Princeton Optronics Inc of Mercerville,NJ,USA,which manufactures high-power vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers(VCSELs),has announced the availability of 800nm and near-800nm infrared VCSEL arrays with output powers from 100mW to more than 10W peak power.
The devices are designed for use in consumer electronic applications such as gesture recognition,natural user interface and 3D content creation where near-infrared illumination is needed.
In 3D image sensing,the VCSEL arrays provide very low speckle,subnanosecond rise and fall times,and high electrical-to-optical conversion(>45%)efficiency.They are suitable for time-of-flight(TOF)or structured light applications,says the firm,and are preferred to LEDs and edge-emitting lasers because of their high efficiency,narrow and circular emission angle,short rise and fall times,and flat-top intensity profile.The devices also work at temperatures as high as 800C.
Currently,VCSELs are being made in large quantities,ensuring both high reliability and competitive costs compared to LEDs and conventional edge-emitting lasers.Similarly to LEDs,for high-volume applications the chips can be packaged in a variety of configurations.They do not require a hermetically sealed housing,which reduces the packaging cost.Chip sizes range from 0.5mm x 0.5mm to 3mm x 3mm,depending on output power.Also,the optics can be added to the package,creating greater options for beam handling in the customer's illumination system.Sample chips are available now at wavelengths in the 800nm region,and additional wavelengths can be fabricated according to custom request.
