Optech Inc.

Canadian-owned and operated since 1974, Optech Incorporated is the global market leader in the development, manufacture and support of advanced laser-based surveying, mapping and imaging instruments.

Optech consists of five major divisions: Terrestrial Survey, Marine Survey, Industrial & 3D Imaging, Space and Advanced Technology. Each division represents a specialty, but all share a common mission — to design and manufacture state-of-the-art precision measurement instruments that utilize lidar (light detection and ranging).

Optech began as a research and development firm specializing in applications for laser technology, and has grown from small business to world leader, with over 200 employees and a wholly-owned U.S.-based subsidiary.

In the 1980s Optech pioneered airborne laser bathymetry and developed the compact, versatile laser rangefinder that the airborne terrestrial and industrial products are based on.

In the 1990s Optech’s ground-based Differential Absorption Lidar Systems(DIAL) were installed at several Arctic sites to monitor stratospheric ozone.