Buyer's Guide … the one with the Encyclopedia!

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Buying Optical Sensors

Top-level product category: icon detectors and measurements

More specific product categories: fiber-optic sensors, laser-based gas detectors, optical displacement sensors, optical force and pressure sensors, optical strain sensors, optical temperature sensors, optical thickness sensors, optical tilt sensors, optical vibration sensors

Related product categories: optical sensing instruments, laser rangefinders, optical time-domain reflectometers

Optical sensors measure various quantities such as dimensions, distances, forces, pressures, strains, stresses, deformations, and temperatures. Some systems offer distributed sensing along an optical fiber.

Making Good Purchase Decisions

As the most professional photonics purchasing portal, RP Photonics helps you to not only to find all relevant suppliers (not limited to our advertisers), but also to make good purchasing decisions.

NEW: Structured Decision Process

Purchasing involves a lot of responsibility. We recommend that you apply best practice by using the following structured process: Go through the following expandable sections, complete the form and finally come to a purchase decision. You can then print that to a PDF for documenting the process.

Our article on best practices for purchasing and another one explaining this tool give you valuable insights.

1. Understand the technical background

It is important to sufficiently understand the technology before buying.

Use the comprehensive learning resources of RP Photonics:

encyclopedia article optical sensors fiber-optic sensors

If you need personal help, contact RP Photonics to get technical consultancy.

2. Define your requirements

It is essential to fully understand and clearly define your requirements before you buy.

We recommend that you develop a list of clear specifications according to your specific needs, against which you can later check the suitability of found product offers:

To help you, we have already listed some aspects we recommend you consider when buying optical sensors. Of course, there may be other aspects that are relevant to your specific case.

This list is for your own preparation, and can later (possibly in modified form) be used for quotation requests to suppliers.

Otherwise, you will need to talk to your technical colleagues.

If you cannot sufficiently clarify your requirements, you may want to get technical consultancy from RP Photonics.

You find these buttons in the supplier list below or under "3. Find suitable suppliers".

3. Find suitable suppliers

We suggest three steps:

  • Below, you can find our list of suppliers for optical sensors. Use the checkboxes to mark possibly suitable suppliers.
  • The selected suppliers will appear below this list, along with your list of specifications. You can then indicate which specifications they meet according to your research. (You should finalize your specifications before doing this.)
  • Based on the results, you can finally choose a supplier that is hopefully a good enough fit.

Selected suppliers:

(none so far)

Decision

The most suitable supplier you found:

Comments, e.g. reasons for your choice, or things which still need to be checked:

Suppliers for Optical Sensors

42 suppliers for optical sensors are listed in the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide, out of which 4 present their product descriptions. Both manufacturers and distributors can be registered.

Suppliers with Advertising Package

presenting their product descriptions

Bringing light to measurement

HBK FiberSensing, S.A.
Via José Régio, 256
4485–860 Vilar do Pinheiro
Portugal
Profile page  Website  

The newly developed optical sensor line newLight enables large strain measurement ranges at increased long-term stability. It is the ideal choice for structural health monitoring due to its fast and easy installation and its resistance to environmental conditions such as humidity, rust, and salt even over extremely long distances.

The compatibility with standard telecom cables makes this line very cost efficient – especially for medium-to-high channel applications. The newLight range is based on the Fiber Bragg Grating technology and offers optical sensors for measurements of strain, temperature, accelerometer, and tilt.

In addition to fiber optical sensors that measure strain, temperature, acceleration, tilt or displacement, HBK also offers optical interrogators, software, as well as service and support for every application.

Product-specific web page

Fiber technology to sense the world.

Technica Optical Components, LLC
3657 Peachtree Rd NE
Suite 10A
Atlanta, GA 30319
United States
Profile page  Website  

See us at Optical Fiber Sensors 29 in Porto, Portugal, May 25–30!

optical sensors

Our fiber Bragg grating based packaged sensors are available in a wide range of optical specifications and mechanical configurations. For custom OEM sensors, our company works closely with each customer to optimize the packaging for the sensors they would like to have manufactured by us. Technica undertakes a rigorous development process before products release. We are committed to continuous improvements after release to insure performance to the highest of standards.

Product-specific web page
Sylex s.r.o.
Mlynské luhy 31
821 05 Bratislava
Slovakia
Profile page  Website  
optical sensors

Fiber Bragg grating sensors are commonly used in structural deformation and temperature monitoring. Short-period fiber grating sensors are commonly used, and their reflection wavelengths are called Bragg wavelengths. Such sensors are called FBG sensors.

Product-specific web page
Hamamatsu Photonics Europe
Arzbergerstr. 10
82211 Herrsching
Germany
Profile page  Website  

See us at LASER World of Photonics 2025 in Munich, June 24–27 (booth A3.311) and CLEO 2025 in Long Beach (CA), USA, May 4–9 (booth 627)!

optical sensors

Hamamatsu Photonics offers a wide range of optical sensors, including photodiodes, avalanche photodiodes (APDs), photo ICs, MPPCs (SiPMs), SPADs, photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), and phototubes. These sensors cover various applications from near-infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths to high-energy regions.

Product-specific web page

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Other Suppliers

Advanced Optical Solutions GmbH
Germany
Alxenses Company Ltd.
Hong Kong
AP Sensing GmbH
Germany
AtGrating Technologies Co., Ltd.
China
Profile page  Website  
Broptics Technology Inc.
China
engionic Fiber Optics GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  
FBG TECH
Korea 305–
Profile page  Website  
Fiberware
Germany
Finger Lakes Instrumentation
United States
Profile page  Website  
FiSens GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  
Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications
Germany
Profile page  Website  
Gamma Scientific
United States
Gigahertz-Optik GmbH
Germany
IDIL Fibres Optiques
France
Profile page  Website  
IL Photonics
Israel
Profile page  Website  
Lahat Technologies Ltd
Israel
Profile page  Website  
Laser Components GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  
LED Microsensor NT, LLC
Russian Federation
Profile page  Website  
LIOS Technology
Germany
Profile page  Website  
Lumoscribe LTD
Cyprus
Profile page  Website  
MICRO-EPSILON Optronic GmbH
Germany
NETWORK GROUP, s.r.o.
Czech Republic
Profile page  Website  
nortus Optronic GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  
Ocean Optics
United States
Oelabs Inc.
China
Profile page  Website  
Optical Scientific, Inc.
United States
Profile page  Website  
OptiConcepts Inc.
United States
Profile page  Website  
Optoi Microelectronics
Italy
OZ Optics
Canada
Physical Sciences Inc.
United States
Polytec GmbH
Germany
Proximion AB
Sweden
Profile page  Website  
SCRICO, Inc.
United States
Profile page  Website  
Sensofar
Spain
Soliton Laser- und Messtechnik GmbH
Germany
Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
Japan
Spectrecology
United States
Yangtze Optical Electronics Co., Ltd
China

If any displayed information is incorrect (e.g., a listed supplier does not offer such products) or legally problematic, please notify RP Photonics so that the problem can be solved.



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