EtherGlow Illumination - Patented Illumination Technology

EtherGlow is a patented (U.S. Patent No. 5,734,498) illumination technique that provides even illumination in some very demanding applications. It works by making each point a light source, which emanates light in all directions. This makes a surface of light emitting points, with zero coherence length.

EtherGlow comes in a variety of standard configurations and can be built into tooling fixtures. EtherGlow works in both transmitted and reflected microscope applications and macro optic application with field of view up to 1". EtherGlow provides instant Koehler illumination with no condenser change when the magnification changes.

Here are two comparison photos below. The EtherGlow image shows the cell phone display characters very clearly; the fiber optic ringlight image shows the harsh reflections.

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EtherGlow	Fiber Optic

The comparison image below shows how EtherGlow can fill the field of view with even illumination on low power microscope objective lenses.

One application where EtherGlow excels is when trying to image the layers of a fiber. Below are two images of the same fiber, one with EtherGlow illumination and one with Koehler illumination. This patented technique provides a cost effective way to see each fiber layer.

The image below is of a polarization maintaining fiber image with EtherGlow illumination, clearly sowing the stress rod.

The image below is of a single mode fiber with the core, cladding and jacket layers clearly visible.

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