Advancements to our VCSEL technology platform now allow to dynamically switch between two orthogonal polarization states on a single VCSEL-array chip. Here stable and linearly polarized emission is combined without change to the VCSEL optical characteristics. This is rendered possible by 90°-rotated surface-gratings for each channel to realize polarization locking in one of the two polarization directions. Similar high polarization extinction ratios, thresholds and output powers are attained for each channel. Furthermore, electrical routing enables the flexible definition of illumination zones consisting of sub-arrays of VCSELs with the same polarization orientation. Time-division polarization multiplexing is thus enabled by addressing different zones of the VCSEL array for dynamic illumination concepts.
ViP stands for a VCSEL with integrated photodiode. It features a photodiode embedded in the VCSEL resonator. A single intra-cavity contact serves as VCSEL cathode as well as photodiode anode. The VCSEL is single-mode and a sub wavelength grating on the output facet is used to stabilize the polarization of the emitted light. The ultra-compact chip has two separately addressable mesas. In addition, good production capability and reliability make the device ideal for mass products. Exploiting the principle of self-mixing interference (SMI), the ViP can be used in systems precisely measuring e.g., velocity, distance, quantitative particle concentration as a measure for air quality or fast eye-movements. The interferometric precision of velocity measurements enables demanding industrial applications like a new contactless encoder with high accuracy. ViP and the SMI principle make the detection almost insensitive for environmental background light. The functionality of the sensor has been demonstrated in bright sunlight and measuring speed over ground up to 250km/h in automotive applications. Low latency is ideal for the detection of fast eye movements. The miniature sensor fits into the frame of an AR/VR goggle and can detect eye-gestures. An ultra-compact air quality detector measuring PM2.5 as well as ultra-fine particles is described as well. The system does not require any enforced air flow nor openings in the body thus could be embedded in wearable consumer devices. With a size of a match head, it enables a precise, real-time, and personalized measurement.
High power VCSEL systems are a novel laser source used for thermal treatment in industrial manufacturing. These systems will be applied in many applications, which have not used a laser source before. This is enabled by the unique combination of efficiency, compactness and robustness. High power VCSEL system technology encompasses elements far beyond the VCSEL chip itself: i.e. heat sinks, bonding technology and integrated optics. This paper discusses the optimization of these components and processes specifically for building high-power laser systems with VCSEL arrays. New approaches help to eliminate components and process steps and make the system more robust and easier to manufacture.
New cooler concepts with integrated electrical and mechanical interfaces have been investigated and offer advantages for high power system design.
The bonding process of chips on sub-mounts and coolers has been studied extensively and for a variety of solder materials. High quality of the interfaces as well as good reliability under normal operation and thermal cycling have been realized. A viable alternative to soldering is silver sintering. The very positive results which have been achieved with a variety of technologies indicate the robustness of the VCSEL chips and their suitability for high power systems.
Beam shaping micro-optics can be integrated on the VCSEL chip in a wafer scale process by replication of lenses in a polymer layer. The performance of VCSEL arrays with integrated collimation lenses has been positively evaluated and the integrated chips are fully compatible with all further assembly steps.
The integrated high power systems make the application even easier and more robust. New examples in laser material processing and pumping of solid state lasers are presented.
Easy system design, compactness and a uniform power distribution define the basic advantages of high power VCSEL
systems. Full addressability in space and time add new dimensions for optimization and enable “digital photonic
production”. Many thermal processes benefit from the improved control i.e. heat is applied exactly where and when it is
needed. The compact VCSEL systems can be integrated into most manufacturing equipment, replacing batch processes
using large furnaces and reducing energy consumption. This paper will present how recent technological development of
high power VCSEL systems will extend efficiency and flexibility of thermal processes and replace not only laser
systems, lamps and furnaces but enable new ways of production.
High power VCSEL systems are made from many VCSEL chips, each comprising thousands of low power VCSELs.
Systems scalable in power from watts to multiple ten kilowatts and with various form factors utilize a common modular
building block concept. Designs for reliable high power VCSEL arrays and systems can be developed and tested on each
building block level and benefit from the low power density and excellent reliability of the VCSELs. Furthermore
advanced assembly concepts aim to reduce the number of individual processes and components and make the whole
system even more simple and reliable.
