Consulting Service
The Best Way to Better Results No matter how well-staffed, how well-trained, and how well-equipped your company is, there are times when you need an extra hand to see a project or idea to completion. Photon Engineering offers that support through our Consulting Services. With 70+ years of combined engineering experience, our consultants are experts in their fields, proficient in all major commercial design and analysis software and have worked in all phases of optical engineering. Our engineering services include: Optical design of imaging and non-imaging systems End-to-end optomechanical modeling and simulation Stray light analysis Scatter theory and modeling Algorithm and custom software development Debugging of optomechanical hardware Contamination control Thermal self-emission analysis Beam propagation Tolerancing, testing and prototype development Component specification, drawings and vendor interfacing Experience Completing the Toughest Challenges Photon Engineering has partnered with clients on hundreds of successful consulting projects ranging from an observatory spectrometer to a human tissue scanner. Our engineers have the skill-set and experience required to assist you in product concept, design, analysis and production. Some representative systems that we ve developed as consultants are: Observatory spectrometer Solar concentrator VIS and IR beam shaping optics IR re-imaging optics Zoom projector lens Aspheric IR null lens Telescope relay optics Observatory baffle design Particle detector optics Excimer beam homogenizer TIR illumination lens
The Advantages of a Qualified Partner Why should your firm partner with Photon Engineering to develop solutions to your optical engineering challenges? Reporting & Documentation that Keeps You in the Loop The Right Experience Partner Every engineer at our firm has years of experience working on a range of successful projects. That means we can hit the ground running your firm never pays for training and startup expenses. The Lower Cost Partner Our experience, size and industry connections allow us to keep our rates low while offering the highest level of service. Customers pay for engineering services and not company overhead. The Collaborative Partner We typically assign projects to each engineer according to their primary area of expertise. However, our collaborative approach to solving our clients challenges means that your project gains the benefits and leverage of our entire firm s experience. The Property Protection Partner Photon Engineering s contracts protect the customer s intellectual property rights and ownership. This is your project we are here to support you. The Software Savvy Partner Our engineers have access to the most common software packages for optomechanical design and analysis. These packages include: FRED CODE V ZEMAX OSLO ASAP TracePro Mathcad MATLAB SolidWorks Rhinoceros We can also develop custom software tools to address specific requirements within the statement of work. In addition to direct communication, our clients can expect to receive clear, concise, and complete documentation during every phase of the project. These reports include: Optical designs (CODE V, OSLO, ZEMAX ) Optical and mechanical prescriptions (FRED, ASAP, TracePro ) Written reports and briefing charts Fabrication and part drawings Quotations from vendors Prototype and production hardware (through teaming arrangements with other companies) LCD projector reflector Phase-shifting interferometer VIS and IR laser welding optics All reflective seeker Head mounted display Earth resource satellites/sensors Assembly line barcode illuminator Star tracker baffle Human tissue scanner Fluorescence detection systems LSST stray light analysis Ocular Hartmann-Shack system Injection molded PC camera lens Telecentric laser welding lens Plastic camera phone lens Laser line generator Interocular lens LED based displays LED illuminator for light pen Head mounted surgical illuminator Lightpipes for displays/buttons TMT stray light analysis Microscope illumination system DMD microstereolithography system Hyperspectral imager UV spectrometer Remote sensing telescope design Planetary detection telescope Doubly telecentric medical device relay lens VIS-SWIR fisheye lens SWIR immersed microscope objective SWIR calibration system
Contracts that Give You Choices Time & Material The statement of work (SOW) is developed either by the client alone or in conjunction with Photon Engineering. In most cases, the SOW is very specific; sometimes, the client has only a general idea he/she wishes to explore and the resulting SOW is intentionally vague. We offer two types of consulting contracts: Time and Materials; and Firm, Fixed Price. Once we have a clear understanding of your project requirements, we ll recommend the contract type that best suits your needs. Client establishes not-to-exceed (NTE) budget. Photon Engineering s consulting engineers work on the contract at an hourly consulting rate and report progress as requested by client. Tasks get defined and directed in real time by the client. Client controls work product and costs. Contract is finished when the client decides it s done. Firm, Fixed Price The statement of work (SOW) is developed either by the client alone or in conjunction with Photon Engineering. The SOW and schedule will be very specific. Photon Engineering submits a firm, fixed price proposal compliant with the SOW and schedule. Photon Engineering s consulting engineers work on the contract and report progress per SOW. Work product is delivered to client on-time and on-budget. Terms and Conditions We ask for an upfront payment of a percentage of the estimated contract cost to get started on your project. You ll receive an invoice upon completion of the project or as stated in the terms of the contract. We request payment of invoices in 30 days.
