Oclaro to Present Industry-Leading Results of >550W for QCW Operation Laser Diode Bars

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Oclaro, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCLR), a provider of optical components for industrial applications, will be presenting its latest results on high-power laser diode bars in Quasi Continuous Wave (QCW) operation at the upcoming Photonics West event in San Francisco, Calif.  Demonstrating significant performance improvements, the new results show Oclaro laser diode bars delivering output powers of more than 550W at 200us pulse width and wall plug efficiency levels of more than 65%. These results will be presented by Jurgen Muller, a Lead Design Engineer for Oclaro, at Photonics West on Jan. 26 at The Moscone Center in room 103/104 at 6:00pm.

"These new results reflect Oclaro's commitment to continually raise the bar on performance and functionality to help our customers win in the market," said Norbert Lichtenstein, Director of R&D at Oclaro. "We were very pleased to see the scalability of our high-power CW bar design to pulsed operation modes over a wide wavelength and temperature range, and this will be a very valuable feature in the solid state laser pumping, laser illumination, direct diode material processing, and medical markets."

The new dataset Oclaro will be presenting comprises results for an extended wavelength range from 808nm to 1080nm at temperatures as high as 70 degrees C. For 808nm laser diodes on conductively cooled standard CS type assembly up to 580W were measured at 500us and about 1 % duty cycle. Similar results were achieved with 9xxnm laser diode bars. The latter were also assembled on a compact sandwich assembly with a footprint of 12mm by 10mm only and a height of 4.7mm. The device was operated up to >400W at 6% duty cycle and 25 degrees C.

Similar to all Oclaro high power laser products, the front facet of the bar is protected against Catastrophic Optical Damage by the Oclaro E2 mirror passivation process.  Telecom grade AuSn (gold tin) hard solder makes the product suitable for demanding industrial and defense applications in CW and hard-pulse operation mode.

Oclaro's Presence at Photonics West and LASE 2010

Oclaro will be showcasing its new high-power laser diodes at Photonics West (booth #1101.)  The company will also be presenting five technical papers at the associated Symposium LASE 2010.  Below is a listing of all five papers, the first of which is described above in this press release.

1. 'CW to QCW power scaling of high-power laser bars'
2. 'Eye safe high-power laser diode in the 1410-1550 nm range'
3. 'Reliable operation of 8xx mini-bar-based hermetic modules'
4. 'Extending the wavelength range in the Oclaro high-brightness broad area modules'
5. 'Novel single-mode fiber coupled broadband seed source for pulsed fiber laser systems'

About Oclaro

Oclaro, Inc., with headquarters in San Jose, Calif., is a tier-one provider of high-performance optical components, modules and subsystems to the telecommunications market, and is one of the largest providers to metro and long-haul network applications. The company, formed on April 27, 2009 following the combination of Bookham, Inc. and Avanex Corporation, leverages proprietary core technologies and vertically integrated product development to provide its customers with cost-effective and innovative optical devices, modules and subsystems.  Oclaro serves a broad customer base, combining in-house and outsourced manufacturing to maximize flexibility and drive improved gross margin. Its photonic technologies also serve selected high-growth markets, including industrial, defense, life sciences, medical and scientific, with diversification providing both significant revenue streams and strategic technological advantage.  The company also provides a complete family of wavelength selective switches (WSS) capable of powering reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) applications over the entire optical network, from the edge to the core.

Oclaro is a global company, with cutting-edge chip fabrication facilities in the U.K., Switzerland and Italy, and in Tucson, Ariz. during the transition of related activities to Europe, and manufacturing sites in the U.S., Thailand and China.

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Oclaro, the Oclaro logo and certain other Oclaro trademarks and logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Oclaro, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the US and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Information in this product release is subject to change without notice.

Editor Notes:

1. Photonics West will take place January 23-28, 2010, in San Francisco, Calif.
2. Oclaro will be exhibiting at the Photonics West exhibition at booth #1101
3. To arrange an interview with representatives of Oclaro before or during the show, please contact Erika Powelson at +1 (408) 332-5877 or [email protected]

SOURCE Oclaro, Inc.