A high electro-optical conversion efficiency of a VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers) is one of the key requirements for their application in high power systems for heating, illumination and pumping applications. The substantial amount of degrees of freedom in the epitaxial and structural design of a VCSEL demands numerical guidance in form of technology computer aided design (TCAD) modeling for a straight forward and successful optimization of the devices. We set up a full electro-thermal optical model for the simulation of VCSEL devices. The electro-thermal part of the simulation follows a drift-diffusion model complemented by a customized, energy resolved, semi-classical carrier capture theory in the QW regions. Optical modes, eigensolutions of the vectorial electromagnetic wave equation, stem from a finite element vectorial solver. The electro-thermal and optical models are linked via the photon-rate equation using QW gain spectra (screened Hartree-Fock approximation) and iterated to self-consistency in a Gummel-type iteration scheme. For comparison and calibration, experimental reference data was extracted from oxide-confined, top-emitting VCSEL devices with an emission wavelength of 808 nm. Our simulations are in good agreement with the electro-optical characteristics of the experimental reference. With the calibrated, microscopic model, routes of design adjustment for efficiency optimization are explored. Exemplarily, the maximum VCSEL efficiency of the simulated reference design increases by 10% (absolute) when free hole absorption is switched off. Accordingly, with the combination of an electro-thermal and optical description, a balancing of the tradeoffs of pDBR doping towards reduced free carrier absorption results in a noteworthy efficiency improvement which is validated with experimental data.
The electro-optical efficiency of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) strongly depends on the efficient carrier injection into the quantum wells (QWs) in the laser active region. Carrier injection degrades with increasing temperature, which limits VCSEL performance in high-power applications where self-heating imposes high-operating temperatures. In a numerical model, we investigate the transport of charge carriers in an 808-nm AlGaAs multi-quantum-well structure with special attention to the temperature dependence of carrier injection into the QWs. Experimental reference data were extracted from oxide-confined, top-emitting VCSELs. The transport simulations follow a drift-diffusion-model complemented by an energy-resolved carrier-capture model. The QW gain was calculated in the screened Hartree–Fock approximation. With the combination of the gain and transport model, we explain experimental reference data for the injection efficiency and threshold current. The degradation of the injection efficiency with increasing temperature is not only due to increased thermionic escape of carriers from the QWs, but also to state filling in the QWs initiated from higher threshold carrier densities. With a full opto-electro-thermal VCSEL model, we demonstrate how changes in VCSEL properties affecting the threshold carrier density, like mirror design or optical confinement, have consequences on the thermal behavior of the injection and the VCSEL performance.
The electro-optical efficiency of semiconductor vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) strongly depends on the efficient carrier injection into the quantum wells (QWs) in the laser active region. However, carrier injection degrades with increasing temperature which limits the VCSEL performance particularly in high power applications where self heating imposes high temperatures in operation. By simulation we investigate the transport of charge carriers in 808 nm AlGaAs multi-quantum-well active layers with special attention to the temperature dependence of carrier injection into the QWs. Experimental reference data was extracted from oxide-confined, top-emitting VCSELs. The transport simulations follow a drift-diffusion-model complemented by a customized, energy-resolved, semi-classical carrier capture theory. QW gain was calculated in the screened Hartree-Fock approximation with band structures from 8x8 k.p-theory. Using the gain data and by setting losses and the optical confinement factor according to experimental reference results, the appropriate threshold condition and threshold carrier densities in the QWs for a VCSEL are established in simulation for all transport considerations. With the combination of gain and transport model, we can explain experimental reference data for the injection efficiency and threshold current density. Our simulations show that the decreasing injection efficiency with temperature is not solely due to increased thermionic escape of carriers from the QWs. Carrier injection is also hampered by state filling in the QWs initiated from higher threshold carrier densities with temperature. Consequently, VCSEL properties not directly related to the active layer design like optical out-coupling or internal losses link the temperature dependent carrier injection to VCSEL mirror design.
Holger Moench, Anastasia Andreadaki, Stephan Gronenborn, Johanna Kolb, Peter Loosen, Michael Miller, Thomas Schwarz, Alexander van der Lee, Ulrich Weichmann
VECSELs are characterized by an outstanding brightness of 100kW/mm²/sr and a small spectral width. Electrical pumping and the potential to combine many emitters in arrays allow for highly integrated and easy to manufacture laser sources which can be scaled towards high power. This almost ideal value proposition is affected by the penalty in efficiency which reduces the output power from VCSELs towards multimode VECSELs and finally single mode VECSELs. The root causes for this lower efficiency are optical losses in the extended cavity, a mismatch of pump and mode profile and losses related to the oxide aperture which is used for current confinement. The reduction of losses requires a careful design of spatial doping distributions in the epitaxially grown layers as these losses have to be balanced against the requirement of low electrical resistance across the many hetero-interfaces in the DBR mirrors. The mismatch of pump and mode profile and the aperture related losses are addressed by an improved current injection enabled by a tailored electrical contact. In this paper optimized structures will be presented which enable a significant increase of efficiency and output power towards more than 150mW in a single mode and more than 300mW in multimode operation. The optical concept of the extended cavity can use a plane mirror in the simplest case thus facilitating the power scaling in arrays with many individual VECSEL apertures combined on a single chip.