Expertise in Your Industry Aerospace and Defense High performance opto-mechanical systems require detailed end-to-end modeling for performance characterization and risk reduction. Optical Design Capability Photon Engineering has the experience and resources to be your qualified optical design partner at any stage in your product development lifecycle. From advising on product specifications to delivering fully toleranced layouts of complex color-corrected, multi-channel systems, we can provide the value and expertise that guarantee success. In our two decades of providing optical design services we have delivered designs in virtually all market segments; refractive HUD projection lens (defense), LED based microscope illuminator (commercial), planetary detection telescope (research), and hyperspectral imager (government), to name a few. The example above is a doubly telecentric F/7.5 relay lens designed for use in a medical application. Our engineers have decades of experience in software-based stray light analysis and can partner with your team to provide subject matter expertise and modeling validation. The images below were generated during the stray light characterization of ghosts in a dual channel spectrometer, and during a feasibility study for space operational planet finding telescope. Biomedical Systems Engineering Our consulting staff includes veterans of the medical device industry that understand the sector s technology and language and can make your product successful in a crowded marketplace. Over the past two decades, Photon Engineering has been contracted for the design and analyses of otoscopes, funduscopes, flow cytometers, and collinear illumination systems, among others. The system shown above is a representative 3D optical layout of a confocal tissue scanner which could be used to perform analyses such as characterizing the excitation beam volume energy density at the tissue sample or analyzing the SNR impact of specular ghosts in the collinear illumination optics. Contact us for a free consultation today. Learn more about Photon Engineering and how we can be a valued partner in helping your ideas become finished products.
Excellence at Every Level Richard Pfisterer President of Photon Engineering M.S., University of Rochester Patrick McNenny VP Engineering Services B.S., University of Rochester K. Scott Ellis Consulting Engineer PhD, University of Arizona Mr. Richard Pfisterer received his Masters of Science in Optical Engineering from The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester in 1980. He also has a BS in Optical Engineering (Rochester, 1979). Since 1997 he is the President and co-founder of Photon Engineering in Tucson, Arizona. His strengths are lens design, stray light analysis, systems modeling, and optical software development. He is a principal author of Photon Engineering s stray light short course and a co-developer of FRED optical engineering software. With over 30 years hardware experience, he is a recognized expert in stray light analysis and suppression techniques; most recently he served on the James Webb Space Telescope stray light review committee. Prior to forming Photon Engineering, he worked at Optical Engineering Resources (1996-1997; Tucson, Arizona), Breault Research Organization (Senior Research Scientist; 1989-1996; Tucson, Arizona), and TRW (Section Head Optical Design/Senior Technical Staff; 1982-1989; Redondo Beach, California). He is a member of the OSA and SPIE, chairman of the Lens Design Technical Group (SPIE) and holds two lens design patents. Patrick McNenny received his BS in Optical Engineering from the Institute of Optics, University of Rochester in 1983. In addition to managing consulting projects and writing proposals, he performs optical system designs and analyses. His strengths include project management, lens design, and system modeling. With over 30 years of experience, he has designed and analyzed optical systems in the aerospace (TRW), commercial imaging (ECRM Imaging Systems), and medical device (Baxter Healthcare, Applied Medical) industries. Prior to joining Photon Engineering, he worked at Applied Medical Resources (Sr. Vice President; 1995-2009; Rancho Santa Margarita, California), ECRM Imaging Systems (Principal Optical Engineer; 