Projects

The “Commercialization of a Novel Deformable Phase Plate for Adaptive Optics” project (DPAO) commercializes previous results gained during the DFG-funded OFAO project (2015-2019) in our group. The team (pictured above) has secured funds of 745,000€ from the German BMWi and European ESF from the EXIST Transfer of Research program to initialize and complete the technology transfer to their newly founded startup. The component to be brought on the market is a “Deformable Phase Plate” (DPP) for adaptive optics (AO). It is a new device class which has the potential to expand the application of AO immensely. That is due to its many unique characteristics, particularly in the field of microscopy where it can be used to perform real-time, dynamic optical aberration corrections to improve resolution and contrast of the obtained microscopic images. The team's technology is based on a transmissive optofluidic component, which has significant advantages over current solutions on the market: ultra-compact, high-fidelity, being easy to integrate, manufacturable cost-efficiently, and having a higher degree of control making sensing equipment like wavefront sensors obsolete. The spin-off's products can be used in various fields such as optical communication, ophthalmology, optical testing and analysis, amateur astronomy, materials processing and microscopy.