VCSEL meets demands of time of flight applications

Osram Opto Semiconductors announced a new multi-junction Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) to debut at Photonics West. The 550 aperture PowerBoost VCSEL improves power conversion efficiency up to 60 percent and enhances optical power.

Osram’s PowerBoost VCSEL technology offers faster and more efficient rise and fall times, enabling short pulse lengths, something critical in Time-of-Flight (ToF) applications for reaching farther distances without compromising eye safety.

Osram Opto Semiconductors strengthens its position as a leading player in the fast-growing VCSEL market with its PowerBoost multi-junction VCSEL product. VCSEL technology is making a huge impact in the 3D sensing market with its outstanding beam quality, simple design, and compact size. The PowerBoost VCSEL improves power conversion efficiency up to 60 percent and enhances optical power. The product’s faster rise and fall times enable short pulse lengths, which are critical in ToF applications for reaching farther distance without compromising eye safety. VCSELs power many consumer applications, such as 3D cameras and facial recognition in mobile devices, as well as industrial applications like short-range LiDAR, machine vision, and robotics. The 550 aperture PowerBoost VCSEL was selected as a finalist for the Prism Award for Photonics Innovation in the category of vision technology.

One year ago, Osram Opto Semiconductors announced a significant leap forward with the development of multi-junction technology, which includes two or more p-n junctions stacked on top of each other and separated by a tunnel junction. This technology provides better efficiency and speed than single-junction VCSELs. Today, the same technology drives the PowerBoost VCSEL portfolio, which includes chip products using a dual junction (V00155) and a triple junction (V00156) epitaxy. The higher slope efficiencies of 2 W/A of a dual junction and 3 W/A of a triple junction significantly reduce the pulsing forward current requirements to reach the same optical power as a single-junction VCSEL. Thermal load is reduced due to a 60 percent power conversion efficiency with a single aperture 940 nm VCSEL and 53 percent with a power array.

In addition to the 550 aperture PowerBoost VCSEL, Osram will showcase a new driver reference module for industrial ToF application designs at this year’s online Photonics West Show, March 6 -11. The module includes a VCSEL array and was developed to reduce design time for ToF applications, simplify testing and evaluation, and provide VCSEL operating principles, measurements, module dates for its customers.