Diode laser source with concurrently driven light emitting segments
US5802092A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 25, 1996 |
| Grant date | Sep 1, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 25, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S5/4031
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A diode laser source including a laser diode whose emitting element array or elements or subarray is divided into a plurality of concurrently driven laser segments. Beam filling and focusing optics are disposed in front of the segments so that light from the segments in each element or subarray converges to a single overlapping spot. The optics include a beam filling lens array collimating the light from the segments and either a single focusing lens or a second lens array focusing the collimated light to corresponding spots. In the case of a element laser diode array, each multi-segment element or subarray of the array is individually addressable so as to be driven independently from the other multi-elements array elements. The segmentation of laser elements improves laser life by reducing thermal gradients and isolating any local failures to a single segment, while separately focusing of the segments of each subarray to overlapping light spots increases the tolerance of the source to local failures. Two or more segments in a given element or subarray must fail before the source is considered to fail.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.