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DIVISION
OVERVIEW
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Mission
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| The mission of the Optoelectronics Division is to provide the optoelectronics industry and its suppliers and customers with comprehensive and technically advanced measurement capabilities, standards, and traceability to those standards. |
| History |
| The Division is located in Boulder, Colorado, as a part of the NIST Boulder Laboratories. It was established in 1994, succeeding an earlier NIST organizational unit, the Optical Electronic Metrology Group of the Electromagnetic Technology Division. The Division's roots extend to the first NIST (NBS) work on optoelectronics research, begun in the early 1960s to develop techniques for measuring the output power, or energy, of a laser. Since the late 1960s, NIST research on measurement and standards to support the development and application of lasers has been centered in the Boulder Laboratories. Research related to optical communications was added in the mid 1970s, and expanded substantially in the late 1980s; it now represents more than half of the Division's effort. |
| Organization |
| The Division is organized into three Groups. Two Groups - the Sources, Detectors and Displays Group, and the Optical Fiber and Components Group - focus on the characterization of optoelectronic components. The Optoelectronic Manufacturing Group focuses on measurements that can lead to more efficient manufacturing of optoelectronic materials and components. |
| Research |
| Most of the research performed in the Division is conducted either with NIST appropriated funds or under contract to other U.S. Government agencies. Results are normally placed in the public domain through publication in the open literature. Some results become the subject of patents, and are available for license. The Division also conducts proprietary research in collaboration with industry and universities through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs).The Division and its predecessor organizations, have been providing calibration services for the characterization of lasers and detectors since 1967 and each year conducts over 200 calibrations for about 50 customers. It also provides the industry with standard reference materials, which are artifact standards that can be used to calibrate a customer's instrumentation. |
| Industry and Standards |
| The Division maintains close contact with the optoelectronics industry through major industry associations, including the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA), the Optics and Electro-optics Standards Council (OEOSC), the Lasers and Electro-optics Manufacturer's Association (LEOMA), and the Council for Optical radiation Measurements (CORM). Division staff members represent NIST to the major domestic and international standards organizations active in optoelectronic:the Telecommunications Industries Association (TIA), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and provide impartial technical expertise in their negotiations. |
| Courses and Conferences |
| The Division offers an annual Short Course on Laser Measurements and biennially organizes a major international conference on optoelectronic measurements, the Symposium on Optical Fiber Measurements (SOFM). |
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Page updated 07/15/2008