Newport develops low-noise, diode laser controller circuit

Irvine, CA—Newport Corp. has developed a diode laser current driver circuit with noise characteristics that it says are 10 times lower than any other available solution.

By Control Engineering Staff August 16, 2004

Irvine, CA— Newport Corp. has developed a diode laser current driver circuit with noise characteristics that it says are 10 times lower than any other available solution. This new design approach delivers greater stability, expanded dynamic range, improved electrical efficiency, and the ability to work with lasers over a wider resistance range. These improvements will benefit any noise sensitive diode laserbased application, such as telecommunications research or spectros-copy.

Newport adds its design is based on a switching power supply that drives an output current regulator. The key innovations in Newport’s design are its addition of a voltage regulator to power the current regulator; circuitry to equalize the voltage drop across these circuit elements; and the placement of each on separate heatsinks.

Splitting the power dissipation by using two heatsinks produces the results already described. In particular, it reduces the required thermal mass at each heatsink, enabling them to respond faster to changes in diode laser resistance or from user adjustments. By placing the two heatsinks face-to-face, they can even be cooled by one fan in a physically compact configuration. Newport has applied for a patent on this design and various alternate embodiments.

Control Engineering Daily News DeskJim Montague, news editorjmontague@reedbusiness.com