642nm 300mW Homemade Module

This is my first laser module, I have been building personal pointers for a little while and I feel I have enough practice to get into the scanning world. I am getting ready to build a couple more modules and put them all into one projector.

Diodes: 2x 150mW CW rated 642nm info here: World's First 642nm 150mW Laser Diode Launched by Photonic Products
Mounting: Diodes are mounted in custom copper housing placed in copper blocks with clamping screws to allow for rotation to dial in polarization
Lens: AR coated for 600-1000nm single element lens in custom brass assembly
Drivers: Dual Flexmods set at 100mA idle and 320mA with modulation
Cooling: TEC cooled to -10°C and temperature controlled with a Die4Laser TEC controller
Output: 150mW after Lens at each laser and 293mW after optics from Knife Edge combination
Polarization: Horizontal
Everything is electrically isolated, the copper clamping blocks are clear coated so they are not contacting each other.

This module wasn't built with space in mind, but my next ones will be. I plan on building another one with dual 650 DVD diodes and combining these two reds using PBS after both knife edged modules. I will also repeat this once more with two 12x blu-ray diodes combined with a PBS attempting to get 600mW blu-ray with a reasonably decent life on them. I am about to order a 300mW 532nm module and a 100mW 473nm so this scanner should be pretty decent when completed. All analog modulation of course.

Smoke was used in this photo session since I didn't have a tripod to mount camera and do long exposure shots.
I didn't have my L wrenches to adjust the mirrors so the beams aren't aligned. Plus those mirrors are just mock up mirrors, I will replace them with clean ones when I get them in the mail.

Thanks for checking this out, comments and criticism are welcome.

Looks nice. Good work!

What would be the point in having both 600 mW of 405 and 100 mW of 473 in the same setup? Under normal conditions the 473 will be way brighter than the bluray... i can only see a use when you project onto a fluorescent surface that converts the 405 to whitish-blue.

Only one thing ..... caution, from the first pic, the "bridge" that keep the diodes in place look bended ..... too much pressure can damage the TEC, if not equally distributed (and this is not good, if happens in the scanner with all mounted and aligned .....)

I suggest you to use a thick plate over the modules, and to fix it to the base with 4 springs at the corners ..... this can keep the modules in place, and at the same time, not force too much "unbalanced" over the TEC.

BTW, it's just my impression, or the beams in the pics are not yet aligned ?

Benm said:

What would be the point in having both 600 mW of 405 and 100 mW of 473 in the same setup? Under normal conditions the 473 will be way brighter than the bluray... i can only see a use when you project onto a fluorescent surface that converts the 405 to whitish-blue.

Click to expand...

Because the extremely low wavelength of blu-ray allows me to achieve a good white balance without buying a 300mW 473nm(which is the most costly part of a projector). Adding that blu-ray makes a huge difference in the balance of the colors even though it is not going to be that bright. I use chroma to check the color balance.

HIMNL9 said:

Only one thing ..... caution, from the first pic, the "bridge" that keep the diodes in place look bended ..... too much pressure can damage the TEC, if not equally distributed (and this is not good, if happens in the scanner with all mounted and aligned .....)
BTW, it's just my impression, or the beams in the pics are not yet aligned ?

Click to expand...

It is designed to bend that much. The copper blocks aren't flat because that are clamps. That plastic is very flexible so its fine. I am not putting that much pressure on the TEC, I did all ready break my first TEC from this, that's why this one doesn't fit the module well. I designed the module for a smaller TEC.

Oh, now i understand ..... i was thinking that the bridge was in aluminium, and with that bending arc, i was wondering why the TEC was still integer

If it's plastic, and the copper blocks are not flat, that curve make more sense

BTW, it look like you're using mirror edge for align the beams ..... was it intentional (need of a larger beam) ? ..... just wondering why not a PBS .....

Edit: i've seen in the first post what you want to do, i had not realized before that was for combine multiple beams ..... nevermind

:gj:
can you post beam comparision of this and a 650nm laser? (if you have one)

I just bought a camera from my friend so I'll post comparison to my 280mW 650 pointer. I just left the cables at his house so i'll get the pics tomorrow.