NUGM03 1W 525nm Laser Diode

[DTR]

NUGM03 1W 525nm Laser Diode Bank


These have been going around for a little bit and I have been slacking a bit on my testing threads but it is time to get back to work. These diodes are found in the NUGM03 laser arrays. The individual diodes are said to be 1W rated with a typical wavelength of 525nm.

Forgot to get pictures before pulling the diodes last week and more will be here next week so I snagged this pick of the array from one of the china sites which I only fair as I see a bunch of my pictures when I was there.
New banks coming in next week will replace these with my own then.






I had it just above lasing threshold and noticed something I had not before. Looked to be two beams coming from the diode and I am guessing these ball lenses stretch out the height of the raw elongated output and as the lasing lines start to fill they are split apart from the center and then curve back if that makes sense.
Looked around and found this.

As the core fills out they merge back together and end up giving a more square shape instead of the the typical line generated with the common collimating lenses.
Check this out.




Here it is around 1A with a full profile


Shape when filled out.


Little video.

Here is a comparison with the the other lenses I carry.


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[DTR]

Power Test with Stock Ball Lens







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[DTR]

Reserved for DTR-G-2 Power Test​

 

[trinh hong phuoc]

I had some builds with this diode, I didn't realize that particular thing, thanks for your information and information on output power.

 

[paul1598419]

As usual, Jordan, great information about these projector diodes. Are you going to offer the ball lenses in a housing for sale? That part wasn't clear to me.

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi Jordan,
I haven't noticed the duel beam output on mine but will take a closer look. At 1.8A most of the NUGM03's come in at 1200mW or more with a G2 and has a nice spot . The lowest reading I came across was 1.047mW's .
Thanks for the testing these 525nm /9mm diodes are very efficient as far as I seen lately .

Rich

 

[BowtieGuy]

Looks like a great new addition to your diode selection, Jordan!

 

[RedCowboy]

Hi Jordan,
I haven't noticed the duel beam output on mine but will take a closer look. At 1.8A most of the NUGM03's come in at 1200mW or more with a G2 and has a nice spot . The lowest reading I came across was 1.047mW's .
Thanks for the testing these 525nm /9mm diodes are very efficient as far as I seen lately .

Rich

I have not noticed that either, maybe just the bars filling in as you see with the blue diodes when turning up the current from a low start, mine are de-canned and the far field bar is the same as the ndg7475 only difference is 525nm vs. 520nm but the spot/bar length is exactly the same, both 03 and 7475 are running the same 2E green lens.
So far it's been a very good diode, held up very well with no loss in output yet, efficiency seems better than 01 and 02 in my limited observation ( 2 units ).

 

[DTR]

Hi Jordan,
I haven't noticed the duel beam output on mine but will take a closer look. At 1.8A most of the NUGM03's come in at 1200mW or more with a G2 and has a nice spot . The lowest reading I came across was 1.047mW's .
Thanks for the testing these 525nm /9mm diodes are very efficient as far as I seen lately .

Rich

I might have confused a bit with the layout as this new site limits me to 20 pictures so I did not get to the G-2 test last night going to be doing that here shortly and probably will have it up in the third post tonight which I reserved for the G-2 testing. The first test was with the stock ball lens and with 1.8A it was a little over 1W so certainly expect it to increase by 100mW or more at 1.8A based on past results with these integrated lenses. I don't get the split at threshold lasing with the other lenses I think it is how the ball lens is stretching out the output it also goes away very quick after threshold as the lasing lines are energized and fatten out. That was what I was trying to show with the video.

Paul if you thought I meant I had ball lenses out of the diode housing sorry not what I meant. I actually have never had any luck getting a ball lens out of the old metal housings. 100% fully shattered lens. Anyone have any luck getting one out of the shorter plastic? If so I will give a try I just thought it was futile as I tried many different ways back in the day.

