of cameras can be viewed/analyzed/controlled from any number of networked machines, simultaneously. This gives the user the ability leverage large amounts of hardware power (RAM, CPU, storage, and networks) to solve more complex video analysis problems. It has even been optimized to allow local-machine analysis clients to run uninhibited by slower, cross-network clients.

BeamGage is the first system to implement true multi-client functionality. This allows the user to launch any number of analyzers that subscribe to a single camera source and partition the detector data for area of interest based analysis. In other words, you can analyze any number of spatially-separated beams on the same detector or compute different results on overlapping regions.

BeamGage is the first beam profile analysis system to allow users to analyze mathematically generated beam profiles in the same way they would analyze real beam profiles. With BeamMaker you can create synthetic profiles in virtually any camera frame format. Simulating not only width; height; 8, 10, 12, 14, 16… bit digitizers; but many other features like modal content, noise, and background effects. This opens up many reference beam processing options never available before.

BeamGage is the first beam analysis system to fully address the problem of application complexity. It can be configured by the factory or the end-user to scale its complexity up or down, showing only the controls required by the user and hiding un-needed complexity.

BeamGage is the first beam analysis system allowing the user to fully exploit their accelerated graphics card and render rich 3D visualizations of the beam in full camera resolution.

BeamGage is the first beam analysis system to combine the accuracy of Ultracal^TM – Ophir-Spiricon's patented baseline correction algorithm that helped establish the ISO 11146-3 standard for beam measurement accuracy – with the simplicity of AutoX – an adaptive mode that automatically adjusts exposure, gain, and black level, simplifying optical system setup and alignment.

BeamGage is the first full-featured beam analysis system to allow synchronized external power meter calibrations.

BeamGage also supports custom computational packages. Said another way, we do the work of capturing video data and computing any enabled results. BeamGage passes those results and video data to end-user defined routines (which are simple to create); we then take the values returned from end-user defined routines and do the work of displaying, keeping statistics, checking pass/fail, buffering, saving, logging, and printing. This feature provides a simple solution to users who have problems that fall outside of the “typical” beam analysis domain.

BeamGage is the first beam analysis system to output data in HDF5 format, an open source format compatible with tools like MatLab.

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A: In terms of breakthroughs, there are many hidden in the software architecture, but they are exciting only for the ardent software geek. The remaining beam analysis breakthroughs have mostly been functional.

It took years for the total vision of BeamGage to emerge. The system is the result of lessons learned from several predecessor systems. The constant need to interface new camera technology with different types of analysis tools, forced us to realize that analyzers and sources must be able to evolve independently of one another and on top of a solid video transport backbone. The BeamGage effort was all about creating the “Next Generation Profiler” (and sneaking a much-needed video transport backbone passed the bean counters, don’t tell anyone!).

The first real breakthrough was recognizing the need for a beam analysis system that was self validating. The system would validate against theoretical beams and adhere tightly to the ISO specification.

Second was the realization that data sources (cameras, files, and synthetic beams) should be treated by the analyzer in a symmetric fashion, the analyzer not knowing how to distinguish between them. In other words, the data sources are interchangeable and the analyzers compute results on theoretical beams and real beams in the exact same way.

Third was the realization that sources should be location transparent. In other words, the location on the network where video data is collected should be independent (or transparent) of the location where data is analyzed.

Forth was the realization that computer processors are not going to scale up in clock cycle speed as quickly as they will begin to scale up in number of CPUs per chip. A modern video analysis system should be designed to take advantage of multiples CPU cores. BeamGage has done this!

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A: Multi-machine, multi-camera users can use BeamGage to throw enough hardware at a problem to get the job done. This is one of the market “sectors” that has not been addressed by previous beam analysis systems. Laser manufactures, government agencies, and large corporations should love this feature as it will support the notion of networking to centralize control rooms and automation systems that make use of BeamGage's new (and replete) automation interface. The custom computational package feature described above should target many new niche markets. Many scientists process video data or compute new results from the information provided by beam analysis systems. They don't want to invest in a massive amount of effort interfacing cameras and writing complicated user interfaces. BeamGage has made it easy for them to do their custom computations but still use all the facilities of BeamGage to manage those results. We are really hoping this “round hole” can accommodate more of the disenfranchised “square pegs” out there.

BeamGage will be a big plus to users that want to sample optical paths in more than one location simultaneously.

Those that align two or more beams or an array of fibers will greatly benefit from partitioning features.

All users will enjoy the rich 2D/3D beam rendering and expanded computation, pass/fail, and statistics features.

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A: Going forward, Ophir-Spiricon will be able to add new video analysis applications on top of the existing video backbone, allowing instant use of all camera technologies wired to the backbone. Any new cameras added to the system will immediately be available to all analyzers built on the backbone. This capability will lower the development and maintenance costs of analyzers and cameras, and open the door for more innovation on the analysis side of that backbone.

