Product category: Lasers
News Release from: Bookham | Subject: Laser diode bars
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 2 July 2004
Laser diodes come
together for industrial power
A new family of high-power laser diode bars for industrial applications is based on an established line of telecomms-market 980nm GaAs laser diodes
Bookham Technology has developed and qualified a family ofhigh-power laser diode bars, based on itstelecomms-market-leading 980nm gallium arsenide (GaAs) laserdiodes, to meet the needs and opportunities of key industrialsectors. The initial products are now qualified and have beenshipping during the current quarter.
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 2 July 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Bookham's Zurich-baseddivision has over 20 years' experience of developing andmanufacturing large volumes of high brightness, reliable GaAslaser diodes.
Bookham has now applied this technology andexperience to the development of cutting-edge solutions for theindustrial, medical, military and aerospace markets.
'We arerecognised as a leader in the telecomms sector in high-power980nm lasers', said Chuck Milligan, VP Industrial andDefence Solutions.
'Now we have adapted this technology intothe industrial market'.
'To achieve this we haveleveraged our strong capabilities in laser diode design,reliability analysis and manufacturing capability'.'The significant investments and efforts we have made overthe years into capacity, yield improvement and automation enableus to offer what we believe is best-in-class performance ofhigh-power lasers at competitive cost'.
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Bookham completedthe qualification of an 808nm 50W laser bar in December 2003.Since then over 5kh of testing have been achieved with excellentresults.
Laser bars at 808nm and 60W have now also been qualifiedunder the harshest operating condition of pulsing from off topeak power, which puts the laser diode through a full thermalcycle about once per second.
During qualification, minimaldegradation has been observed and no devices have failed.
Bookhamis now completing qualification of an 80W bar at 9xxnm.
A 120Wbar is planned for release by the end of the year.'Wavelengths from 780nm to 1060nm are now available',said Milligan.
'Both bare and mounted bars are available,the latter on either a standard microchannel cooler or passivelycooled copper mount'.
'The footprint is industrystandard'.
One of the core technologies that has driventhese achievements is Bookham's proprietary E2 process,which passivates the laser's front mirror.
The aim of thispassivation is to prevent catastrophic optical mirror damage(COMD), which is a common problem in the development of highbrightness GaAs laser diodes.
The E2 solution to the COMD issueenabled Zurich laser diodes to be used in the first commercialtelecommunications link using 980nm pumps, and later in submarineoptical telecommunications links, where reliability requirementsare ultra-demanding.
Also of key importance is Bookham'sexperience in mounting laser diodes using gold-tin soldering.This 'hard-soldering' technique enables laser diodes tobe driven at higher powers and temperatures with much greaterreliability than 'soft' solders, such as indium, whichare often used in industrial applications.
Applications for thesehigh power GaAs lasers include pumping of solid-state lasers suchas NdYAG lasers, fibre lasers and disc lasers, as well as directapplications of the laser diode output.
These powerful deviceshave applications in material processing, marking and labelprinting, medical applications such as skin treatment, andmilitary/aerospace applications ranging from laser warning andtargeting to 'directed-energy' weapons andintersatellite communications.
Diode-pumped solid-state lasershave many advantages over lamp-pumped versions: they are moreefficient, they provide better beam quality and have lowercost-of-ownership.
But what has slowed down their take-up in theindustry has been the lack of adequate reliability and brightnessin high power laser diodes available on the market.
'Thegreat news is that while we have already achieved what in ourview constitute best-in-class results, we have not yet found thelimit of our technology's capability', said Milligan.'We have just achieved a world-record 320W 1cm bar at 920nmon a standard microchannel cooler'.
'Just as we havedone in telecom, we are confident we will continue to push thebrightness and reliability of industrial laser diode bars to newlevels, which we believe will provide our customers with a strongimprovement in system performance, lifetime and in dollars perwatt, which will accelerate the growth of diode-pumped lasersystems'.
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