Easy system design, compactness and a uniform power distribution define the basic advantages of high power VCSEL
systems. Full addressability in space and time add new dimensions for optimization and enable “digital photonic
production”. Many thermal processes benefit from the improved control i.e. heat is applied exactly where and when it is
needed. The compact VCSEL systems can be integrated into most manufacturing equipment, replacing batch processes
using large furnaces and reducing energy consumption. This paper will present how recent technological development of
high power VCSEL systems will extend efficiency and flexibility of thermal processes and replace not only laser
systems, lamps and furnaces but enable new ways of production.
High power VCSEL systems are made from many VCSEL chips, each comprising thousands of low power VCSELs.
Systems scalable in power from watts to multiple ten kilowatts and with various form factors utilize a common modular
building block concept. Designs for reliable high power VCSEL arrays and systems can be developed and tested on each
building block level and benefit from the low power density and excellent reliability of the VCSELs. Furthermore
advanced assembly concepts aim to reduce the number of individual processes and components and make the whole
system even more simple and reliable.
High power VCSEL arrays can be used as a versatile illumination and heating source. They are widely scalable in power
and offer a robust and economic solution for many new applications with moderate brightness requirements. The use of
VCSEL arrays for high power laser diode applications enables multiple benefits: Full wafer level production of VCSELs
including the combination with micro-optics; assembly technologies allowing large synergy with LED assembly thus
profiting from the rapid development in solid state lighting; an outstanding reliability and a modular approach on all
levels. A high power VCSEL array module for a very uniform line illumination is described in detail which offers
>150W/cm optical output and enables less than 1% non-uniformities per mm along the line. The applied optical principle
of near field imaging and massively superposing many thousand VCSELs by arrays of micro-lenses gives perfect control
over the intensity distribution and is inherently robust. A specific array of parallelogram shaped VCSELs has been
developed in combination with an appropriate micro-lens design and an alignment strategy. The concept uses parallel
and serial connection of VCSEL arrays on sub-mounts on water coolers in order to realize a good combination of
moderate operating currents and reliability. Lines of any desired length can be built from modules of 1cm length because
this optical concept allows large mounting tolerances between individual modules. Therefore the concept is scalable for a
wide range of applications. A demonstrator system with an optical output of 3.5kW and a line length of 20cm has been
realized.
Holger Moench, Raimond Dumoulin, Stephan Gronenborn, Xi Gu, Gero Heusler, Johanna Kolb, Michael Miller, Pavel Pekarski, Jens Pollmann-Retsch, Armand Pruijmboom, Martin Stroesser
High power VCSEL arrays can be used as a versatile illumination and heating source. They are widely scalable in power
and offer a robust and economic solution for many new applications with moderate brightness requirements. The design
of high power VCSEL arrays requires a concurrent consideration of mechanical, thermal, optical and electrical aspects.
Especially the heat dissipation from the loss regions in the VCSEL mesas into the surrounding materials and finally
towards the heat sink is discussed in detail using analytical and finite element calculations. Basic VCSEL properties can
be separated from the calculation of thermal resistivity and only the latter depends on the details of array design.
Guidelines are derived for shape, size and pitch of the VCSEL mesas in an array and optimized designs are presented.
The electro-optical efficiency of the VCSELs and the material properties determine the operation point. A specific
VCSEL design with the shape of elongated rectangles is discussed in more depth. The theoretical predictions are
confirmed by measurements on practical modules of top-emitting structures as well as of bottom-emitting structures.
In terms of the Etendue, projection is a very demanding application for the light source. In order to reach sufficient brightness, the light from the lamp has to be collected into the small Etendue of nowadays' displays. This can only be achieved with lamps that provide a high luminance out of a short arc. For a long time now, Xenon-lamps are used as the light source for large-screen cinema projectors. While Xenon-lamps can offer the required high luminance, they suffer from a very low efficiency leading to the typical multi-kW power ratings of cinema projectors. Modern portable projectors show almost the same performance with much lower wattage UHP-lamps. Therefore, in applications with smaller screen sizes, UHP-lamps are nowadays most commonly used. In this article a comparison of these two different lamp technologies is given. The light-technical properties of these lamp types are compared and advantages as well as disadvantages of the lamps will be discussed for the case of projection.
The past decade has seen a rapid development of projection systems. Projectors as small as only a few liters in size deliver several thousand screen lumens and are, with an efficacy of over 10 lm/W, the most efficient display systems realized today. This has been made possible by breakthroughs in lamp technology, particularly by the development of the UHP-lamp. This broadband light source with its outstanding brightness and lifetimes of over 10000 hours is ideal for projection applications. In this paper we want to describe three major technological trend lines in the development of UHP-lamps over the past decade: First, there is a trend towards brighter projectors, which is fostered by a brightness increase of the UHP-lamps. At the same time, projectors have seen a dramatic reduction in size, which has been made possible mostly by reducing lamp- and driver-size by even a factor of 10. This was only possible by the development of new ignition concepts as well as new optical designs of the reflector. And finally, UHP-lamps have seen quite some improvement in color rendering by using even higher pressures and shorter arc gaps. This allows for more colorful pictures and even more efficient projector designs.
Projection systems for large screens have made tremendous progress during the last years, both in terms of performance and size reduction. Improved UHP lamp systems made a major contribution to enable the new generation of projectors. The arc gap is reduced to 1 mm only and allows a high collection efficiency in the projector. At the same time the lamp wattage was increased. In this way, today's projectors can create high-quality XGA pictures with more than 3000 screen lumens using one single 200 W UHP-lamp. Such a projector reaches an efficiency of more than 10 screen lumens per watt electrical input power. The volume of lamp and driver has been reduced by one order of magnitude during the last six years. This was possible by recent progress that has been achieved on the ignition of the lamp. By using a UV-enhancer cavity in the lamp seal and an additional antenna the ignition voltage could be reduced from 20 kV to below 5 kV. This allows more compact drivers and is ideal for miniaturizing projectors. A new optical concept allows for extremely compact reflector systems: A dichroic coating applied to one half of the UHP burner focuses all light into one hemisphere. Additionally 20-30% more light can be collected in systems with high optical demands.
Making use of both the reduced ignition voltage and the new optical concept a reduction of the volume of lamp and driver by a factor of 10 has been realized.
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