Osram set for green diode ramp in 2012

Researchers at the German company have won the 2010 Beckurts Prize for their development of direct green semiconductor emitters.

Osram Opto Semiconductors will ramp commercial production of direct-emitting green laser diodes in 2012, as the technology moves out of the laboratory. “Product development has just started, and we expect production transfer and start-up in 2012,” the German company says.

Green laser diodes are expected to find widespread future application in miniature projectors, where a high-quality image is produced by a combination of red, green and blue emitters. Early incarnations of these handheld devices instead rely on either LEDs or an RGB laser setup featuring a frequency-doubled infrared laser in place of a direct green emitter.

But according to the Osram research team that developed the direct green laser, the frequency-doubled versions have a major drawback: “This solution is very costly to assemble and drive,” they told optics.org. “A directly emitting green laser will eventually replace this laser and contribute to further miniaturization and performance enhancement of these projectors.”
more Optics.org - Osram set for green diode ramp in 2012

I really hope there's a reason for them to still put them in the TO-can case in 2012. Wishful thinking, and there may not be any practical reason for them to do it by then.

So, here's hoping for a direct green-in-a-can sooner than later.

So far, its best performance has been 50 mW laser diodes operating at 524 nm

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We need MOAR !!

I want a 500mW green pen style

Three cheers for Osram!
That picture made my day!

I really hope there's a reason for them to still put them in the TO-can case in 2012.

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Why wouldn't they? Such a nice, wide-spread, convenient package.
They'd have to re-design all the products that have been using TOs...

aryntha said:

I really hope there's a reason for them to still put them in the TO-can case in 2012. Wishful thinking, and there may not be any practical reason for them to do it by then.

So, here's hoping for a direct green-in-a-can sooner than later.

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Additionally, I hope they're not multi mode like the 445nm diodes. As long as the package isn't too minuscule I think that we'll have appropriate hosts made. It will be easier to accommodate a new package into a host than correcting lenses. :undecided:

Looks like their target wavelenght is 520nm, slightly more cyan-green.

I wonder if the devices that use them will employ and array of them like the A140. That should keep the cost down.

-Tony

Consider the standardization ..... at the moment, half of the automated mounting machines are designed for TO cans, so it's almost unavoidable that manufacturers continues to use them.

I think that this technology is still a ways away before we see laser based handheld projectors. They're too inefficient to be implemented into something like a cell phone. Consider all the heat they'd produce as well as all the power three diodes will consume.

I think the next milestone would be full RGB laser diode projectors.

-Tony

Xplorer877 said:

I think that this technology is still a ways away before we see laser based handheld projectors.

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Say what?
*COUGH*Microvision SHOWWX*COUGH*
Not so far away after all, eh?
They'd "only" need to swap the DPSS for one of these new diodes.

Well, for a low-power application, i don't see too much difficult in developing an RGB laser diode assembly that includes all the 3 chips (using a green diode, ofcourse), and all the related combining optics, inside a single SMD package ..... impossible at hobbyst-level, but decently easy at industrial-level

It looks like that the diodes are going to be open-canned, according to the picture.

ixfd64 said:

It looks like that the diodes are going to be open-canned, according to the picture.

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Unlikely that the picture has anything to with actual production procedures or package design. It's probably the easiest setup they have to work with in the lab.

What package it's produced in will be dictated by what industry demands are in 2012. The biggest user of 'can' based LDs are optical drive manufacturers (and even that's changing) - and green has no application in optical drives. (Yes, I know about 'holographic' storage; InPhase and Tapestry are dead though, and as far as I'm concerned it's vaporware anyways, as optical media is likely to die soon anyways, no matter the capacity.)

I think we'll be lucky if they are produced for even a short period at first in TO-can packaging. In the long run the die will likely be integrated into a small unit along with a R and B laser; I doubt the diodes will remain discrete.

I know there are some folks who work in the LD industry here on the forum; they could likely comment far better than I could though.

Actually in that picture, that diode has been 'de-canned' You can tell the can was mechanically cut off of it. The blue ring is the remnants of the can. You can tell by the jagged inner edge on it that it was removed using a lathe and whoever did it was determined not to cut 'too far'. So instead of cutting it cleanly all the way through they cut 99.99% of the way through it then probably snapped it off.

^ if so, that is a very nonconventional can ..... i never seen one with "flats" sides in place of alignment notches and a so thick thermal exchange mass, and with blue metal cans (it looks blue also in the cut path, so is not painted, apparently) ..... and also the chip shape and chip holder are looking very big and very strange, but about this, i cannot say anything sure ..... after all, who know how normally looks a green laser diode chip (yet) ?


RDIT: the other alternative is that this is a 3D rendering ..... i've worked for some times with these programs, and can say that is not impossible to get these levels of realism, anyway if this is a 3D rendering, someone have made a lot of efforts for hide that.

If it's CG they they went to an awful lot of trouble to get it to look like it's had the front of the can and diode window machined off. Though what flat sides? I was talking about the blue can itself, which are usually stamped out.. just like what that one appears to be.

Just from the pic we also have no clue what the package is. Judging from the pin size, i'd say it's smaller than a TO-18 though.

The only 'altering' I can see that was probably done to the pic, is that the remnants of the stamped can that formerly covered the die and held the diode window has been photoshoped and tinted blue.. probably just to make the pic look a little more dynamic.

This is that what i mean:



Maybe yes, they have tinted the can cut part (it looks more painted with blue ink, than photoshopped), but it looks strange the same ..... it looks almost "wet" ..... anyway, with some of the photorealistic rendering engines that are available actually, also this is possible ..... for this i said i'm not sure.

Is this a clue as to the operating mode?

Optics.org - 'Forgotten' laser material aimed at projector use



That's quite the 'wide' beam.

It is such a pretty color though!