Re: I have an idea for a stable light-source, but is there a market for it?
- From: "youzpalang@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <youzpalang@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 2 Feb 2006 07:49:30 -0800
Hi Mark:
You may want to look into biothech instruments for light source
application.
Some PCR instruments use white light source (e.g. Halogen lamp) for
their light source and they needed it to be very stable and with a long
life.
spinning wrote:
Dear Optics Group,
I came up with an idea (which I'm keeping confidential for now) for a
way to stabilize a filament light-source. The technique offers the
advantages of stability, quick warm-up time, and low-cost. My question
for you is: Do you think there is an unmet need in this area, and would
there be a market for a product based on a technology like this? For
example, in spectroscopy applications, it seems like it is very
important to have a light-source that can warm-up quickly, and be very
stable, without costing an arm and a leg.
I've spent a little time doing market research, and the answer to this
question is not clear to me. On the one hand, there are a lot of
mature, light-source products for applications in spectroscopy, etc.
On the other hand, many of the name brand products cost in the
neighborhood of $1000-$2000, and the technical specifications are not
very impressive. The specs for some of the better mainstream products
seem to be in the ballpark of 1% accuracy (or stability) after 1
minute, and 0.1% after 15-30 minutes. Other concerns are with the
issue of long-term drift of light-sources when used in studies lasting
several hours, as well as the accuracy with respect to the calibration
from day to day, where a typical optimistic spec might be 0.5%.
On the other end of the system, the instruments used for detecting
light and making measurements, in general seem to be much more accurate
and offer at least a few times higher resolution. Therefore, with
regard to the overall measurement accuracy, the light-source seems to
be the limiting component of the system; at least in conventional
designs. Thus, from a technical point of view, these factors suggest a
market need.
There seem to be two methods commonly used today for the electrical
power supply and lamp control; they are: 1) constant current source
(open loop), and 2) optical sensing with closed-loop feedback control.
The low-end products use the constant current method, which is very
simple and inexpensive, but does not really perform very well in terms
of warm-up time and stability. The second method, which uses optical
sensing and closed-loop feedback, offers perhaps 10 times greater
stability, and faster warm-up times. This method probably meets most
of the market needs; however, there seems to be room for improvement in
terms of performance. Also, while the method is simple in theory, in
the actual implementation, there seem to be non-trivial engineering
challenges. The electronics need to be relatively stable and
temperature compensated, which may incur higher costs for parts and
development of the design. Also, the light path from the lamp to the
optical sensor must be kept clean at all times, and this presents
technical challenges, design issues, all of which may add cost to the
product.
I expect that as time goes on, LEDs will be used more commonly in light
sources, due to their stability and longevity, especially as they
continue to increase in power and light-output. However, some of the
brightest LEDs use only about 1 watt of electricity. In terms of
efficiency, they are comparable to filament lamps. Since LEDs aren't
powerful enough for applications requiring 10's of watts, I would
expect that filament lamps will continue to be used in some
applications for at least the next several years.
My idea for light-source control is simple enough that I believe it
could be worth developing, even there were only a single niche market
totaling as little as $20k. Given that the total worldwide market for
spectroscopy is in the range of a few $100's of millions, it would seem
that there may be an opportunity here for development. I don't need to
make a "killing" on this, nor would I expect to. And I wish I
didn't have to be super secretive of my idea, but just in case it has
value I don't want to get ripped-off (It's happened to me before).
Also, I don't want to waste my time developing a product if there's no
market.
Any thoughts or advice?
Thanks, much appreciated.
-Mark
.
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