News: Optoelectronics
11 January 2023
Coherent launches 905nm triple-junction edge-emitting lasers for industrial LiDAR
Materials, networking and laser technology firm Coherent Corp has introduced its 905nm triple-junction edge-emitting semiconductor lasers for light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in industrial applications.
Range-finding devices embedded in binoculars and increasingly in autonomous robots that accomplish complex tasks, such as handling, sorting, mapping and navigating, are accelerating the demand for LiDAR-based depth sensing using components that perform efficiently and reliably, even in the most extreme environments. The new 905nm lasers feature a triple-junction design that enables them to efficiently emit up to 100W of optical power in nanosecond pulses. The lasers are qualified to the stringent JEDEC JESD22-A10x standard for industrial applications.
“We will be able to achieve significant economies of scale by migrating manufacturing of this new laser diode platform to our existing 6-inch gallium arsenide platform,” says Dr Karlheinz Gulden, senior VP, Laser Components & Subsystems business unit. “It is the only technology platform of its kind to have pushed the frontiers of both manufacturing scale and field reliability, underpinning semiconductor lasers for high-volume consumer electronics and industrial devices, as well as for optical communications equipment deployed undersea.”
Built in a robust and hermetically sealed TO-56 package, the triple-junction lasers emit three times the optical power per chip area compared with single-junction devices, resulting in powers of up to 100W at 40A pulsed operation. They enable direct time-of-flight (ToF) LiDAR systems in a wide variety of mission-critical robots exposed to challenging environments. Applications include warehouse logistics, consumer appliances, last-mile delivery, crop harvesting, land surveying, and safety monitoring.
Coherent offers a broad portfolio of active and passive products for LiDAR designs. Active devices include vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), edge-emitters, laser bars, frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) sources, and pulsed fiber-based sources. Passive devices includes laser optics, polygons, galvo mirrors, lenses, ultra-narrowband filters, wide-incidence-angle mirrors, gratings, and thermoelectrics.
Coherent is showcase its solutions for life sciences, precision manufacturing, and sensing at BiOS and Photonics West in San Francisco (28 January to 2 February).
