IOE conducts basic & application research, high-tech research and innovation research on the system integrations in the area of opto-electronic engineering. There are three laboratories in the Institute, including the State Key Laboratory of Adaptive Optics, the State Key Laboratory of Optical Technologies for Microfabrication and the CAS Chengdu Measurement Laboratory for Geometric Quantities and Opto-Electronics & Fine Mechanics.
The research and development fields of the Institute includes adaptive optics, adaptive telescope, optical lithography, micro-optics, digital map metrological camera, laser display experiment system, bio-optics, optical metrology, optical coating and so on. From its inception, IOE has made many significant achievements, some of which are leading in China and some advanced in the world. The Institute has obtained over 500 scientific research awards including top prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in China. Now, the Institute has 380 claimed patents, 180 authorized patents and more than 3,100 published articles, among which 80 articles are covered by SCI. The Institute pays special attention to the academic exchanges at home and abroad and has held three international symposiums on Advanced Optical Manufacturing and Testing Technologies (AMOTT) successfully.