TRUMPF delivers billionth VCSEL to ST

TRUMPF GmbH of Ditzingen, near Stuttgart, Germany says that in the autumn it delivered the 1 billionth vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) to its sensor-manufacturing European partner STMicroelectronics, for use in its time-of-flight product families.

The VCSEL is a fundamental component of sensors that feature prominently in smartphones to improve the camera autofocus, enable face recognition to unlock the device’s display, and switch off the display when the user raises the smartphone to their ear when taking a call. TRUMPF’s VCSEL technology is now installed in more than 150 smartphones from a wide range of leading OEMs.

TRUMPF develops and produces its VCSEL technology at Photonic Components, a business field located at its Ulm site. VCSEL technology complements TRUMPF’s wide-ranging laser product and technology portfolio.

“We have been working successfully with STMicroelectronics since 2012 and intend to deepen this relationship to unlock the great potential for growth in many consumer electronics segments,” says Joseph Pankert, managing director in charge of the VCSEL line of business. “We also see strong growth potential for our VCSELs in other markets including higher-resolution time-of-flight cameras. These cameras flood an object or a room with infrared light, measure the round-trip travel time or the phase shift of the emitted light, and calculate three-dimensional models based on this data,” he adds. “VCSELs are used not only in the consumer industry, but also in data transmission, industrial robots and autonomous vehicles.”

“ST‘s time-of-flight product families have been widely adopted by leading smartphone OEMs, with more than 150 phone models already using our technology,” says of its Imaging sub-group. “Building on this success, we look forward to further co-work with TRUMPF to address the exciting and rapidly growing 3D and depth sensing markets.”

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Tags: VCSELs TRUMPF

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