Design of High Peak Power Pulsed Laser Diode Driver

Abstract

This paper attempts to describe a laser diode driver circuit using the depletion mode gallium nitride high electron mobility transistor (D-mode GaN HEMT) to generate nanosecond pulses at a repetition rate up to 10 MHz from the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The feature of this driver circuit is a large instantaneous laser power output designed in the most efficient way. The design specifications include a pulse duration between 10 ns and 100 ns and a peak power up to above 100 W. The pulsed laser diode driver uses the D-mode GaN HEMT, which has very small Coss difference between turn-on and turn-off states. The analysis is according to a laser diode model that is adjusted to match the VCSEL, made in National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU). A design guide is summarized from the derivations and analysis of the proposed laser diode driver. According to the design guide, we selected the capacitor, resistor, and diode components to achieve 10 ns to 100 ns pulse duration for laser lighting. The experiment demonstrated that the maximum power-to-light efficiency can be as high as 86% and the maximum peak power can be 150 W, which matches the specifications of certain applications such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR).

Nanosecond pulse X-ray emission source based on ultrafast laser modulation

“…图3给出了脉冲X射线发生器的时域分析 结果 [13,14] , 可知脉冲X射线发生器的时间特性由 [15,16] , 激光脉冲信号的非线性问题源于激光 二极管的阈值电流特性. 光电阴极X射线管光子 到电子再到X射线的过程中存在的延时 .…”

Nanophotonics Pioneer: Prof. Dr. Dieter Bimberg “Green Photonic Network: From VCSELs to Nanophotonics”

“…Ching-Yao Liu et al demonstrated a high-peak-power pulsed laser diode driver based on advanced GaN HEMT technology [7]. In addition, further pushing VCSEL lasing wavelengths to blue and UV regimes will definitely lead to novel applications for sensing, visible light communication, and data storage.…”