Active monitoring of multi-laser systems
AssigneenLIGHT, Inc.
InventorsScott R. Karlsen, Jay Small, Mitch Stanek, Vito Errico, Cary Kiest
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A monitoring system for a multi-laser module includes detectors corresponding to each laser and situated to receive a portion of the associated laser beam uncombined with other beams. Laser characteristics are measured and stored, and in operation are used to identify device failures. A comparator receives a reference value and compares the reference value with a current operational value. If the current value is less that the reference value, a possible failure is indicated. Signal cross-coupling among the detectors is also used to identify undesirable scattering that can be associated with surface contamination or device failure.
Claims22
An apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of laser diodes and associated laser drivers configured to produce an optical beam;
- a detection system configured to receive portions of optical beams for each of the laser diodes and produce corresponding detector output signals associated with each of the optical beams;
- a memory configured to store the at least one characteristic parameter for each of the laser diodes;
- and
- a processor coupled to the laser drivers, the detection system, and the memory so as to establish at least one characteristic parameter for each of the laser diodes
- wherein the plurality of laser diodes includes a first linear array of laser diodes and a second linear array of laser diodes, and a beam interleaver configured to reflect beams associated with the first linear array and transmit beams associated with the second linear array to form the output beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.