HOLOCAM

A compact imaging system, which allows to measure the local phase of light per pixel (phase-precision = bit-quantisation, i.e. a 8 bit detector yields a precision of approx. 0.01 rad).

The HOLOCAM has been successfully tested in the laboratory. It works without reference beam.

The HOLOCAM opens up a new quality in optical vision.

INNOVATION

The HOLOCAM has been made possible by two major improvements:

1) a new way to generate interferograms by a 3D field transport which transforms the fields by "winding" them. The winding can be modelled exactly.

2) a new representation of the interference pattern as a linear function of the (unknown) phase. The phase-solution is obtained by solving an equivalent problem: finding the lowest energy state in a linear system. This approach is stable, local and does not use any approximation.

REFERENCE BEAM

In digital holography (as is the case here), the omnipresent reference beam is a historical burden, without further use. It limits precision, complicates or hinders the setup. The IFE invention has eliminated the reference beam. 

Application

Optical metrology
 - Autocollimator (the concept of direction/angle/distance/speed)
 - Characterization of free form surfaces (*)
 - Calibration, quality control

Adaptive optics (market value 2016: 10 Bill. $, + 20 % p.a. )  
 - Astronomy (*)
 - Ophthalmology (*)

Surface probing
 - Thin film evaluation, ellipsometry (*)
 - multi-λ techniques (synthetic band pass filter)

Holographic imaging (market value 2014: 0.8 Bill $, + 37 % p.a.)
- 3D bio imaging, machine vision (multi-k, multi-λ) (*)  
- Chemical imaging, coherent non-linear optics
- Tomography (synthetic aperture)

Communication, Light as information carrier
- Optical communication
- encryption

For the topics with (*), HOLOCAM design examples are available.

the HOLOCAM-project

The HOLOCAM-project tries to bundle scientific and industrial efforts to bring the HOLOCAM to market.

Interested parties are invited to contact Dr. Martin Berz / IFE GmbH