Ophir-Spiricon Honored as Outstanding Technology Business of the Year

Ophir-Spiricon exemplifies the type of company we want to encourage to stay, grow, and, in the future, locate in Cache Valley Utah, said Sandra Emile, CEO of the Cache Chamber of Commerce. They represent clean, innovative industry; steady growth; and above average paying jobs with excellent employee benefits. They also believe in supporting the community.
We applaud their success in the laser technology industry.

Spiricon develops the technology that is behind many of today's laser-based innovations, from eye surgery to industrial welding to military guidance systems. Spiricon was founded in 1978 by Dr. Carlos Roundy, a Logan native who received his BS in Physics from Utah State University. Dr. Roundy went on to get his PhD from Stanford and work for Bell Labs. While at Bell Labs, he invented a way to make 2D images from heat; this is now known as a pyroelectric infrared camera.

Back then, lasers were finding their way into industrial applications like cutting and welding, said Gary Wagner, President of Ophir-Spiricon.
However, results from lasers were inconsistent because lasers are like light bulbs – their output changes over time. Measuring and controlling laser output is vital for consistent results. It turns out that if you shine the laser beam into the pyroelectric infrared camera and analyze the resulting image with software and a PC you can very accurately measure what the laser beam is currently doing.

Bell Labs did not want to commercialize this technology. So Dr. Roundy brought this pyroelectric infrared camera concept back to Cache Valley, Utah and founded Spiricon, focusing on the laser beam diagnostic market. Thirty years later, Spiricon is now Ophir-Spiricon; part of a multi-national public company and is the major supplier to this market.

Most major laser manufacturers rely on Spiricon's fundamental technology to assist them in developing today's innovations in lasers and laser-based devices, stated Gary Wagner. The company's modular, customizable solutions serve manufacturing, medical, military, and research industries throughout the world. In the last five years we have more than doubled our size to 58 employees, quadrupled our revenue to $21 million, and in 2011 moved into a new 18,000 sq ft facility in North Logan.