Photon Engineering, LLC is a consulting and software development firm based in Tucson, AZ specializing in all phases of optical engineering: design, analysis and implementation.

History
Founded in 1997 by Richard Pfisterer and Steve Johnston, Ph.D., Photon Engineering has worked with hundreds of clients worldwide on projects including LCD projectors, head mounted displays, space satellite systems, laser systems, solar concentrators, tactical optics, astronomical optics, light guides and other illumination systems, medical optics devices, and automotive lighting.  “If the project has anything to do with light, we’ve probably done it!”

Mission
Whether customers are in need of its advanced systems design and analysis software, FRED, continuing education with short courses and tutorials, or require engineering expertise through consulting, Photon Engineering’s vision is to provide effective and affordable solutions without sacrificing quality.  Says company president Rich Pfisterer, “Steve and I have always believed that a good business involves a capable product at a fair price.”

Presence
Currently Photon Engineering maintains a global presence in the optical engineering community with FRED users and representatives in more than 20 countries worldwide. Its employees continue to contribute to the advancement of our industry through research, publications, education and leadership roles in international professional societies.

About our latest product

FREDmpc is a version of Photon Engineering’s FRED Optical Engineering Software package that allows ray generation, ray tracing and analyses to be performed with GPUs and is the result of our continued investment in leveraging cutting-edge technology for fast, radiometrically precise optomechanical raytracing and analysis.

GPU hardware technology, of which NVIDIA is an industry leader, allows for thousands of processing units running in parallel to be contained within a single workstation. GPU hardware (and software) is rapidly advancing, is highly scalable, and has a relatively low entry cost when compared to distributable CPU based networks. By simply adding, or upgrading, the GPU board in a PC, raytracing and analyses with FREDmpc can be performed orders of magnitude faster using GPUs than with conventional multi-threaded CPUs.

FREDmpc is not a standalone product, it is an extension to the existing capabilities of FRED and FRED Optimum.  All of FRED’s modeling, raytrace and analyses capabilities can be applied in the usual manner with the addition that raytracing and analyses can optionally be performed on the GPUs upon request.