Ocean Optics

Ocean Optics is the world leader in solutions for optical sensing. We enable diverse applications in medical and biological research, environmental monitoring, life science, science education, and entertainment lighting and display. Ocean Optics' extensive line of complementary technologies includes spectrometers, chemical sensors, metrology instrumentation, optical fibers, and thin films and optics. Recognized as the inventor of miniature fiber optic spectroscopy, we’ve sold over 175,000 spectrometers worldwide since 1992.

Background

Ocean Optics began in 1989 when the University of South Florida researchers developed a fiber optic pH sensor as part of an instrument designed to study the role of the oceans in global warming. They soon formed Ocean Optics, Inc., and their ingenious work earned a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

While designing the pH-monitoring instrument, the researchers wanted to incorporate with their sensor a spectrometer small enough to fit onto a buoy and were surprised to discover none existed. So, they built their own. In 1992, the founders of Ocean Optics filled a substantial need in the research community and changed the science of spectroscopy forever by creating a breakthrough technology: a miniature fiber optic spectrometer nearly 1,000 times smaller at 1/10 the cost of previous systems.

By April 1992, just 30 days after the successful completion of Phase II of the SBIR grant, Ocean Optics, Inc. introduced the S1000 - "The World's First Miniature Fiber Optic Spectrometer." As a result of the dramatic reduction in size and cost of optical sensing systems, applications once deemed too costly or technologically impractical using conventional spectrometers were not only feasible but practical.

Now almost 20 years later, we've placed almost 175,000 systems worldwide and enabled thousands of different applications - from cancer detection and color matching to plasma monitoring and particle size analysis. Ocean Optics' spectrometers have been specified everywhere from research vessels in the Gulf of Mexico to the Mars rover.

Markets Served

Ocean Optics has developed a diversified set of manufacturing arts that are essential to components in four key photonics segments: Optical Sensing, Optical Networking, Display Optics and Biophotonics. Primary markets include consumer electronics, process control, environmental monitoring, life sciences, and medical diagnostics. This company's systems have been used everywhere from in vivo to the ocean floor; on the Mars Rover and the Mir space station; and in Florida's orange groves and South America's rain forests.

Spectroscopic techniques supported include:

UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy

On-line spectroscopy

Spectroradiometry

Color spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy

Fluorescence spectroscopy

Fiber-optic chemical sensing

Spectral modeling

Spectral imaging

Major Products/Services

Fiber optic UV-VIS-NIR spectrometers ranging from miniature, modular systems to process analyzers

Low-cost Raman spectrometers for process control and other applications

Fiber-optic chemical sensors for measuring oxygen and pH

Patterned dichroic optical filters and precision coatings for display and telecommunications applications

Optical fibers, assemblies, and probes

Optical networking products, including A/R coatings, spectrum analyzers and optical filters for DWDM

Locations

Ocean Optics is headquartered in Dunedin, FL., and has a full-service sales office in The Netherlands, Germany, and China -- all supported by a worldwide network of distributors. Manufacturing facilities are located in Orlando, FL.