News: Optoelectronics
23 October 2020
II-VI’s high-power laser range now available on 6” GaAs
Engineered materials and optoelectronic component maker II-VI Inc of Saxonburg, PA, USA says that its full product line of high-power semiconductor lasers is now available on its 6-inch gallium arsenide (GaAs) platform.
The intensifying competition and anticipated increase in demand in the laser systems market, including for Industry 4.0, medical diagnostics and surgery, and aerospace & defense applications, is favoring semiconductor laser diode suppliers that can deliver reliably in volume while driving economies of scale, reckons the firm. To meet the growing demand for fiber-laser pump chips, II-VI is now in volume production on its 6-inch GaAs platform for high-power edge-emitting diodes. It says it achieved this by leveraging decades of expertise in manufacturing highly reliable high-power GaAs edge-emitting pump lasers, and by building on its momentum in deploying 6-inch GaAs optoelectronics platforms for 3D sensing and high-speed datacom applications.
“While there are very few 6-inch GaAs technology platforms for optoelectronics in the world, II-VI already operates several at scale, in three locations globally, including two in the USA and one in Switzerland,” says Dr Karlheinz Gulden, senior VP of the Laser Devices and Systems business unit. “To our knowledge, we are the first in the world to produce reliable high-power pump laser diodes and bars on such a scalable platform,” he adds. “By achieving this milestone, II-VI is once again validating the long-term strategic benefit of developing vertically integrated technology platforms in-house, which is the ability to leverage those investments over time across multiple applications.”
II-VI’s high-power pump lasers are offered as bare dies and mounted chips. Its broad portfolio of components for laser systems includes seed lasers, acousto-optic modulators, fiber Bragg gratings, and kilowatt pump and signal combiners, as well as ion beam sputtering (IBS) coated laser optics and micro-optics for high-power isolators.
In addition to its 6-inch GaAs technology platform for optoelectronics, II-VI has established 6-inch GaAs and GaN-on-SiC (gallium nitride on silicon carbide) technology platforms for RF electronics. The firm has also announced plans to establish a 6-inch SiC vertically integrated platform for power electronics, and recently joined the US Semiconductor Industry Association.