High-power VCSEL systems with multi kilowatt output power require a good electro-optical efficiency at the point of operation i.e. at elevated temperature. The large number of optimization parameters can be structured in a way that separates system and assembly considerations from the minimization of electrical and optical losses in the epitaxially grown structure. Temperature dependent functions for gain parameters, internal losses and injection efficiency are derived from a fit to experimental data. The empirical description takes into account diameter dependent effects like current spreading or temperature dependent ones like voltage drops over hetero-interfaces in the DBR mirrors. By evaluating experimental measurements of the light output and voltage characteristics over a large range of temperature and diameter, wafer-characteristic parameters are extracted allowing to predict the performance of VCSELs made from this material in any array and assembly configuration. This approach has several beneficial outcomes: Firstly, it gives a general description of a VCSEL independent of its geometry, mounting and detuning, secondly, insights into the structure and the underlying physics can be gained that lead to the improvement potential of the structure and thirdly the performance of the structure in arrays and modules can be predicted. Experimental results validate the approach and demonstrate the significantly improved VCSEL efficiency and the benefit in high power systems.
Systems with arrays of VCSELs can realize multi kilowatt output power. The inherent simplicity of VCSELs enables a
performance and cost breakthrough in solutions for thermal processing and the pumping of solid state lasers. The use of
an array of micro-optics i.e. one micro-lens per VCSEL enables multiple advantages: firstly it can function as a
collimating lens in order to realize a brightness of an array which is similar to the brightness of a single VCSEL.
Secondly the micro-lens can be part of an imaging system for tailored intensity distributions. Last but not least the microlens
with moderate feedback into the VCSEL can help to select laser modes in order to increase brightness and mode
stability. Wafer-level integrated micro-optics allow keeping the VCSEL advantage of realizing complete and operational
lasers on wafer level including the micro-optics. This paper presents our approach to bond a 3” GaAs wafer with a
micro-optics wafer of the same size. The type of glass used for the optics wafer has been selected to match the
coefficient of thermal expansion of GaAs and is suitable for hot pressing of the lens structures. An alignment strategy
with corresponding markers on both wafers is used to allow the alignment on a standard mask aligner thus realizing
many thousand lens adjustments in a single process step. The technology can be combined with VCSEL wafers with
thinned substrate as well as with complete substrate removal. The basic technology and illustrative prototype systems are
described here.
In terms of the Etendue, projection is a very demanding application for the light source. In order to reach sufficient brightness, the light from the lamp has to be collected into the small Etendue of nowadays' displays. This can only be achieved with lamps that provide a high luminance out of a short arc. For a long time now, Xenon-lamps are used as the light source for large-screen cinema projectors. While Xenon-lamps can offer the required high luminance, they suffer from a very low efficiency leading to the typical multi-kW power ratings of cinema projectors. Modern portable projectors show almost the same performance with much lower wattage UHP-lamps. Therefore, in applications with smaller screen sizes, UHP-lamps are nowadays most commonly used. In this article a comparison of these two different lamp technologies is given. The light-technical properties of these lamp types are compared and advantages as well as disadvantages of the lamps will be discussed for the case of projection.
The past decade has seen a rapid development of projection systems. Projectors as small as only a few liters in size deliver several thousand screen lumens and are, with an efficacy of over 10 lm/W, the most efficient display systems realized today. This has been made possible by breakthroughs in lamp technology, particularly by the development of the UHP-lamp. This broadband light source with its outstanding brightness and lifetimes of over 10000 hours is ideal for projection applications. In this paper we want to describe three major technological trend lines in the development of UHP-lamps over the past decade: First, there is a trend towards brighter projectors, which is fostered by a brightness increase of the UHP-lamps. At the same time, projectors have seen a dramatic reduction in size, which has been made possible mostly by reducing lamp- and driver-size by even a factor of 10. This was only possible by the development of new ignition concepts as well as new optical designs of the reflector. And finally, UHP-lamps have seen quite some improvement in color rendering by using even higher pressures and shorter arc gaps. This allows for more colorful pictures and even more efficient projector designs.
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