Optoelectronics is the study and application of electronic devices that source, detect and control light, usually being considered a sub-field of photonics. The light in optoelectronic systems often includes invisible forms of radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR), in addition to visible light. Optoelectronic devices are electrical-to-optical or optical-to-electrical transducers, or instruments that use such devices in their operation. Optoelectronic systems are based on the quantum mechanical effects of light on semiconducting materials, sometimes in the presence of electric fields. Examples of these effects are photoelectric or photovoltaic effect, used in photodiodes (including solar cells), phototransistors, photomultipliers, Integrated optical circuit (IOC) elements, photoconductivity, used in photoresistors, photoconductive camera tubes, charge-coupled imaging devices, stimulated emission, used in injection laser diodes, quantum cascade lasers, Lossev effect, or radiative recombination, used in light-emitting diodes or LED, photoemissivity used in photoemissive camera tubes. 

Below are some specific areas of optoelectronics for which we provide engineering services:

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CUSTOM LED AND DETECTOR DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

We create custom designs for LED and detector components and assemblies to meet your specific requirements and at the same time are manufacturable. We have a team of engineers with expertise in LED applications who are ready to assist you in the start to finish development of your product. Our engineering team can offer guidance on the wavelength, die, and output requirements. We'll examine the emission and/or detection components of your application and help you determine what type of LED package(s) your product needs.

• Design and development of custom LED and detector arrays and assemblies

• Single or multi-chip emitter and detector packages or modules for multiple wavelength applications

• Single or multiple LED die configurations

• Chip on board (COB)

• Unique component packaging solutions

We seamlessly integrate our design processes into the customer's systems to provide service that is always dependable and efficient. Using the latest CAD software and engineering tools, AGS-Engineering will help you to accelerate your LED product design and development, operating within the parameters of your primary concept or specification documents. Whether your idea will be an LED emitter (such as machine vision or illumination), or includes an LED detector, we are your full-service partner for the creation of custom LED devices. Another area we specialize on is the complete design and manufacturing of custom light rings for applications ranging from medical instrumentation to machine vision. Chip on board configurations (COB) can contain both emission and detection chips within a very small package design. Wavelengths covered include UV, Visible (VIS) and Infrared (IR) ranges from 280nm to 2.6μm.

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LED ASSEMBLY PROTOTYPING

For both surface mount and through-hole LED assembly as well as the combination of the two, we offer the production and engineering capabilities needed to meet your unique manufacturing specifications. We offer quick-turnaround emitter and detector product development. Our optoelectronics experts can develop an exact prototype for you that will get you to market faster. From short manufacturing runs to large & full-scale production, we provide an efficient and cost-effective solution to LED assembly-related challenges. Additional Custom Assembly Services:

• Complete turn-key manufacturing from Epitaxial growth to finished product

• Full optical parametric characterization services

• Full electrical parametric characterization services

• Reliability testing

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TESTING AND EVALUATION

We provide our customers with extensive testing and evaluation capabilities, ensuring your product is functioning exactly as expected. Whether you procure your optoelectronic components from us or not, it doesn't matter, our testing and evaluation services are available for you. AGS-Engineering's testing and evaluation services include:

• Burn on

• IV / power output sorting

• Vf forward voltage / Vr reverse voltage testing

• Current gain sorting

• Wavelength sorting

• Angular measurements

• CCT and chromaticity coordinates

• Reliability testing, Failure Analysis, Microscopic inspection

• Evaluation of Detector Spectral Response

• Detector efficiency

• Capacitance Measurements

• Measuring Dark Current

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LED MANUFACTURING AND ASSEMBLY CAPABILITIES

• SMD, thru-hole, and chip on board (COB) assembly

• High-density pick and place

• From prototyping to small to high-volume production runs

• PCB design and fabrication (details are below)

• Single & multilayer / Flexible & rigid

• Aluminum, FR4, ceramic, and polyimide

• Schematic capture

• Simulation

• CAD/CAM

• In-circuit testing

• Reliability testing

• Potting, plastic injection molding, metal fabrication

• Conformal coating

• IPC standard assembly

• Optical and thermal analysis

• Custom packaging

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Some Custom LED Applications:

• Machine Vision

• Instrumentation Backlighting

• Industrial Line Detection

• Surgical and Medical Lighting

• Microscopy and Endoscopy

 

MACHINE VISION LIGHTING

We offer machine vision lighting. We design the printed circuit boards and specify the material composition since this is critical for proper die attach and wire bonding of the bare die. We can assure uniformity of light across large surface areas. From initial concept through final product we can help you achieve maximum lighting for your machine vision application.

