OPDI sensor systems are based on photonics, i.e. the highly integrated use of micro-optics and micro-electronics. By utilising a combination of optical, electrical and digital signal processing OPDI's photonic sensors enable low cost and high performance solutions. We focus our technical competences on three enabling technologies both in allocation of our internal development resources and by our selection of technology partners. Polymer optical chips are now being injection moulded by OPDI with up to four different optical functions integrated on a single chip. The mechanical accuracy of these chips are better than 10 nm and the cost of a single chip is a few €-cents. Photonic signal processing is the optical equivalent to electrical signal processing and implies that information is derived from one optical signal by letting it interact with another (typically related) optical signal. In this way it is possible to provide filtering, amplification and signal transformation wihout power consumption and at the speed of light.  CMOS Integration of photonic and electronic functions is at the heart of photonics. At OPDI we do this by proprietary ASIC designs where optical functions (e.g photodetectors) analogue electronics (e.g. amplification and filtering) and digital signal processing can be integrated on a single CMOS chip.

The principle of the Dragonfly-technology is to probe the speckle pattern which arises when laser light is scattered off a rough surface. As the surface moves, so will the speckles. Thus being able to probe the speckle displacement, the surface displacement can be monitored. A Dragonfly touch sensor configuration is shown schematically to the left. The light from a diode laser hits a rough surface (e.g.) a finger and generates a speckle pattern. The speckle pattern is imaged onto four detectors by an advanced imaging system. The signals from the detectors are processed by an ASIC The imaging system is the heart of the Dragonfly sensor and consists of a large focusing lens (ref) and a micro-lens array (ref) with typically 75 lenses placed at a distance of 10 µm. The effect of the imaging system is to 'gear' the speckle pattern such that when the speckle pattern passes the 75 micro-lenses, this movement is detected 75 times by each detector. The unique advantage of the Dragonfly system is that each micro-lens replaces four photodetectors in conventional movement sensor systems. Consequently a Dragonfly systems with 75 lenses and 4 detectors has the same accuracy as a conventional system with 300 detectors. This saves money, power consumption and improves resolution!

An optical waveguide is a physical structure that guides light within a central layer with a relatively high refractive index. The central layer is surrounding by cladding layers with a lower refractive index, which confines the light to the central layer Optical waveguides are widely used in the photonic industry today for examples in: Optical fibres, essential for telecommunication as we know it would not be possible Semiconductor lasers, enabling both CDs and DVDs In a waveguide, light is confined to the central layer as long as the cladding layers has a lower refractive index than the central light guiding layer. This mechanism can be used for making very accurate physical contact optical sensors based on optical waveguides. If for example an object touches a waveguide with a thin cladding layer, the touch will change the refractive index og the cladding and the light will be guided in a different manner. By proper optical and electrical signal processing, the placement of the touching object can be derived from the altered guiding properties of the waveguide.

Because of the close relation ship between information from sensor and intelligence from micro-procesors, the IT market is a very atttractive market for compact and cost-effective sensor technologies These years handheld electronic devices are finding more and more applications and are becoming increasingly intelligent and are available at and ever decreasing price. Popular applications today are mobile phones, PDAs, navigators, gaming consoles, MP3 players, camaras etc. As the complexity of these devices grow the need for advanced screen interfaces, i.e. an acrtive pointing tool will grow dramatically. In year 2006, roughly 1.5 billion handheld devices were shipped of which estimated 200 million included an active pointing tool (e.g. a touch screen or a joy-stick). With the present growth rates, this number will grow to 1 billion devices in year 2010. At OPDI Technologies, we expect an evolution in the human interface tools of portable electronic devices parallel to what has been the case for computers. Consequently, we believe that most portable devices eventually will require a pointing tool and that optical technologies will be preferred - as they are for computer mice today.

These years companies, governments and consumers are focusing more and more on 'smart' energy solutions in order to reduce oil consumption. Here  mainly two areas are in focus:  Renewable energy sources Intelligent energy saving solutions Today wind and solar power are the fastest-growing energy sources in the world, with growth rates (in the previous 10 years) between 20 and 30%. With the increasing focus on energy, this growth is expected to accelerate significantly in the future. These two markets are also characterised by a high level of technology innovation of which sensors for efficiency monitoring and improvement are expected to become a vital part Energy saving measures will explode in the coming years. One example is the use of energy saving (nano-) materials, a market which is expected to grow from $1.6 billion dollar today to$ 51 billion in 10 years. Another example is high power LEDs for illumination, a market growing at 80% per year. Finally, sensors for improving efficiency and reducing unnecessary energy consumption are expected to grow by similar numbers.