Working at Lightwave International

My time working at Lightwave International began in the summer of 2023, shortly after my freshman year of college had ended.

My first week greeted me with a bunch of circuit boards that needed a variety of components soldered to them, such as connectors and resistors. As the weeks went on, I would start to learn more and more about the different kinds of lasers in the warehouse, with typical ones being worked on such as phenoms and Lixels. The Phenom laser is designed to be situated in a variety of ways due to its unique moving laser head. The front panels of these specific lasers went under a major redesign which moved many key components, with another coworker and I in charge of the conversions. Lixels are more straightforward in their design, having multiple laser diodes in a line. However, their electronics are very hard to work with, leading to frequent problems. Trying to figure out where each problem stemmed from was a challenge, but it always paid off.

The summer of 2024 almost did not see me returning to Lightwave. However, a show needed around 30 Lixels, and a major portion of them had problems that made them not operational. Due to the strict deadline and limited number of people to complete the task, I was brought back in to help. With my work being found exceptional, I was brought back on full time to help continue repairing various lasers that were in the warehouse, each having different problems to solve.

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 Due to the information being proprietary, I cannot show the internals of the Lixels and Phenoms.