• State of the art designs incorporating chip on board (COB)

• Tight sorting options

• Housing design and manufacturing

• Performance guarantee

 

OPTOELECTRONIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND MANUFATURING SUPPORT

We offer complete consulting, design, manufacturing, and logistics solution that moves an optoelectronic product from its initial concept into design, through volume production, quality control testing, and distribution. We specialize in optoelectronic components from the ultraviolet range through visible, near infrared, and SWIR. Here are some of the optoelectronic components we can help you with:

• InGaAs/InP epitaxial wafers

• Visible emitters

• IR emitters

• PIN photodiodes

• Avalanche photodiodes

• Photo reflectors

• UV emitters

• SWIR emitters

• RGB chip on board assemblies

• Thru-hole or surface mount assemblies

• High-temperature and current PCB assemblies

• RGB strip assemblies

With the ability to detect light in the UV, visible, and infrared spectrums (covering the spectrum of detection from 150nm to 2,600nm), photo detectors such as photo transistors, PIN photodiodes, and avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are being used in many applications, such as card readers, optical sensors, fiber optics and optical communications. If you have an idea for a product requiring a detector, let AGS-Engineering's optoelectronics engineers guide you through the development process, from proof-of-concept through manufacture. We have the ability to customize at the chip level.

Typical detectors we work on includes:

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• InGaAs/InP epitaxial wafers

• Specialty photo detectors (GaP Schottky)

• Photovoltaic silicon PIN photodiodes

• Silicon photoconductive PIN photodiodes

• Silicon photo transistors

• Silicon Avalanche photodiodes (APDs)

• InGaAs PIN photodiodes

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Detector dies can be placed in a variety of packages ranging from metal can to standard 3mm and 5mm plastic packages, to surface-mount ... etc. If you need, any custom package assembly is possible. We will help you determine if you need a single detector or an array. We will determine what package(s) and wavelength(s) your application will require.

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PCB & PCBA DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

A printed circuit board, or briefly denoted as PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks, or traces, etched commonly from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). The term PCB is often used informally for both bare and assembled boards. PCBs are sometimes single sided (meaning they have one conductive layer), sometimes double sided (meaning they have two conductive layers) and sometimes they come as multi-layer structures (with outer and inner layers of conductive paths). To be more explicit, in these multi-layer printed circuit boards, multiple layers of material are laminated together. PCBs are inexpensive, and can be highly reliable. They require much more layout effort and higher initial cost than either wire-wrapped or point-to-point constructed circuits, but are much cheaper and faster for high-volume production. Much of the electronics industry's PCB design, assembly, and quality control needs are set by standards that are published by the IPC organization.

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We have engineers specialized in PCB & PCBA design & development and testing. If you have a project you would like us to evaluate, contact us. We will take into consideration available space in your electronic system and use the most suitable EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools available to create the schematic capture. Our experienced designers will place the components and heat sinks in the most suitable locations on your PCB. We can either create board from schematic and then create the GERBER FILES for you or we can use your Gerber files to manufacture the PCB boards and verify their operation. We are flexible, so depending on what you have available and what you need done by us, we will do it accordingly. As some manufacturers require it, we create the Excellon file format too for specifying drill holes. Some of the EDA tools we use are:

• EAGLE PCB design software

• KiCad

• Protel

 

AGS-Engineering has the tools and knowledge to design your PCB no matter how large or small.

We use the industry’s top tier design tools and are driven to be the best.

• HDI Designs with micro vias and advanced materials - Via-in-Pad, laser micro vias.

• High speed, multi layer digital PCB designs - Bus routing, differential pairs, matched lengths.

• PCB Designs for space, military, medical and commercial applications

• Extensive RF and analog design experience (printed antennas, guard rings , RF shields...)

• Signal integrity issues to meet your digital design needs (tuned traces, diff pairs...)

• PCB Layer management for signal integrity and impedance control

• DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, SAS and differential pair routing expertise

• High density SMT designs (BGA, uBGA, PCI, PCIE, CPCI...)

• Flex PCB designs of all types

• Low level analog PCB designs for metering

• Ultra low EMI designs for MRI applications

• Complete assembly drawings

• In-Circuit Test data generation (ICT)

• Drill, panel and cutout drawings designed

• Professional fabrication documents created

• Autorouting for dense PCB designs

 

Other examples of PCB & PCA related services we offer are

• ODB++ Valor review for a complete DFT / DFT design verification.

• Full DFM review for manufacturing

• Full DFT review for testing

• Part database management

• Component replacement and substitution

• Signal integrity analysis

 

If you are not yet at the PCB & PCBA design phase, but need the schematics of the electronic circuits, we are here to help you. See our other menus such as analog and digital design to learn more about what we can do for you. So, if you need the schematics first, we can prepare them and then transfer your schematic diagram into a drawing of your printed circuit board and subsequently create the Gerber files.

 

AGS-Engineering’s worldwide design and channel partner network provides a channel between our authorized design partners and our customers in need of technical expertise and cost-effective solutions in a timely manner. Click the following link to download our DESIGN PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM brochure. 

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If you would like to explore our manufacturing capabilities along with our engineering capabilities, we recommend you to visit our custom manufacturing site http://www.agstech.net where you will also find details of our PCB & PCBA prototyping and manufacturing capabilities.