In this interview, Nicholas Goertz from Photon Control talks about their recently-launched interactive web application, the Custom Spectrometer Builder.
First of all, please can you provide a brief introduction to Photon Control, and your spectroscopy products?
Photon Control is a manufacturer of optical sensors. We provide sensing solutions to customers ranging from Fortune 100 companies, to small research labs. One piece of this expertise is our line of spectrometers. We offer a comprehensive range of spectrometers which are capable of measuring just about anything between 185 and 2500nm.
What are the main industries/research areas that your customers are based in?
The applications are very wide-ranging - as I’m sure your readers are aware, optics touches so many fields! Our customers range from engineers looking to monitor the quality of their plasma reactions, to an egg production plant wanting to monitor for traces of blood.
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Photon Control's Custom Spectrometer Builder - welcome screen
You have recently launched a web app – what functionality does this provide, and what made you decide to develop it?
The app is called the Custom Spectrometer Builder - it is a tool which lets customers design custom spectrometers which meet their specific needs.
For some of our customers, buying the right spectrometer is not trivial. This is because often there is no standard model for their application; they’re doing research, and trying to push the envelope. They need to optimize, not just select “combo C” from a catalogue. We have a great, cost effective spectroscopy platform that we use to design custom OEM solutions, so why not open it up for our customers to optimize the products to their needs?
How does the Spectrometer Builder make it easier for researchers or engineers to customize a spectrometer?
The inherent issue with customization is that it’s no easy task to know which of the market available parts will work, let alone how they’ll perform.
If you choose a grating with high groove density, you’re going to lose range, but improve resolution. If you pick a 10µm slit, how will that affect the throughput of the spectrometer? How much more sensitive is this detector at 185 over that other one, and is it worth the cost?
An engineer or researcher could ask us these questions until they’re blue in the face, but ultimately they’ll want to play with these choices themselves.
That’s why we took 5 years of production and test data, vetted each reasonable component offered in the market, and developed an empirical model.
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Photon Control's Custom Spectrometer Builder - slit selection screen
What was the development process like?
It took an engineer, a full stack developer and I a couple of months to develop the app. We wrapped our empirical model in a beautiful web-based interface, which works in all modern browsers – including on phones and tablets. A lot of the time was spent on interface testing, making sure that the experience is seamless and as easy to use as possible.
Have you had any feedback from users or testers yet?
Feedback has ranged from “neat!” to “whoa that’ll be really useful!” Everyone seems to really like it..jpg)
Where can we find more information about the app, and about Photon Control's spectroscopy products?
You can visit photon-control.com, or simply give us a call on 604-422-8861.
About Nicholas Goertz
Nicholas Goertz has a Bachelor of Science with primary areas in Physics and Mathematics. Nicholas has been with Photon Control Inc., in a Technical Sales & Support role, for over 2 years.
He has provided valuable feedback from the Companies’ customers and industry, which was an integral part in the development of the New Photon Control Custom Spectrometer Builder.
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