Alfalight: High-Power Diode Lasers Achieve 65%Efficiency

Alfalight Press Contacts
Jeremy Draper, Alfalight Inc.
608.240.4826
jdraper@alfalight.com

Gary Clemenceau, Lee Communications
415.464.9443
gary@leecommunications.com

DARPA-sponsored Program Improves Diode Reliability, Lifetime

MADISON, Wis.– June 15, 2004 – Alfalight, Inc., a technology innovator and manufacturer of highly efficient and reliable high-power diode lasers, announced at the 2004 Solid State and Diode Laser Technology Review Conference in Albuquerque, N.M., that it has demonstrated 65% total power conversion efficiency in its 970 nm laser material. This effort is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Super High Efficiency Diode Sources (SHEDS) program, and this early demonstration puts Alfalight on track to deliver 65% efficient laser bars to DARPA by March of 2005.

Current state-of-the-art production diode pump lasers provide just over 50% of peak “wallplug,” or electrical-to-optical power conversion efficiency. This means that to produce 50 watts of usable laser light, the diode generates 50 watts of waste heat, which must be removed to maintain the diode junction temperature. At 65% efficiency, a 50-watt output diode bar generates about half the waste heat, only 27 watts, significantly increasing the diode’s lifetime and reliability, and providing headroom for scaling to higher output power.

“Achieving 65% wallplug efficiency this early in the SHEDS program is significant and encouraging,” said Tom Earles, chief technology officer of Alfalight. “Our team is making great strides to improve the efficiency of our products, and we believe these efforts will enable us to deploy our next-generation diode laser bars in the 2005 timeframe.”

About Alfalight

Alfalight, Inc. is a technology innovator and manufacturer of highly efficient and reliable high-power diode lasers for industrial, defense, and telecommunications markets worldwide. The Madison, Wisconsin-based company’s advanced Aluminum-Free Active region (ALFA) diode lasers provide industry-leading efficiency, reliability, power and brightness. Alfalight has exclusive licenses to patents that include high-power narrow-spectrum lasers, single-mode lasers, and short-wavelength lasers. Its advanced development efforts toward improved laser efficiency and brightness are enhanced by support from DARPA. Alfalight’s current high-power diode laser product line includes both multimode bars and fiber-coupled single emitters. For more information, visit www.alfalight.com.