- Home
- Technology
- Research and Development
- Research areas
- Semiconductor Laser – High-Power VCSEL Module
Semiconductor Laser – High-Power VCSEL Module
Compactness and ease of handling that expand the application range of high power lasers
Background
Lasers have commonplace applications—optical communications, laser pointers, and high-speed and high-precision printers because they have unique advantages.
They can generate required types of light power where needed, allowing easy control of the duration and timing of emission.
Thus, they are compatible with many different applications—continuous operation, pulse operation, and high-speed modulation, for instance.
With the above features augmented and the output power increased, they are also used in the following applications:
- Surface treatment processing and precision processing, including cutting and machining
- Ignition with further concentrated energy for use in a gas engine, for instance
In the past, generating a high-power laser beam required a large, expensive piece of equipment that was difficult to handle.
Solutions
Ricoh's high-power VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) module is compact and easy to handle, and will have many applications, some of which follow:
Technical Highlights
Ricoh's high-power VCSEL module, announced in July 2016,has the following excellent features:
Left: High-power VCSEL module
Right: High-power VCSEL module with a fiber cable and an air-cooling device
High power
The VCSEL array produces an output of 520 W standalone and a fiber output of 380 W as a module.
Ricoh originally developed the VCSEL array as a light source of optical writing for high-speed and high-precision laser printers.With the luminescence efficiency improved and the light-emitting channels integrated on a large scale, the VCSEL array now delivers high power.
Compact module
The VCSEL array has numerous light-emitting channels, every one of which is covered by a micro lens array. This construction requires only a small number of components, resulting in significant downsizing.
High power from the combination of a VCSEL array with a micro lens array
Stable operation
A VCSEL is ten times more stable than an edge-emitting laser in terms of wavelengths against changes in temperature.
For this reason, a VCSEL is suitable for applications that require a high level of wavelength stability, such as solid-state laser excitation.
Ricoh's Vision
Ricoh will continue to create new value in the industrial field and in many other fields with its compact, high-power VCSEL modules, exploiting its technologies in the area of optical designs and compound semiconductors it has developed so far.
- *This technology development is partly subsidized by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a national research and development institute of Japan.