How to become a Photonics Technician 2024

Photonics Technician Build, install, test, or maintain optical or fiber optic equipment, such as lasers, lenses, or mirrors, using spectrometers, interferometers, or related equipment.

Photonics Technician is Also Know as

In different settings, Photonics Technician is titled as

Fiber Optics Technician
Laser Technician (Laser Tech)
Optomechanical Technician
Photonic Laboratory Technician (Photonic Lab Tech)
Photonics Technician
Ruling Technician

Education and Training of Photonics Technician

Photonics Technician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Photonics Technician

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Photonics Technician

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Photonics Technician

Training Required for Photonics Technician

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Photonics Technician in different industries are

What Do Photonics Technician do?

Monitor inventory levels and order supplies as necessary.
Maintain clean working environments, according to clean room standards.
Test or perform failure analysis for optomechanical or optoelectrical products, according to test plans.
Assist scientists or engineers in the conduct of photonic experiments.
Perform diagnostic analyses of processing steps, using analytical or metrological tools, such as microscopy, profilometry, or ellipsometry devices.
Mix, pour, or use processing chemicals or gases according to safety standards or established operating procedures.
Design, build, or modify fixtures used to assemble parts.
Lay out cutting lines for machining, using drafting tools.
Assist engineers in the development of new products, fixtures, tools, or processes.
Assemble or adjust parts or related electrical units of prototypes to prepare for testing.
Splice fibers, using fusion splicing or other techniques.
Terminate, cure, polish, or test fiber cables with mechanical connectors.
Set up or operate prototype or test apparatus, such as control consoles, collimators, recording equipment, or cables.
Set up or operate assembly or processing equipment, such as lasers, cameras, die bonders, wire bonders, dispensers, reflow ovens, soldering irons, die shears, wire pull testers, temperature or humidity chambers, or optical spectrum analyzers.
Repair or calibrate products, such as surgical lasers.
Perform laser seam welding, heat treatment, or hard facing operations.
Fabricate devices, such as optoelectronic or semiconductor devices.
Build prototype optomechanical devices for use in equipment such as aerial cameras, gun sights, or telescopes.
Assemble fiber optical, optoelectronic, or free-space optics components, subcomponents, assemblies, or subassemblies.
Adjust or maintain equipment, such as lasers, laser systems, microscopes, oscilloscopes, pulse generators, power meters, beam analyzers, or energy measurement devices.
Assemble components of energy-efficient optical communications systems involving photonic switches, optical backplanes, or optoelectronic interfaces.
Assemble devices or equipment to be used in green technology applications, including solar energy, high efficiency solid state lighting, energy management, smart buildings, or green processes.
Build photonics tools to be applied to electrical grids to detect hot spots, such as failing insulators or conductors.
Develop solar power sources for lasers used in fiber optics.
Fabricate sensors to be used to control wind turbines.
Monitor mechanical factors, such as turbine load or strain information.
Compute or record photonic test data.
Document procedures, such as calibration of optical or fiber optic equipment.
Recommend optical or optic equipment design or material changes to reduce costs or processing times.
Optimize photonic process parameters by making prototype or production devices.

Qualities of Good Photonics Technician

Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.

Tools Used by Photonics Technician

Abrasive grinding machines
Analog oscilloscopes
Atomic force microscopes AFM
Autocollimators
Bench refractometers
Binocular light compound microscopes
Biosafety cabinets
Bit error rate testers BERT
Calipers
Chemical protective face shields
Chemical vapor deposition CVD systems
Collimators
Common path interferometers
Computerized numerical control CNC band saws
Computerized numerical control CNC drill presses
Computerized numerical control CNC lathes
Computerized numerical control CNC machining centers
Contact profilometers
Coordinate measuring machines CMM
Cutoff saws
Dataloggers
Depth gauges
Die bonders
Die saws
Die shears
Diffractometers
Digital logic analyzers
Digital logic probes
Digital oscilloscopes
Diode lasers
Electron beam evaporators
Electron cyclotron resonance ECR reactive ion etchers RIE
Ellipsometers
Excimer lasers
Fabry-Perot interferometers
Fiber cleavers
Fiber optic fault locators
Fiber polishers
Fire extinguishers
Fusion splicers
Gas lasers
Hand calculators
Hardness testers
Humidity chambers
Ion lasers
Isolators
Lab jacks
Laboratory forceps
Laser cutting machines
Laser drills
Laser heat treatment equipment
Laser marking machines
Laser welders
Liquid dye lasers
Logic pulsers
Loupes
Mach-Zehnder interferometers
Magnifiers
Mechanical steppers
Michelson interferometers
Micrometers
Micropositioners
Monochromators
Multifunction digital multimeters
Non contact profilometers
Optical alignment scopes
Optical comparators
Optical mounts
Optical power meters
Optical rails
Optical spectrum analyzers
Oscilloscopes
Personal computers
Phase-shifting interferometers
Photoelectric power meters
Plasma strippers
Positioning stages
Protective gloves
Protective gowns
Rapid thermal annealers RTA
Reflow ovens
Safety glasses
Scanning electron microscopes SEM
Semiconductor detectors
Semiconductor parameter analyzers
Shearing interferometers
Signal generators
Soldering irons
Solid state lasers
Spectrometers
Spectrophotometers
Spherometers
Sputter deposition systems
Temperature chambers
Twyman-Green interferometers
Vacuum deposition systems
Vernier micrometers
Wafer bonding systems
Wavelength meters
Wire bonders
Wire pull testers
Wire saws

Technology Skills required for Photonics Technician

Autodesk AutoCAD
Computer aided design CAD software
Computer aided manufacturing CAM software
Dassault Systemes SolidWorks
Data acquisition software
Database software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Facebook
Image processing software
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
National Instruments LabVIEW
Presentation software
SAP software
Statistical analysis software
The MathWorks MATLAB
Web browser software
Word processing software
ZEMAX Optical Design Program

US Universities

How to become Photonics Technician in 2024