Diode Tollarances

Hello all!

I'm looking to do a driver design with a friend, just to help teach ourselves about power electronics. I've done a bunch of reading on the forum, but I have a couple of questions. I'm sorry if they are common knowledge, or if I missed a thread with that info in it already. (I tried I promise.)

We want to build a driver that can drive any of the common diodes across a wide power level. It might not end up being very small, but that's ok. What output voltage ranges are we looking at here? My feeling is around 3-7 volts, but that's a pretty rough guess. At really low currents, especially on a 445 diode, how low does the voltage drop go?

This brings me to my next question: Are there limits to how little power you can pump through a diode? For example, if I tried to run a 445 at 10mW, would that damage it?

Thirdly, is there any consensus on how modulation effects the lives of these diodes? Are high switching frequencies particularly hard on certain diodes, and if so, how high is considered safe?

Thanks!

The Search button is your friend....
You can start here...

http://laserpointerforums.com/f42/diy-homemade-laser-diode-driver-26339.html

and there are more out there...

Jerry

I saw that thread and a few others, but they focus pretty heavily on the electronic design rather than the design specs. They don't really answer my specific questions.

I have no problem going at this from the electronics end of things, but I'm just having trouble getting info on what I need to design for.

The 445 diode we use here start lasing arround 200 mW but running them on low power will not damage them. (answer nr 2 )

The lowest voltages you're likely to see are the IR diodes that power 532nm GREEN laser modules. Those peg in at around 2.5V. The highest you'll probably see is a 405nm, running at maybe 6.5V. Everything else is in between.

Very few, if any, hobby pointer builders actually modulate or pulse their builds, so you're not likely to run into that being a consideration for most.

Thanks! That's very helpful!