When Solid State Supplies added PAX pulsed xenon light sources to its existing portfolio of Excelitas illumination solutions, it was the latest step in the development of a fruitful photonics partnership that’s been successfully supporting OEMs for more than 30 years.
Excelitas PAX light sources are compact, integrated modules containing a xenon flash lamp, trigger circuit and power supply in an EMI-suppressant enclosure. Their introduction to Solid State’s range of LEDs and light sources enables the technical team to support applications such as analytical instrumentation more comprehensively.
The announcement may have seemed like just another press release, but the story behind it spans decades, bringing together intriguing strands of photonics heritage and showing how successful a partnership can be between a forward thinking, innovative manufacturer and an agile, technically driven distributor.
Excelitas Technologies is a global leader in photonic innovation, delivering a diverse photonics technology portfolio to meet the lighting, optronic, detection and optical technology needs of customers across a vast array of applications. Many of today’s most significant technological advancements are powered by tiny particles of energy in the form of light. As we monitor the world around us, develop new medicines, push the boundaries of production processes and explore the frontiers beyond our planet, we rely increasingly on high speed communication, tightly specified illumination and extremely precise measurement. As the need for accuracy and precision has increased, optical measurement and communication methods have increasingly become the go-to solution.
Ultra-precise optical fabrication, advanced coating techniques and complex optomechanical integration enable Excelitas to lead the way in the generation, shaping and detection of light. A forward-looking strategy has enabled the company to establish an extensive global footprint, with huge development sites, cleanrooms, and wafer fabs spread across Europe, North America, and the APAC region.
The company’s commitment to a sustainable tomorrow resonates particularly well with today’s increased awareness of the fragility of our planet and the need to conserve our resources like never before.
Adding value to the supply chain
Solid State Supplies is a technical, franchised distributor committed to going the extra mile and enhancing the services it offers in the supply chain. Recognising the growing importance of photonic technologies, in 2018 the company acquired Pacer Components, a specialist in light-based technologies. As well as a comprehensive photonics and display portfolio, the acquisition brought a dedicated value-added UK facility complete with an ISO14644-1 class 7 70m2 clean room (with class 5 enclosure for critical builds), an environmental chamber and a range of specialist capabilities for precision optical assembly.
Set up in the late 1980s specifically to focus on optoelectronics and photonics, Pacer had recognised that this niche sub-section of electronics requires specialist, in-depth knowledge in order to exploit the technology and get the best out of it for end users. Determined to offer customers the very best that photonics had to offer, Pacer partnered early on with specialist optoelectronic manufacturer EG&G, who offered an extensive and expanding light detector and sensor, laser emitter and illumination technologies portfolio. In 1999, EG&G acquired the Analytical Instrumentation division of Perkin Elmer, operating as Perkin Elmer up until 2010 when Excelitas Technologies Corp. was established as a spin-off.
The partnership with Pacer has flourished for over three decades, with the focus and expertise of Pacer’s team bringing great results, and now has a new lease of life as Pacer joins forces with Solid State Supplies. Both companies share a commitment to adding genuine value to the supply chain, going far beyond traditional distribution to offer good technical support and suggest solutions to engineering challenges. Our engineers assist in specifying, evaluating and integrating components and technologies into new designs, and offer technical support to help resolve any prototyping issues. We also provide a host of Value-Added Services from our secure, bespoke ESD facility in Redditch, including helping to find hard-to-source products.
The advantages of pulsed xenon technology
Analytical instruments commonly incorporate integral light sources, measuring the absorption, transmission or reflection of the light by a target substance. If the nature of the target gas or fluorophore is known, very specific wavelengths of light can be employed, but for unknown target substances a wide range of wavelengths across the UV, visible and IR spectrum may be required to identify where interaction occurs.
Pulsed xenon technology is not new, but has significant advantages in specific aspects of its application. The continuous broad spectral output of a xenon source enables analysis of a wider range of target gases, or detection of unknown gases, by monitoring interaction with multiple target wavelengths across UV, visible and IR.
The spectral distribution of xenon is very high in the blue and ultraviolet wavelength regions, so a pulsed xenon source gives better UV output than other solutions. Available LED options are limited at these low wavelengths. Pulsed xenon solutions typically give higher UV output than most continuous style lamps, due to physical limitations and different pressures in the lamps.
Lightning in a can
Xenon flash lamps are confined arc flashlamps which produce microsecond to millisecond duration pulses of broadband light of high radiant intensities. The arc itself is not rotationally symmetrical, presenting challenges when trying to capture as much as possible of the available light output from the lamp and getting it to the target. The best possible mechanical alignment is required to minimise instability, which is why Excelitas modules feature a pre-aligned arc position precisely located relative to a datum feature on the mounting surface of the case. This pre-aligned arc position allows for “plug and play” field replacement, eliminating alignment time and reducing OEMs’ costs and machine down time.
Capable of operating at high repetition rates, these flashlamps generate light over a continuous spectrum from ultraviolet to infrared, at very high powers from 2W/25mJ to 60W/1J. PAX light engine modules are ideal for clinical diagnostic, in-vitro diagnostics, life sciences, drug discovery, proteomics, and analytical instrumentation applications. The compact size of the new µPAX-3 is particularly of interest to product designers and engineers developing small form factor analytical systems for point of care and field use applications such as medical analytics, water quality monitoring and environmental analysis.
Solutions below 10W tend to be completely integrated modules; above this, it may be possible to separate out the lamp, trigger module and power circuit in an end user system so the different elements can be replaced individually. Excelitas has experience in customisable solutions for OEMs, made much easier by the proximity of their engineering and manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, US.
The synergy is apparent between Excelitas, Pacer and Solid State Supplies as they each listen to customers, offer customised solutions, add value and deliver technical excellence.