The biggest question I still have on the diode is if anyone has tested it and can confirm it is 5nm higher than the other greens as the datasheet offered is meaningless to me as it says it is a early production test sample datasheet distributed for marketing and cooperative development purposes that could have had substantial changes to the final production versions, edited to closer match the production model or just completely fabricated using bits and pieces of existing sheets to provide something that looks official when selling them or to fudge the wavelength up to mislead that they have an desired feature over the others. It may be right but I need proof before I believe anything from my experiences with most all the sources for these back door gray market sourced diodes.

I also did like that the output looks almost acceptable as is the way the ball lens is configured on these as we know that removing the can compromises the integrity of the diode to function as intended causing an accelerate degradation and it seems based on what I keep hearing it hits a certain point and just goes into a runaway degradation. More powerful diodes sounds like are more susceptible to it and probably more likely to hit that event quicker when the build up gets to a certain point causing the runaway/accelerated degradation. I am preparing warning for my listings which will inform(I shroud have done before now) this and state I will still offer the the options in the module with the comprised diode but only suggest using in something that is not expecting long life and will not have a high duty cycle like pointers. I don't think I have ever put any significant life compared to the 2,000-5,000 hours most applications would expect to the undriven projector rating of 20,000 hours. So if it can even be noticed on an application like pointers that is some loosing maybe as much as 99% of their expected life. The biggest thing that has come to my attention in the last few months is the large increase in contacts of people with these 5W, 8W, 10W, 12W, 15W engravers being sole out of china wanting to see if I have a diode to replace one out of a unit with near none to just a few hours of use on them some bought though sites where return is not feasible due to the return shipping cost or out of the return period. Every time I ask them to forcibly remove the lens and report. Every one of them reported or pictured down the barrel of a compromised open can NUB diode. I plan to also list some NUB bare diodes on Ebay with all this info to try to get this info out there to some of the unfortunate souls that are buying these defective modules being sold with overrated spec and to save money on the diode damaging it so it will only last long enough to minimize returns. They have been out there for a bit but think there are enough of them finally getting used enough to fail as most that buy them are hobbies and build it and use it a couple of times.

I should have been all over this before now but been so head up my rear for a while but will be getting more involved now that I am not as weighed down.

 

[DTR]

I have not noticed that either, maybe just the bars filling in as you see with the blue diodes when turning up the current from a low start, mine are de-canned and the far field bar is the same as the ndg7475 only difference is 525nm vs. 520nm but the spot/bar length is exactly the same, both 03 and 7475 are running the same 2E green lens.
So far it's been a very good diode, held up very well with no loss in output yet, efficiency seems better than 01 and 02 in my limited observation ( 2 units ).

Yea all these multimodes do have their lasing lines energize a slightlyi different rates. I was mostly pointing out to note how this ball lens was doing I don't think it would look different if I put this cap on another NUG or NDG or even some of the blues. I just thought it was interesting that these lenses first expand as the light enters the lens and reduces it on extit which actually mos the G lenses have a very slight curve to the bottom but the more rounded shape I was what gave that near suare shape and makes it not look to bad.

 

[RedCowboy]

Yes the nugm03 has the shorter GBall can like the nubm08 and nubm0a so it's likely different, shorter focal length or maybe a different grind, I have had no luck getting them out intact either but I think BadBoyBilly got one out so it's possible.

I don't know the exact wavelength but I can see that the 7454 looks more green/blue and the 03 looks more green/yellow but it's not a huge difference, but I do see it, they both look good and although 525nm should be a little more visible I like the 520nm better as far as the color but that's just me, maybe because it's different from 532nm that we have seen so much of for so long.

Also the opening seen from inside the shorter GBall can is smaller suggesting a shorter focal length. I will eventually get some out and test them but the older/long can GBall is not much use it seems when I cut down a can and did some testing, the obtainable beam waist was poor.

 

[DTR]

Yea it might be a little higher wavelength or it also might be shifting a tad with the suggestion to run it at a higher current. I was looking at that last night and saw the efficiency does drop off a bit after 1.6A. I will have compare some data points and against the NDG7475. If they are not as efficient I don't think it would have the same rated current. I am just skeptical about everything N!ch!a since there is so much misinformation it would not be out of step and why we really have to have community testing.




