News: Optoelectronics
21 October 2021
Lumentum launches first 10W flood illuminator modules for next-gen 3D sensing
Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA (which designs and makes photonic products for optical networks and lasers in industrial and consumer markets) has announced what it claims is an industry-first 10W flood illuminator module that incorporates a high-performance three-junction vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array for consumer and industrial 3D sensing applications.
VCSEL illuminators are increasingly being used in high-performance 3D sensing applications ranging from biometric security in mobile phones to emerging industrial and consumer AIoT (artificial intelligence of things). AIoT, the convergence of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, benefits from 3D sensing since it is dependent on capturing vast amounts of high-quality data to enable efficient artificial intelligence processing.
To meet the needs of these growing numbers of applications, Lumentum’s new 10W flood illuminator provides a high-power, high-efficiency integrated solution in an easy-to-incorporate industry-standard package that can be paired seamlessly with time-of-flight sensors and infrared cameras.
“Lumentum’s three-junction VCSEL arrays provide customers with highly differentiated performance in an embeddable flood illuminator module,” says Ken Huang, director of product line management, 3D Sensing. “Compared to single-junction array modules currently in the market, Lumentum’s multi-junction design achieves high peak optical powers and densities with increased efficiency and eye-safety functionality, all of which are critical for many emerging 3D sensing applications,” he adds.
Lumentum’s 10W consumer-grade flood illuminator modules leverage the firm’s decades of experience in providing high-performance and field-proven VCSELs to the market in high volumes, including shipping more than 1 billion VCSEL arrays into 3D sensing applications. The flood illuminator is available in a compact standard surface-mount package with a built-in eye-safety function. It integrates a three-junction VCSEL array, an optical diffuser, a ceramic substrate, and a photodiode, which enables closed-loop control. Customers can select three different fields of illumination, including 60°x45°, 72°x58°, and a wider 110°x85° to attain more depth of information.
Lumentum partners with driver integrated circuit providers to offer illumination solutions for different sensing applications. The firm also provides reference designs for custom driver circuits for its VCSEL arrays for special applications that may require higher powers and narrower pulse widths.
