About us
Optical solutions developed by Dr Daniel Malaise
Academic background
OPO is a specialized research and development workshop providing optical solutions to industry and institutes.
Its expertise is grounded on the long experience of Dr. Daniel Malaise who worked as an astronomer in the University of Liège with Prof. Swings, in the Harvard College Observatory with Prof. Fred L. Whipple and in Paris Meudon with Prof. Françoise Praderie.
Its expertise is grounded on the long experience of Dr. Daniel Malaise who worked as an astronomer in the University of Liège with Prof. Swings, in the Harvard College Observatory with Prof. Fred L. Whipple and in Paris Meudon with Prof. Françoise Praderie.
Carreer in astronomy, space and optical metrology
As scientifical and technical director of IAL Space, Daniel Malaise designed several major instruments for astronomical and earth observation from the European Space Agency, such as Giotto (Halley Multicolor Camera) and Hipparcos. He then turned to space industry founding Spacebel in 1988, a daughter company of Matra Espace, where he supervised, among others, the Silex, EIT and Mipas projects. After that he launched DMO Optical solutions, where he developed the highly reputed optical metrology instrument Iris in 1996 (Read the newspaper report on DMO here), and in 2002 he started his current company OPO Optical metrology.
Top achievement instrument CT7
As a lifelong astronomer, Daniel Malaise cares very much providing quality control instruments that match the needs of modern telescopes. He has put all his past experience in designing a specular multi wavelength reflectometer specifically dedicated to his fellows astronomers. This is called the CT7, reminding the 7 wavelength bands it operates. The design of this instrument was accompanied by a thorough theoretical study of the problem. Hence, for the first time astronomers can rely on instruments that, from the very start, have been thought solely for their purpose, with no economical or other bias; and the chosen solutions are fully and amply justified by rational arguments as it should always be the case in scientific fields.
Strenghts of OPO
The heart of competence of OPO is the mastering of surface metrology and a deep knowledge of scattering processes and of surface defects detection and characterization: microroughness, cleanliness measurement, etc. We are very proud to offer the most accurate metrology instruments in our field, that are the outcome of 50-year experience in optical metrology. The CT7, which stays our flagship, is already in use at numerous observatories and institutes accross the world. It is a very stable and very strong instrument that has been tried and tested for 10 years already.
