Learn more about Agilent Laboratories
Mission
The purpose of Labs is to power Agilent's future through breakthrough
technologies, and its mission is three-fold:
- Lead new business creation through disruptive technologies
- Accelerate technology leadership in Agilent's growth priorities
- Defend Agilent's core businesses through continual innovation
Agilent Laboratories is one of the world's leading industrial-research centers.
Based in Palo Alto, Calif., with satellite offices in Beijing, China; Fort Collins,
Colorado; and South Queensferry, Scotland, Agilent Labs draws on the talents of
more than 300 researchers and support staff.
Agilent Labs is focused on the needs of Agilent's customers across a range of
markets and industries. Agilent Labs' success is measured by the financial impact
of the technologies that are transferred from the Labs to the businesses that it
supports and by its contributions to the scientific community in general. Labs'
culture awards the highest recognition to those contributions that put products in
the marketplace, and it has a long tradition of being the starting point for major
new businesses.
The Labs conducts applied research in communications, electronics, and the life
sciences; fundamental research in bioscience, fiber optics, materials,
microelectronics, optoelectronics and micromechanical systems; and basic
research. Agilent Labs is focused on driving growth and profit for Agilent's
businesses through breakthrough technology innovation.
Agilent Labs engages in three kinds of research:
- Research that will lead to evolutionary, revolutionary and disruptive technologies to grow Agilent's existing businesses in communications, life sciences, electronics and measurement systems
- Research that leads to technologies that create new businesses outside Agilent's current markets but within Agilent's field of interest
- Basic research that contributes to the fundamental understanding of areas that are critical to Agilent's future
Agilent Labs is a source of competitive advantage for Agilent. The Labs'
fundamental strength is that it is able to see synergistic opportunities across all of
Agilent. Compared with other research organizations that support only one or just a
few businesses, collaborations across the Labs are common. Researchers recognize
and exploit the problem-solving opportunities that can be created through syntheses
of seemingly unrelated technologies.
Strategy
Several strategies support the Labs purpose and mission:
- Create a high-performance culture to develop and maintain a world-class research organization
- Partner with Agilent businesses at all levels to speed time to commercialization of the Labs and business innovations
- Exploit synergies by innovating at the intersection of technology disciplines
and leveraging technologies across businesses
- Lead new business creation for high-potential opportunities outside Agilent's
current areas of focus
- Envision the future and invest to create it; identify and invest in key growth
areas for research that contributes to the growth of Agilent's existing
businesses as well as to new business creation
- Promote external perspectives to keep Agilent Labs at the forefront of research
efforts around the world; form strategic relationships with universities,
scientific organizations, customers, government agencies and industry; work in
partnership with the Agilent Venture Fund to identify and secure external
technology investments of high value to Agilent; and pursue external funding
aligned with research goals
- Expand Agilent Labs' global presence to access talent and emerging Markets
Key Innovations
When it became independent of HP Laboratories in 1999, Agilent Labs had a
legacy of technological innovation, technology leadership, and successful transfers
of technology dating back to 1966. Research in optoelectronics and fiber optics
seeded the lightwave measurement and optical communications businesses, and
research in light-emitting diodes and solid-state lasers triggered a new business in
displays and lighting.
Technologies from Labs continue to fuel Agilent products as in the following examples:
- The Agilent SJ50 automated optical-inspection systems from the Automated
Test Group visually inspect the placement of parts on printed circuit boards
with improved accuracy based on image-processing innovations from Labs.
- Labs contributed to the software architecture for the base-station test set
(E7495A) in support of Test and Measurement's wireless test business.
- Labs pioneered work in massively parallel CMOS analog-to-digital converters
for Agilent's high-performance Infiniium oscilloscopes, providing the world's
best sampling rates at reduced cost and power compared to traditional bipolar
technology.
- Labs provided the optical-heterodyning technology for optical-spectrum and
network analyzers; the Agilent high-resolution optical-spectrum analyzer
(83453A) provides customers with 1,000 times better resolution than
conventional grating-based, optical-spectrum analyzers.
- Numerous key technologies in cell phones came out of the Labs. The FBAR
duplexer is 20 times smaller than duplexers made by traditional approaches,
and MicroCap is a bonded-wafer, chip-scale packaging technology that enables
even smaller filters.
- DNA microarrays are a core platform for Agilent's life-sciences business. The
Agilent Whole Human Genome Microarray is a 1-inch-by-3-inch slide with
44,000 different gene-probe sequences created through inkjet technology. This
slide is a key part of Agilent's microarray platform that enables customers to
interrogate the entire human genome.
- In optical navigation, the optical mouse owes its existence to advances in
application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), imaging arrays and embedded
mathematics. Agilent has shipped more than 300 million navigation sensors for
optical mice and developed a new mouse based on laser technology.
Major Areas of Research
Agilent Labs is organized around areas of greatest potential contribution to
Agilent's future growth. Each lab serves more than one of Agilent's existing
businesses, and its departments and projects are grouped in ways that will facilitate
the synergies expected to be important for the future of Agilent.
Measurement Research Laboratory: This laboratory is developing the
measurement technologies of the future. Its research includes distributed
monitoring, modeling and diagnostics to provide decision support and technologies
for the intelligent management of large communications systems. Other areas of
emphasis include communications signal processing, distributed measurements,
electrical and optical measurements and imaging and sensing technologies. Areas
of expertise include analog, high-speed, RF and microwave electronics; applied
mathematics; bulk, fiber, integrated and high-speed optics; communication and
connectivity protocols; digital-imaging and imaging systems; measurement
science; mixed-signal electronics and signal processing; and system architecture.
Molecular Technology Laboratory: This laboratory is developing molecular-scale
tools for the life sciences and electronics revolutions. Its life-sciences work
includes technologies directed at customer solutions in genomics, proteomics,
molecular diagnostics and systems biology. Its work in electronics includes the
development of micro- and nanoscale devices for both wireless and test and
measurement applications. Areas of expertise include bioinformatics;
computational biology; high-throughput and highly multiplexed measurements;
materials and materials characterization; microanalytical technology and
microfluidics; microelectromechanical systems; molecular diagnostics; nano- and
microfabrication technology; nanoscale devices and measurements; nucleic-acid
and protein measurement systems; and spectrophotometry, chromatography and
mass spectrometry.
Photonics and Electronics Research Laboratory: This laboratory focuses on
advancing the state of the art in communications, consumer electronics and
semiconductor test. Areas of emphasis are photonics technologies, including
optoelectronics and fiber optics, that are key to the development of broadband
communication networks; differentiating designs in integrated circuits; system-chip
testing to enable system-level integration; and sensor technologies for imaging,
navigation and signal processing. Areas of expertise include architectures and
methods for semiconductor test; automation technology; communications links;
communications signal processing; fiber and integrated optics; high-speed optical
interconnects and communications integrated circuits; mixed-signal integrated
circuit design and test; optoelectronic, photonic and RF components; photonic
crystals; semiconductor materials; sensors; signal processing; and system-on-a-chip
test.
Precision Instrumentation and Basic Research: This group is advancing general
levels of measurement precision with emphasis on the fields of frequency and time.
It also provides Agilent Labs with advanced expertise in the fields of electronics,
general physics, math, optics and quantum mechanics.
Locations
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supporting Agilent Laboratories.
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