January 20, 2026
2025 Laser Focus World Innovators Awards – Award and Ceremony Report
Santec AOC Corporation is proud to announce that its spatial light modulator for high-power lasers,SLM-310 (1 kW power handling) has been honored as a Silver Honoree in the 2025 Laser Focus World Innovators Awards」The awards ceremony was held on January 19 at W San Francisco, in conjunction with the Photonics West 2026 event.
The Laser Focus World Innovators Awards are widely recognized as a trusted and competitive program that highlights the most innovative products, technologies, and initiatives that significantly impact the optics and photonics industry. This year’s selections were based on votes from the engineering community and evaluations by an expert judging panel appointed by the Laser Focus World editorial staff.
Laser Focus World’s Editor in Chief, Sally Johnson, expressed her congratulations, stating,
“On behalf of the Laser Focus World Innovators Awards, I would like to congratulate Santec AOC Corporation on achieving a well-deserved level honoree status. This competitive program enables Laser Focus World to showcase and applaud the most innovative products, projects, technologies, and programs that significantly impact the industry.”
Development Manager of the SLM-310 at Santec AOC Corporation, Masaaki Takegahara, expressed his gratitude, stating,
"We are deeply honored to be recognized as a Silver Honoree for the development of the SLM-310, a spatial light modulator with 1 kW power handling capability. This recognition highlights the potential of our product for industrial applications such as laser processing and additive manufacturing. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated team and all those involved. Moving forward, we will continue to pursue technological innovations, including expanding applications to other wavelengths and developing SLMs with even higher power handling capabilities."