1994-1995; Tewksbury, Massachusetts), Baxter Healthcare (Project Engineer; 1988-1994; Irvine, California), and TRW (Optics Technical Staff; 1983-1988; Redondo Beach, California). Dr. K. Scott Ellis is a senior optical engineer at Photon Engineering and in addition to his PhD also holds an MS in optics (Arizona, 1992) and BS in optics (Rochester, 1989). His strengths lie in lens design, optical systems imaging analysis, stray light analysis, and design and analysis of illumination systems. At Photon Engineering he has been the stray light lead of LSST (NOAO), Discovery Telescope (Lowell Observatory), TMT MOBIE (UC Santa Barbara), and IRIS (SAO-Harvard). From 1997 to 2001 he was a Systems Engineer II at Raytheon Systems Company, Tucson, Arizona. At Raytheon he primarily did optical design and analysis of passive IR sensors, especially for the LEAP (long-wave passive IR with a three mirror anastigmat), the Conformal Optics Program (mid-wave IR sensors with aspheric domes), and Javelin (scanning longwave IR sensor). From 1987 to 1997 he was employed at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia as an Aerospace Technologist. At NASA he worked on spaceborne LIDAR systems (Picasso, Lidar Tech Sat, Advanced Technology Lidar, and SPARCLE), LITE (cloud and aerosol LIDAR, LASE (water vapor DIAL), and passive remote sensors (SABER-NPOESS, PACE, SAFIRE, SAGE III, and GAMS.
James E. Harvey Senior Optical Engineer PhD, University of Arizona Ryan Irvin Consulting Engineer M.S., University of Arizona Karlton Crabtree Consulting Engineer PhD, University of Arizona Dr. James Harvey recently retired from the University of Central Florida where he was an associate professor in the College of Optics and Photonics and a senior staff member of the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL). After receiving an A.B. degree in Physics from Kansas Wesleyan University, he went on to earn an M.S. degree in Physics from Wayne State University and a Ph.D. in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona. Before joining Photon Engineering and academia, he was involved in President Reagan s Star Wars program as an on-site contractor at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, NM and also worked on a variety of NASA space science programs, including the Chandra Observatory, as a Senior Scientist with the Perkin-Elmer Corporation. Dr. Harvey is credited with over 200 technical publications and conference presentations in the areas of optical science and engineering. He is a Fellow and past board member of SPIE and a member of OSA. Ryan Irvin received his Masters of Science in Optical Engineering from the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona in 2009. He also holds a Bachelors degree in Physics from Arizona State University. Ryan s expertise lies in system level opto-mechanical analysis and characterization and custom analysis tool development. His work experience includes imaging and illumination system design, stray light analysis and coherent beam propagation analysis. Prior to joining Photon Engineering, Ryan worked for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at the FLWO installation. Dr. Karlton Crabtree is a Senior Optical Engineer at Photon Engineering. He holds a PhD from the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences and a B.S. in Physics from San Diego State University. Karlton s strengths lie in the areas of lens design, design and analysis of polarization critical systems and components, stray light analysis, and physical optics. Prior to joining Photon Engineering, he was a research scientist at the University of Arizona. He is a member of both OSA and SPIE and has multiple patents. Our engineers are leaders in the field and are accomplished at completing the most complex optical engineering challenges. Put them to work on your next project.
Contact us for a free consultation today. Learn more about Photon Engineering and how we can be a valued partner in helping your ideas become finished products. Trademark Statement FRED is a proprietary product of Photon Engineering LLC. Other trademarks or marks are the property of their respective companies. 310 S. Williams Blvd. Suite 222 Tucson, Arizona 85711 520.733.9557 520.733.9609 Fax sales@photonengr.com www.photonengr.com