Diode driver combines protection with safety

Lydya laser diode drivers feature a range of functions designed to safely operate laser diodes and optimise their lifetime.

Laselec specialises in the design and manufacture of the electronic components for laser systems, and has now set up a US subsidiary company in Arlington, Texas.

Laselec's Lydya laser diode drivers feature a range of functions designed to safely operate laser diodes and optimise their lifetime.

Laser diodes are very sensitive to electrostatic discharges, which may cause latent catastrophic damage usually due to the breakdown of the PN junction in an area of the device outside the optical cavity.

Defects in the active region of the junction from ESD may propagate with time into the laser cavity reducing the performance and lifetime of the laser, and may appear immediately or long after the damage occurs.

Lydya comes with the exclusive "Lydya diode shunt" that remains plugged to the diode's terminals and automatically short circuits when the diode is not used.

Diodes are also sensitive to reverse currents and transients, which may destroy the diode or damage it, sometimes with no change in the current/voltage characteristic.

Forward or reverse transients may be caused by energy reflections in pulsed systems, or output capacitors in standard constant current supplies.

Lydya's output stage has been specifically designed to avoid transients, and the Lydya diodes shunt embeds specific circuitry - controlled by Lydya - to get rid of transients and reverse currents.

Excessive forward currents may cause operation at optical power levels damaging the output facet in less than 1us.

But Lydya's high power circuitry supplies an accurately regulated adjustable current and features overcurrent protection functionalities.

High temperatures and sharp changes in temperature can damage the facets and the structure of the crystal by creating dislocations which migrate to the junction, thus reducing drastically but not obviously the diode lifetime.

Lydya features a programmable slow-start ramp of current, as well as temperature protection interlocks.

An optional temperature controller with a ramp in temperature can also be embedded into Lydya.

This device protects diodes against peaks in temperature and allows safe diode use.

The Lydya Q-CW and CW laser diode drivers are for single diodes, bars and stacks, and range from a few watts up to several kilowatts with or without TE temperature controller.

They are fully computer controllable and are capable of managing a complete laser system in a single device (cooling system, user safety management, Q-switch triggering, optical power measurement etc).

Laselec also supplies complete customised fibre-coupled diode lasers.

Laselec will be exhibiting Lydia at the Photonics West conference in San Jose, California, from 22nd to 27th January 2005, at the Cleo conference in Baltimore, Maryland, from 24th to 26th May 2005, and at the Laser conference and exposition in Munich, Germany, from 13th to 16th June 2005.

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