Optical physics, turned into instruments that ship.
PhotonMech Solutions is the independent practice of William Chaze, PhD. I take optical measurement products from first principles to a working, validated instrument — optics, algorithms, embedded software, and the integration that holds them together.
Optical products fail at the seams — between the physics, the firmware and the production reality. Keeping those four disciplines in one head is what removes the seams.
01Physics → hardware
Optical design
Illumination and detection schemes, radiometric budgets, scattering and absorption modelling, Monte-Carlo simulation, tolerancing, component selection — and optomechanical prototypes 3D-printed in-house the same week.
02Raw signal → number
Algorithms & models
Calibration models, inverse problems, spectral processing, chemometrics and machine-learning inference — built to hold up against a reference method.
03Number → product
Software & embedded
Instrument firmware, real-time acquisition, C++/Qt and Python applications, on-device inference, operator interfaces and data pipelines.
04Product → process
Integration
Industrial buses and protocols, PLC and SCADA connectivity, mechanical and thermal integration, field deployment and the documentation that follows.
Why it matters
The whole chain, or none of it.
A measurement is only as good as its weakest link, and each stage below constrains the next. Designing them in isolation is how instruments end up accurate on the bench and useless in the process.
01→
Physics
What can be measured at all, and with how much information.
02→
Optical design
The layout that actually captures that information.
03→
Prototype
Hardware that turns the design into measurable data.
04→
Algorithms
The model that converts raw signal into a trustworthy value.
05→
Embedded
Firmware and software that run it unattended, for years.
06→
Validation
Benchmarks against a reference method, on real samples.
07
Integration
The instrument, working inside someone else’s process.
Domains
Where the work usually lands.
The instruments differ; the underlying problem rarely does — extracting a reliable number from light that has been scattered, absorbed, or both.
Fig. 1Measured · fitted continuum
Fig. 1 — A measured spectrum and the continuum fitted under it — the step that turns a frame into a calibration.
Fig. 2OD 2.31 · red channel
Fig. 2 — Model against measurement on 30 µm polystyrene. Line: Monte-Carlo model. Crosses: measured.
Fig. 3200 trials · 10 % channel noise
Fig. 3 — Sizing error against particle diameter, structured illumination (blue) versus raw signal (grey). This is how a layout gets chosen before any hardware is built.
UV–Vis spectroscopyAbsorbance and spectral analysis, including in samples that scatter.
Turbid & scattering mediaStructured illumination and scattering correction in dense media.
Particle & droplet sizingOptical sizing, size distributions, and their inverse problems.
Color measurementColorimetry and standardised color scales on real, unfiltered liquids.
PhD in engineering (Université de Lorraine, 2017) on heat and mass transfer during droplet impact — a problem solvable only by building the optical diagnostics for it: two-colour laser-induced fluorescence thermometry and infrared thermography. Then optical diagnostics research at Lund University, and co-founder and CTO of an optical instrumentation company, taking a garage prototype through to industrial, certified instruments.
Peer-reviewed research in laser-induced fluorescence thermometry
03
Co-founder & CTO of an optical instrumentation company
04
Instruments taken from prototype to CE / UKCA-marked products
ContactProject enquiry
Have a measurement problem that is not textbook?
Describe the process, the liquid or the signal you are after. You will get a straight answer on what is physically measurable, what it would take, and whether I am the right person for it.