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A: BeamGage is the top of the line profiler product. It will allow users to synchronize external Ophir power meters and provide live calibration. Eventually, the other software products will be rewritten to use the same video backbone.

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A: The last feature is the new Ribbon Tab Motif. BeamGage allows the user to configure the layout of the user interface (UI) a limitless number of ways. With all the other scalability features mentioned above, it is easy to forget that BeamGage's UI was built to scale across multiple monitors. All windows of the application can be docked inside a parent window or broken out of the parent to reside in any multi-monitor real-estate. But we did not forget the "monitorally challenged." The new window layout system works better than ever on small monitors.

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A: BeamGage is the industry's first beam profiling software to be newly designed, from scratch, using the most advanced tools and technologies. It took years for the total vision to emerge. BeamGage is the result of lessons learned from several predecessor systems. The constant need to interface new camera technology with different types of analysis tools forced us to realize that beam analysis software and sources must be able to evolve independent of one another and on top of a solid video transport backbone. The BeamGage effort was ALL about creating the "next generation laser beam profiler."

The first real breakthrough was recognizing the need for a beam analysis system that was self validating. (A method for users that need to know the difference between theoretical accuracy and measured accuracy; specifically, for anyone needing to validate measurements like laser manufacturers and regulatory users.) BeamGage needed to validate against theoretical beams and also adhere tightly to the ISO specification.

BeamGage includes an innovative utility, BeamMaker, which permits BeamGage to mathematically analyze synthetically generated beam profiles in the same way it would analyze real beam profiles. With BeamMaker, you can create synthetic profiles in virtually any camera frame format. Simulations can be done of width, height, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16... bit digitizers, as well as many other features like modal content, and noise and background effects. This opens up many reference beam processing options never available in the industry. Now a user can know the exact theoretically expected measurement, system induced error, and the difference between the theoretical and actual measurement.

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A: BeamGage uses industry standard Microsoft Windows technology and is fully compatible with most desktop or laptop PC's. Laser beam images are brought into the PC using a camera with a standard USB or Firewire interface.

BeamGage is the first fully scalable beam analysis system. Any number of cameras can be viewed/analyzed/controlled from any number of networked machines, simultaneously. This gives the user the ability leverage large amounts of hardware power (RAM, CPU, storage and networks) to solve more complex video analysis problems. It has even been optimized to allow local-machine analysis clients to run uninhibited by the slower cross-network clients.

BeamGage is the first system to implement true multi-client functionality. This allows the user to launch any number of analyzers that subscribe to a single camera source and partition the detector data for area of interest based analysis. In other words, you can analyze any number of spatially-separated beams on the same detector or compute different results on overlapping regions.

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A: One of the advantages for building software products on Microsoft technology is long-term viability, support, and user acceptance. Therefore, BeamGage is not likely to become obsolete in the near future. It should have a life of at least 8-10years.

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A: We expect BeamGage to open several very important doors that were not available until this product.

1. Laser manufacturers knowledge for future laser advancements. With BeamMaker, the user can synthetically generate theoretical beam conditions to learn what can be accomplished versus what is being accomplished.
2. Beam analysis can now be performed on multiple beams at one time. This serves the communication industry using multiple fiber bundles and also the high temperature, high energy research community doing multiple laser based fusion experiments.
3. Data distribution via the Internet BeamGage is location independent. Now a user no longer has to be in the same location as the experiment. Both the data collection and the data handling can be remote and managed using browser technology.
4. Academic research advancements BeamGage also supports custom computational packages. Users can now easily input their own algorithmic packages into BeamGage for custom computations.

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A: BeamGage is the first ground-up beam profiling development in 10 years. A complete rewrite, it has: a) capitalized on the latest technology advancements including client/server, Internet, and Windows tools advancements, and b) taken all the lessons learned from beam profiling users and extended proven ISO techniques to support all the new ways the laser manufacturers and user communities are innovating with lasers.

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A: A trademark has been received.

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A: Yes, depending on the camera. If it's USB or FireWire, it will only require a license key that may or may not need to be purchased depending on when you ordered the camera. The only USB cameras that will not work with BeamGage are the rare LBA-USB-L230, L130, or L070 cameras. If you camera uses a frame grabber card it will not work with BeamGage. BeamGage will not support the legacy frame grabber cards.

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A: Yes, you will still be able to use your FireWire or USB Ophir-Spiricon camera with the latest version of LBA and BeamStar after upgrading to BeamGage.

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A: BeamGage Standard runs on .NET 3.5, so you need to make sure you have installed .NET 3.5 along with Service Pack 1 and any other updates that are available prior to installing BeamGage Standard.

