HAMAMATSU EPIC BRIEFING
FUTURE TRENDS Despite the fact that LiDAR has not taken off as fast as many stakeholders projected, Mats still sees a bright future in terms of meeting automotive customers’ expectations for detectors, light sources, or complete modules for LiDAR systems. Additionally, Europe is beginning to catch up with the electrification of vehicles and this is already creating a big pressure in their factories. Another anticipated growth area is environmental monitoring in relation to measuring pollutants for optimising processes.
highly vertically integrated, Hamamatsu can control the manufacturing processes of its components so that reliability testing can be done according to the standards required by the customer. This is particularly the case with the automotive industry where the challenge is to deliver large volumes with zero defect frequency. In this context, Hamamatsu can perform AEC-Q testing, the global standard for stress resistance that all passive electronic components must meet. Innovation: Being a Japanese company, Hamamatsu strives for continuous improvement - spurred on by manufacturing groups looking to refine process steps in order to increase the quality and also by the push of its customers. In the last two years, Hamamatsu’s products have been selected as finalists in the LASER World of PHOTONICS innovation award: in 2022, for its ORCA-Quest qCMOS camera, and in 2023, for its OPAL-Luxe, high dynamic range spectrometer. But as Mats points out, the most important aspect of innovation is what it does together with its customers: discussing their needs and the needs behind those needs; reinforced by Hamamatsu’s competence in specification review, design simulation, prototyping, and elevation together with the final determination of the customers’ specifications. To achieve this every sales engineer has a technical background such as electrical engineering or physics and is trained in their specific application field. VISIONARY APPROACH Finally, Hamamatsu has what they call a visionary approach, i.e., research in new technologies and product developments as well as investments in development have a timeline of 10 - 20 years, and even further ahead. The R&D expense- to-sales ratio is 5.4%, with a historical average of around 9% depending on the years, with Central Research Laboratories engaged in wide-ranging research, from medical and life science to basic and environmental science and manufacturing. Of particular importance is the company’s involvement in laser-based fusion research, which will be key to the realisation of laser fusion, the application of quantum beams represented by ions, electrons, and neutrons, and the research and development of new optical materials. The company is also heavily involved in label-free 3D imaging flow cytometry that can be used, for example, to visualize the internal structure of individual cells and help in the removal and diagnosis of cancer.
Mats Hede, Managing Director, Hamamatsu Photonics Norden.
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INDUSTRY FOCUS 2023/2024
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