As diode laser technology improves, new applications are now open to many industries. The automotive industry is one of these, having begun implementing lasers into their product designs. In promoting awareness of diode laser technology to this key industry, we offer four key design characteristics requiring consideration for automotive applications. By integrating these four key design characteristics, your diode laser application design will be successful in meeting the stringent automotive design requirements. Electronic noise protection. Sources of this noise can be ESD, RF, E/M, or other large spike-generating modes. The result of improperly protected diode lasers is catastrophic damage. A standard laser driver circuit uses a built-in monitor photodiode in the laser to develop a feedback loop to create an Automatic Power Control circuit (APC). This circuit must be strategically designed to provide protection from large spikes of the modes mentioned to prevent catastrophic damage or limited progressive damage that severely shortens the life of the laser. Temperature stability. The drive circuitry, diode laser, optics, and module packaging designs need to be addressed here. The gating item is the diode laser. Currently, visible and near IR wavelength diode lasers have an operating range of –10C to +50C. This has increased to –10C to +70C for some wavelengths. The drive circuitry must be adequate to maintain constant power, the optics must be high quality glass to maintain an accurate optical image, and the module packaging must be robust enough to maintain tolerances and alignment over this range. Reliability. Care must be taken in choosing and qualifying a diode laser to meet the lifetime requirements of the application, taking into account the temperature, operating times, and optical output power of the diode. Lifetime can vary from 5,000 hours to 100,000 hours. Heat dissipation. Laser optical/electrical efficiency degrades with temperature, and lifetime is reduced as the operating temperature increases. Maximum heat dissipation must be implemented to maximize lifetime and reliability.
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