En -An introdution to optoelectronic sensors

PREFACE

Although most of the basic principles of optoelectronic (OE) sen-

sors have been known for more than forty years, and optoelectronic

sensor technology emerged over the past 10{20 years, the industrial

applications are relatively new. The last years, however, have seen a

growing interest in this eld, which has resulted in a market growth

rate of more than 50% per year. On the other hand, the overall

optoelectronic market is quite healthy, nowadays, and is going to be

mature as a trillion dollar business.

The reasons for the success of OE sensors may be attributed

on one hand to the strong decrease of the price of most of the re-

quired devices, also due to the increasing di usion of low-cost optical

telecommunication components, and on the other hand to the possi-

bility of easily integrating many optical devices in a single chip.

The availability of a large variety of new or advanced materials

has also contributed to the improvement of the general performance

of optoelectronic sensors and of their design 

exibility.

Looking at the scienti c literature, it clearly appears that in the

recent years there has been an increasing number of journals and

magazines dealing with the subject of sensors, with large room ded-

icated to optical and optoelectronic devices. Every year, published

papers propose a large number of novel con gurations and applica-

tions.

In parallel, a growing number of industrial applications is also be-

ing demonstrated, which run from a better process control to safety

and security improvement, with particular care devoted to trans-

portation, environment, structural health monitoring and food qual-

ity. As diagnostic OE devices continue to be kept smaller, more

portable, more energy e cient, and cheaper, their use in bio-medical

applications will continue to grow. We can also expect that OE sen-

sors will signi cantly contribute to intelligent information systems in

stationary and mobile applications.

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