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A: To run your camera under BeamGage Standard it must be licensed. To license your camera, you need to contact our Service Department with the model number and serial number of the camera to check to see if you are eligible for a free upgrade license.

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A: Yes, BeamGage works with Windows 7 32 bit.

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A: BeamGage-Enterprise version, tentatively scheduled to be released July 2010, will run on Windows 7-64bit.

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A: Yes.

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A: Basic Automation Capability will be supported in BeamGage-Professional, not BeamGage-Standard, which is scheduled to be released Q1 2010.

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A: The first and most common of these have to do with the operator entering the wrong wavelength value. In this case the results are often well below 1, in the .8-.9 range. The second most common cause for results <1 is due to nominal accuracy tolerances. These are normal and expected. With a 5% M² tolerance results from ~.95 to ~1.05 are very possible. Averaging runs will normally return a mean value to something > than 1, but not always.
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A: Our wedge beam splitters have no coatings so they have a high damage threshold.
The damage threshold of the beam splitter was tested at higher than >5J/cm² for 10ns pulses.
The determining damage threshold is usually that of the C-mounted ND filters immediately in front of the camera, 50W/cm² or 1J/cm², or on other accessories after a beam splitter, such as the UV plate. For estimating power densities after the beam splitters, you have to do the arithmetic, including any beam reduction or expansion required along the way.
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A: The FX cameras connect to the computer via a standard Firewire IEEE 1394a port.
If a DESKTOP PC already has a 6 pin Firewire port installed, then this is usually OK.
If a customer does not have a Firewire port and needs to add a Firewire port to his computer, Ophir can supply a PCI Firewire card for DESKTOP PC's , or a PCMCI Firewire Cardbus for NOTEBOOKs + power supply.
Note: A power supply and adaptor is required for the camera with notebooks.
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A: Yes. The BeamStar software is supplied with the FX cameras and is freely available for distribution. It can be downloaded from our website Downloads section.
The BeamStar software will analyse data only from Ophir profiler cameras or video data files recorded with the BeamStar.
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A: For the latest version of the BeamStar application, you can freely download the BeamStar installation from our website, either as a demo or as a software version upgrade:
http://www.ophiropt.com/laser-measurement-instruments/beam-profilers/software/beamstar
For updating a previous version of BeamStar, you only need to download the first item on the download webpage.
Installation of the latest version will step you through uninstalling the previous BeamStar application, but will leave your saved data files intact in their original directories.
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A: All of our FX cameras are digital cameras. As such, there is exact 1 to 1 registration between the pixels in the CCD and the pixels in the computer. Therefore the width dimension depends mainly on one thing - the physical spacing of the pixels in the CCD. The CCD manufacturer's published pixel spacing for the CCD we use is more accurate than will be any calibration procedure involving a standard laser. There can be no drift over time. Temperature will have an effect according to the thermal coefficient of expansion of silicon.
(To achieve greater confidence or greater accuracy, one could use a microscope and accurate measurement slide to measure the CCD pixel spacing in microns directly).
The software does have a provision for entering a calibration factor. This is used particularly for the various magnifying or de-magnifying Optical Accessories. Overall scaling factor and separate factors for X and Y are supported.
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A:	1.	The noise level of the BeamStar FX 33 and 50 series cameras at 635nm on their most sensitive setting is ~10nW/cm2 (100µW/cm2 for saturation level). For other wavelengths, see graph below.
	2.	On a particular setting, the dynamic range on the screen is about 1000:1 (10 bit)
	3.	The shutter speed can vary from 1/frame rate to 1/8,000th s, a dynamic range of ~500:1
	4.	The camera gain can be varied from the screen from 0dB to 14dB, a dynamic range of 25:1
	5.	3 additional filters are provided with the BeamStar FX, 2-NG1 and 1-NG9. The transmission vs. wavlength is given below (upper curve NG9, lower curve NG1) The filters give a dynamic range of at least 50x50x10:1 = 25000:1 and as much as 200x200x20=8E5 depending on wavelength.
Thus with all of the above factors together: For CW lasers, the total dynamic range is >1000 x 500 x 25 x 25000 = 3E11:1 For pulsed lasers, the total dynamic range is >1000 x 25 x 25000 = 6E8:1

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A:	1.	Continuous lasers:
		a.	For CW radiation, with no filters installed, the damage threshold is about 10W/cm2. The damage threshold of the filters is ~50W/cm2.
		b.	On the shortest shutter opening (1/8,000th s) and lowest gain (0dB), the CCD saturates at ~0.4mW/cm2 for 635nm and correspondingly higher or lower for other wavelengths depending on if the sensitivity is lower or higher.
	2.	Pulsed lasers:
		a.	For nanosecond pulses, with no filters installed, the damage threshold to the CCD surface is ~1mJ/cm2. The damage threshold of the filters is ~1J/cm2.
		b.	For nanosecond pulses on the lowest gain setting (0dB), the CCD saturates at ~ 50 µJ/cm2 at 1064nm.

