News: Optoelectronics
4 March 2021
Lumentum launches five-and six-junction 940nm and 905nm VCSEL arrays
Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which designs and makes photonic products for optical networks and lasers in industrial and consumer markets) has launched high-power and high-efficiency five-and six-junction vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays for consumer, automotive light detection & ranging (LiDAR) and other 3D sensing applications.
With LiDAR and 3D sensing expanding into new applications in consumer electronics, automotive and industrial markets, new functionality is driving the need for higher power and higher efficiency from smaller-form-factor devices. Lumentum says that its five- and six-junction VCSEL arrays enable much lower power dissipation, very high slope efficiencies and record optical peak powers compared with existing devices. Optical powers exceeding 2W per individual VCSEL emitter have resulted in over 800W of peak power from a compact 1mm2-sized VCSEL array. The peak optical power, low thermal dissipation and small die size of the new multi-junction VCSELs arrays are important to extending their use to high-performance all-solid-state medium- and long-range LiDAR.
“Automotive, consumer and industrial customers increasingly need higher-performance VCSEL arrays to drive increased functionality and adoption of LiDAR and 3D sensing enabled products,” says Dr André Wong, VP of 3D Sensing product line management. “Our latest multi-junction VCSEL arrays continue our long history of pioneering innovative optical solutions in close collaboration with customers,” he adds. “These new products leverage the well proven high-volume, 6-inch wafer supply that we established more than four years ago.”
Lumentum’s multi-junction VCSEL arrays emit at 940nm and 905nm and are manufactured on the same production lines as existing high-volume VCSEL array products serving the consumer electronics market. In addition to these new high-power VCSEL array illuminators, Lumentum also offers a wide variety of optical solutions for 3D sensing, automotive and LiDAR applications. These include VCSEL solutions for vehicle in-cabin monitoring, high-performance gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP) edge-emitting laser chips for 3D sensing and LiDAR, and 1550nm narrow-linewidth distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) diode lasers for long-range frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) coherent LiDAR.
Lumentum is showcasing its product line of lasers and optics for 3D sensing and LiDAR at the SPIE Photonics West 2021 Digital Forum (6-11 March), along with giving several technical presentations and participating in industry panel discussions.