I think N!ch!a wants it this way. Actually was reminded about a thought I had the other day while reading over on AVSforums as I follow a lot of the threads on laser projectors. Got a question just a bit ago that I get a lot. Saw the picture of my LPM with a reading of 13W on it buy missed that I said I was using two NUBM44 and asked if I had a higher power diode or knew of one coming. I get a lot this mostly due to the china engravers that are stating up to 15W.

Anyway I have a fairly dark prediction for us on that and hope I am wrong but I think the great pace that we had been seeing over the last 10 years of a continuous advances in power output for diodes will slow to a crawl and might even have peaked and will be no new money put toward that end.

The push to get the most power from the smallest form possible might be hitting a point where there is not any more advantage due to laser efficiency. just doing a quick calculation I get in the 5 years maybe more difference between release of the NDB7875 and the NUBM44-V2's(just picked those two as they have the largest time difference of the ones I have done testing on my self with numbers I can get quickly. I show in my test the NDB7875 is 31.90% efficient and the NUBM44-V2 is 32.15% which is not much progress and that is using 1.8A and 4.5A calculation and without getting more efficient trying to dump more waste heat into these projectors is not feasible. They are already struggling on thermal management of the ones in the newest generation like the VPL-VW995ES and JVC one. Biggest issue with lasers is the temperature management. Going from high lamp to low lamp settings shows causes color issues which we know as the shift from temperature and some posts were saying how they can pack so much power in them they are too bright anyway. I started thinking and had the thought that even if they made a 20W diode they could not control it in a pico projector and at this point they may be devoting all their R&D money to refining the diodes themselves and systems to give a more stable and color quality that can be had with a mercury bulb. More power at this point would not seem to get them any more advantages but if they could create active control systems, wavelengths options or even find a way to make the InGaN lasers less susceptible to thermal shift.

Right now they can pack amazing power in all units from the picos to a consumer/business/educational units all the way up to the large venue and if no monetary drive for more power I can see a shift to focus on refining diodes within the current power levels they are able to achieve but work on things to make them better for video projection. Like say this NUGM03 if 525nm then just a tweak to wavelength but not difference in the core product from the other NDG/NUG diodes. Also they seem pretty set on the ball lens but since they underestimated the willingness to sell defective products like those engravers with the decanned NUB units from china sellers they might again go further with more methods to make them less desirable for those using them for non intended applications. Specially the hobbyist mostly taking aim at laser pointers as they have a great fear about anything that makes news made with their products is a direct negative reflection on the company and being a Japanese company image is very important. Every news report of dumb people doing dumb and dangerous things with as well as the pressure which continues from the pilots unions. I just keep seeing that sheet posted showily a block with all the dies for the lasers mounted directly to a single plate instead of trying to secure individual diodes in a block. Try fitting that in a host.

 

[RedCowboy]

Yes I have had those same thoughts and as the bulk of the blue diodes power goes towards pumping phosphor to make green, then when the greens are efficient and stable enough, likely already are they won't need that blue power, but we may see a single 5w green diode.

I hope we see some holographic projectors that need high power and high quality lasers, it would be nice to see some mass produced active fiber with a dopant/gain medium that makes visible light, but we shall see, my worry is it may all go LED.......well not anything holographic, but the normal data projectors already use a lot of LED generated light.

Maybe we could see laser pumped phosphor for stadium lights and highway lights to better achieve a good focused spot. Time will tell.

 

[r34p3rex]

I'm about to order one of these. I have access to an Ocean Optics spectrometer at work so I will take some wavelength measurements

 

[DTR]

I'm about to order one of these. I have access to an Ocean Optics spectrometer at work so I will take some wavelength measurements

That would be awesome. Look forward to seeing the results.

 

[Spoomples]

Have these been around long enough for anyone to figure out how de-canning effects them? I'd like to stick a DTR-G-8 or two element lens in front of one, but not if it severely shortens its lifespan. They are a bit too expensive for me to count them as consumables.

Edit: To contribute a bit of information, my diode's fast axis seems to have a divergence of ~5.1mrad with the stock gball. That seems good enough for pointing use, hence my concern over damaging the diode for a small-ish improvement.