When photons make a career: What optoelectronics can do

Optoelectronics brings together two powerful partners: electronics and light. More specifically, it enables the conversion of electrical signals into light signals – and vice versa. It uses light in the visible, infrared, or ultraviolet spectrum.

The range of optoelectronic components is broad: LEDs, laser diodes, photodiodes, solar cells, and image sensors are just as important as optical switches, light guides, and, last but not least, displays that make information visible. They generate, detect, or control light in a precise, efficient, and often contactless manner.

In practice, optoelectronics can be found wherever speed, miniaturization and energy efficiency are required: in data transmission via fiber optics, in industrial image processing, automation and measurement technology, medical technology or photovoltaics.

What makes them special? Their ability to use light as a targeted information carrier – quickly, reliably, and interference-resistant. This makes optoelectronics not just a technical intermediary, but a driver of innovation.

In short: wherever photons not only shine but actually move something, optoelectronics is behind it.

Precision in the smallest space