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A: The BeamStar FX cameras are carefully designed to reduce or eliminate interference effects as follows:
1.	The removable filter windows are all angled at 2 degrees so as not to interfere with each other.
2.	The filter windows are made of high quality optically flat polished glass so as not to distort the beam.
3.	The windows are large in size so they will be easy to clean and remove dust.
4.	All standard cameras have the window removed from the CCD. The BeamStar FX 66 does not have the window removed since it is primarily for large sized beams where interference effects are less serious.
5.	For almost total elimination of interference effects, use the variable attenuator (Ophir P/N 1Z17012) instead of the screw on ones. These attenuators are wedges so they completely eliminate interference effects.

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	A: The BeamStar FX variable attenuator allows continuous adjustment of beam attenuation while at the same time almost completely eliminating any interference effects due to its wedge design. The dynamic range of attenuation is shown below as a function of wavelength, where the blue line is the transmission in its most transmissive setting and the red line in its most attenuating position.

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A: In normal (CW) operation, the CCD is automatically triggered to start a measurement. At the end of the integration time, the voltage for each pixel is read out of the CCD serially and converted by the A-to-D into a 12-bit digital value When the PLD has finished reading all the pixels of the CCD it signals to the PC that data is ready to be read. After the PC has finished reading the data, the next available measurement of the CCD is again stored and the cycle continues.

In Pulsed Mode for Long Pulses ( >5µs ), the CCD is triggered by the trigger circuit instead of automatically as for CW mode. As the pulses are long, their intensity can be read by the CCD after it is triggered, by setting the appropriate shutter time for the length of pulses.

In Pulsed Mode for Short Pulses ( <5µs ), the same method as for long pulses cannot be used because once the circuit is triggered, the pulse has already finished. Therefore, the CCD is triggered automatically as with the CW mode, but after each measurement of the CCD, the PLD checks to see whether the trigger circuit received a pulse while the CCD was measuring. If so, the data is and the cycle continues as normal; otherwise a new CCD measurement is made.

In most cases of pulsed light sources, CW operation will be sufficient (and the intensity can be adjusted by adding filters or reducing the Shutter Time). In that case, the Shutter Time should be adjusted to capture a few pulses of light for each CCD integration, to avoid having 'empty' measurement cycles where no light is captured by the CCD. In the case that the pulses are slow, and/or the Shutter Time would have to be excessively long to guarantee capturing at least one pulse each time, the Pulse Mode operation can be used instead.

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A: What determines this is the amount of power getting through the slit of size 5µm x 3mm so as long as the light source is larger than 3mm to overfill the slit, the power density is what determines this.

At a typical wavelength of 670nm, the reading reaches full scale where the exposure time x power density ~ 2E-7 Watts * sec / cm2.

Since the longest exposure time is 7s, and we can easily read 1/100th of full scale, the lowest power density on the slit will be ~ 0.5nW/cm2. If the input is from a fiber, you can use the SMA fiber input accessory (Ophir P/N 1Z08205) with focusing lens (Ophir P/N 1G01236) to focus the fiber output onto the slit.

Since the shortest exposure time is 28µs, the highest power density we can read is ~ 1mW/cm2. In practice, we can always spread the beam as much as we want or reflect it off of a diffusing surface into the WaveStar so there is really no limit to how high a power we can measure.

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A: For 905nm the single shot energy threshold is ~ 100nJ/cm2 falling on the input slit of 5um x 3mm. At 1030 - 1100nm the sensitivity will probably be 10 to 100 times less.

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A: Not exactly known but far far more than the saturation intensity so you will never reach it if set up properly.

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A: The relative spectral sensitivity is given in the accompanying graphs. Note that the WaveStar corrects for differences in spectral sensitivity.





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A: In response to growing customer demand, WaveStar is being upgraded to include ActiveX controls. This will allow other applications (such as LabVIEW, LabWindows, Visual Basic, Visual C++) to control WaveStar parameters and collect measurements in real time. This will be included in the next release of WaveStar (February 2002).

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A: When the power calibration of the WaveStar is activated by pressing the P icon, the software puts in a calibration factor for each wavelength which compensates for the variations in sensitivity of the WaveStar at various wavelengths and produces a spectral curve which has the correct relative intensity values. For instance, if the light at one wavelength has twice the intensity of another, the display will show a relative height difference between the two wavelengths of a factor of 2.

The correction curve is generated by exposing the WaveStar to a NIST traceable calibrated wide band light source. The software compares the known relative intensity values of the lamp spectral curve with the values produced by the WaveStar and generates a correction curve.

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