Decanning Laser Diode + macro shots - Leo's method (Pic Heavy)

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU TRY TO DECAN YOUR DIODE AND BLOW IT, IT IS NOT MY, OR LPF'S FAULT. IT IS YOUR FAULT!!


Hey all. As I have decanned the laser diode used in my aurora build (see sig) I'd like to share how I did with the community.
Decanning made easy at last!!


For this thread, I've started with an old 9mm 1W IR diode, that got damaged somehow years ago.

Lets get to work.... or surgery should I say :eg:

Here is the diode, on a small vice:


Using a cutting plier, I've started making circular movements, around the can (note this being a 9mm diode, it has a pretty strong can )


After some effort, it starts to come out (if you try this, beware. It is easy for the plier to enter inside the can and damage everything inside).




Decanned, at last! :wave:



So, I've tried my luck doing some macroshots.



First zoom level





Second zoom level



Third zoom level




:drool:

Hope you pople like. I'm not good at writing tutorials, so any doubts post here!


PS: Gotta go sleep now. A friend of mine is here and helped me doing the pics (thanks). We just started dissecting a 16x burner and gone into decanning and macro'ing!! (thanks bro). Its almost 4AM here in BR. :crackup:

Ok, so what is the point of decanning. I've read about ohers doing it but never an explanation as to why.
How about using a pipe cutting tool. Not sure if the blade would get close enough to the edge. :thinking:

Sometimes the glass windows is damaged or smudged but other times people just want to squeeze the most power they can out of their diodes (decanning a diode increases its power slightly because it doesn't have to go through the additional lens, which reflects some light).

Good job of decanning...
Some of the pics are good while others are a bit
blurry. What did you use to take the Macro pics ??

@RawPaul
Another point of decanning is curiousity.
What does the inside of a Laser Diode look like
up close. It is very difficult to take macro shots
of the Die and connecting wires through the can
lens. In this case it was a damaged Laser Diode.


Jerry

Where is the ESD circuit? Didn't you say this was a 9mm 445?

scumbagatheist said:

Where is the ESD circuit? Didn't you say this was a 9mm 445?

Click to expand...

He says its an old 1w IR diode in the second sentence

Its a 9mm IR, DTR has 2 photos of the 9mm 445 at the bottom of this page.
https://sites.google.com/site/dtrlpf/home/diodes/9mm-445nm
They look completely different.

Sorry, gents. I haven't had enough coffee yet, and this was literally the first thing I read..

Get some more in ya then!

Hey all. Sorry I am a bit inactive, I'm finishing 2nd semester of electronics... and need to finish the final work...

@Lasersbee
I used... Any lens I had in hand. Pics were taken with cellphone (HTC G1) camera... If its blurry, its because I shaked...

Its a IR diode used for practice. I took macros to look inside, if I damaged any wires, etc...
Hey, can you people see the damage in the IR diode.....? Jerry did... haha :beer:

I decanned 3 445 diodes (A-140, oldies) and all have new life again. The build in my sig uses a decanned one, and I have another build on teh way :wave:

Guessing since the die reflects differently in the center that perhaps this one was over-currented, leading to damage of the front facet.

< also, it looks like the can was removed :crackup:

You can actually see damage done by heat at the two last pics - where the die is "sitted", the metal turned black around it
IIRC I sold this unit and someone burnt it and sent me back to check why it happened... so I used it as decan practice