ANALYSIS AND OPINION VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS
VCSELs in every home, every mobile device and every car
Despite having already been around for more than 40 years, VCSELs are still at the start of their life cycle. Now the technology is set to reach its full potential, writes Dr Joseph Pankert, general manager at Philips Photonics
I
t’s been over a decade since I started working with vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) technology. At that time, the basic invention was already 30 years old, and the first commercial applications were more than 10 years old. Yet, despite this, the full potential of the technology is only really coming to fruition now. To put that into perspective,
global revenues for the VCSEL market currently stand at several hundred million, and are expected to swell to above $1 billion in 2022, according to analysts at Yole Développement. If you were to ask me why that is, I would tell you that VCSELs have been waiting for the ‘digital revolution’.
Let me explain. The digital
revolution constitutes a huge amount of data transmission
from one device to another. If we consider the technologies equipped to cope with this, VCSEL emitters are unmatched in terms of energy, volume or cost per transferred bit. Now real world objects are interfacing via sensors with the digital domain. VCSELs enable many classes of optical sensors, with unmatched performance and cost. Finally, the digital revolution applies to numerous industrial applications, with production processes becoming increasingly digital. VCSEL technology supports this with sensors, in addition to specific components for plastic processing or surface treatment.
What exactly is a VCSEL? A VCSEL is a (micro-) laser, is monochromatic, coherent, and has a beam shape that conveniently couples into
Since announcing in November 2016 that it was doubling the capacity of its laser diode facility in Ulm (due for completion by the end of this year), Philips has produced more than 700 million VCSELs, which has triggered follow-up investments that will lead to a further doubling of capacity by early 2018
optical fibres. The small cavity also allows for fast modulation, thereby lending itself well to high-speed data transmission. However, the one outstanding additional property that sets VCSELs apart from any other laser is its compatibility with electronics manufacturing flows. VCSELs are processed and tested on the wafer scale, and conveniently integrate into printed circuit boards just like almost any other electronics component.
This has enabled a supply
chain for high volume devices such as time-of-flight sensors or optical transceivers with unmatched price points.
Philips Photonics produces VCSELs in its production facility in Ulm, Germany 26 Electro Optics December 2017/January 2018
Where are we with VCSEL adoption today? If we think about the current penetration of VCSELs into the digital technology markets, it really is across the board. Mobile devices and industry products
increasingly use sensors to scan the environment and interact with other objects, and many of these sensors are optical sensors that rely on sophisticated light sources. VCSELs can provide this – in many cases better than other light sources, like LEDs or edge-emitting lasers. Nowadays, hundreds of millions of smart phones are using VCSELs for either proximity sensing or autofocus assist. Most data centres use VCSELs for fibre interconnects, and an increasing number of industrial sensors are using VCSELs for position and speed sensing. However, this is only the beginning.
What is the future potential of the technology? Despite the initial headway, for now, the vast majority of smart phones and interconnects are not yet using VCSEL technology, although forecasted
@electrooptics |
www.electrooptics.com
Philips Photonics
Philips Photonics
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
