New wavelengths, high brightness and increasing reliability are breaking new ground for diode lasers. The higher brightness allows direct fibre coupling of several 100 W in 200 µm and 400 µm fibres and therefore the pumping of fibre lasers. Such high power fibre coupled laser diodes combined with fast beam deflection units (Galvo Scanners) have been implemented in industrial processes and used for quasi-simultaneous welding of polymers or selective soldering. But also as customized modules diode lasers offer competitive solutions for example in medical device manufacturing. Available as modules or as turn-key systems, featuring the laser module and all its supply and control units in one 19” rack mountable chassis, such devices become more compact and easy to integrate. New markets like solar modules production benefit from this technology.

The usage of conduction cooled laser diodes increases the typical lifetimes significantly. Life tests in pulsed and cw mode show over 16 Mega shots respectively over 14.000 h with minimal degradation. Depending on the operating conditions, such diode lasers have proven to run for several years in production nearly free of maintenance. Besides pumping of solid state lasers high power diode lasers become more and more a competitive tool for many applications in material processing.

1.
Friedrich
Bachmann
(
2007
),
Goals and status of the German national research initiative BRIOLAS (brilliant diode lasers)
,
Proc. SPIE
Vol.
6456
2.
Matthias
Haag
,
Bernd
Köhler
,
Jens
Biesenbach
,
Thomas
Brand
(
2007
),
Novel high-brightness fiber coupled diode laser device
,
Proc. SPIE
Vol.
6456
3.
Jörg
Neukum
(
2007
),
From semiconductor to laser tool
,
Laser+Photonik
,
Hanser
, 03/2007
4.
Wolfgang
Horn
(
2006
),
Flexible customized solution for polymer welding
,
6th Workshop Application of High Power Diode Lasers
,
Dresden, Germany
5.
Maren
Gast
,
Marc
Köntges
,
Rolf
Brendel
(
2006
),
In-Laminate Laser Soldering – A Gentle Method to assemble and interconnect silicon solar cells to modules
,
21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference
,
Dresden, Germany
This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.