Inheritance and Innovation—The "LASENSOR" Brand Story

Introduction

"LASENSOR" is a shining star in clean environment monitoring industry, symbolizing the power of Chinese technology. Its development journey began with the passion and dedication of Huang Huijie, the chairman of  LASENSOR Photoelectric company  and his team towards clean environment monitoring technology.

Huang Huijie (the right one)

Background

In the 1960s, particle counters from US brands like Metone, PMS, and TSI, as well as Japan’s Rion, were already in production and industrialized. By the early 1990s, these foreign brands, along with the emerging US brand Lighthouse, began to dominate the global market with their laser particle counters. These devices, designed with advanced internal optical probes using light scattering theory and laser light sources, played a crucial role in industries such as electronics, biopharmaceuticals, and healthcare. Domestic companies competed to become their agents.

Compared with foreign countries, China's development of laser particle counters lagged behind, both in the industrialization of products and in the design technology of the core component—the optical probe. It was not until the mid-1970s that domestic commercial instruments began to emerge, mainly white-light aerosol particle counters with a minimum detection particle size of 0.3μm and a sampling flow rate of 1L/min. Due to the limited variety and singular structure of domestic instruments, they did not receive significant market feedback. In contrast, foreign products were technologically superior, with a minimum detection particle size of 0.1μm, a sampling flow rate of 28.3L/min, high technical efficiency, and stable performance.

Mission

Against this backdrop, Huang Huijie, who worked at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led his team into the laboratory without hesitation. They immersed themselves in the study of light scattering theory, working day and night to derive formulas and eventually proposed a design scheme for a laser optical probe. Every data calibration and every experimental failure and re-try tested their patience and perseverance. However, Huang Huijie and his team never gave up. He firmly believed that persistence would eventually lead to a breakthrough. Finally, in October 1990, China’s first laser particle counter, the Y09-6 model, was successfully developed

Below picture is the first laser particle counter in China

Breakthrough
In 1991, the product was improved again. The upgraded probe had better performance in the large-particle-size range than the U.S. Royco 236 model. It also had higher particle size concentration and met the national standard, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 3:1 for the smallest detectable particle size. This was a big step forward for domestic cleanroom detection equipment, helping to break the foreign monopoly. On November 17 of the same year, the Y09-6 laser particle counter passed a technical appraisal organized by the Jiangsu Provincial Electronics Industry Department. After that, Huang Huijie and his team kept improving the technology, from the optical system to the mini-sensors. They steadily overcame the limitations of white-light counters and introduced laser technology, which increased the detection accuracy and sampling flow rate of the particle counters.

Time keeps moving forward. In 2002, Huang Huijie's team built an optical system with high accuracy, efficiency, and repeatability using a semiconductor laser as the light source. This achievement marked a big leap in technology and laid a solid foundation for future research. Three years later, Liang Chunlei, Huang Huijie, and other researchers made another breakthrough by developing a mini optical sensor, the core component of a portable laser particle counter- portable particle counter sensor. This innovation opened up new possibilities for the promotion and application of portable devices.

Huang Huijie has published several academic papers in professional journals.

The experience and spirit of Huang Huijie and his team on the scientific research journey have become a precious asset for later domestic researchers in laser particle counters. Their rigorous attitude toward every detail and their pursuit of excellence in research have inspired generations of researchers to keep pushing forward on the path of technological innovation. Among them, Zhang Pei (current Technical Director of Laisen Optoelectronics), as a student of Huang Huijie, has become an outstanding representative of this spirit. He has inherited his mentor's research spirit, continued to delve deeply into the field of laser particle counters, and contributed his own strength to the development of domestic instruments.

 Conclusion

The story of Huang Huijie and his team is a legend of persistence, innovation, and inheritance. They not only propelled the development of domestic laser particle counter technology but also earned respect and recognition for China in the global cleanroom detection field. In the future, their spirit will continue to inspire more researchers to contribute Chinese wisdom to technological innovation and write new chapters of brilliance