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Lightwave Electronics Corporation

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A Lightwave Electronics model 122 microprocessor controlled Nd:YAG laser, produced in about 1990. This laser was based on the nonplanar ring oscillator design. This continuous-wave, single-frequency laser was aimed at the laboratory market. Lightwave Electronic's biggest market was for OEM lasers, (lasers used as components in other manufacturer's systems), primarily Q-switched lasers for micromachining.

Lightwave Electronics Corporation was a developer and manufacturer of diode-pumped solid-state lasers, and was a significant contributor to the creation[1] and maturation of this technology. Lightwave Electronics was a technology-focused company, with diverse markets,[2] including science and micromachining. Inventors employed by Lightwave Electronics received 51 US patents,[3] and Lightwave Electronics products were referenced by non-affiliated inventors in 91 US patents.[4]

Lightwave Electronics was a California corporation which was founded in 1984. The primary founders were Robert L. Mortensen, a former executive at the laser manufacturer Spectra Physics; Dr. Robert L. Byer, a professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University; and the Newport Corporation, then headed by Dr. Milton Chang. Mortensen was president at the company’s founding, and he served as president for almost 15 years.[5] Phillip Meredith was president from 2000 until the sale of the company in 2005.[6] JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU, now Lumentum, stock ticker LITE) purchased Lightwave in 2005, for $65M.[7][8] At that time, the company had 120 employees. The company was located in Mountain View, California.

Products

In the scientific community, Lightwave Electronics was best known for single-frequency lasers based on the nonplanar ring oscillator design.[9] These lasers operated at the wavelengths of 1064 nm and 1319 nm, and were based on the laser material neodymium-doped yttrium-aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG). The first-generation Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) was based on these lasers, operating at 1064 nm.[10] Two Lightwave nonplanar oscillators were launched into space in 2004 as components of NASA’s Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer, an earth-observing satellite instrument which was still operational in 2015.[11] Lightwave Electronics produced a visible (532 nm) laser source based on frequency doubling the output of a nonplanar ring oscillator.[12] The nonlinear material used was magnesium-doped lithium niobate. Another member of the nonplanar ring product family was an “injection seeding” system which was used to enforce single-frequency oscillation in 1-joule-level lamp-pumped Q-switched lasers, improving the utility of those lasers for quantitative spectroscopy.[13][14] This injection seeding system was the first Lightwave Electronics product with significant sales.

Lightwave Electronics' first significant success in industrial markets was a series of acousto-optically Q-switched lasers[15][16] at 1047 nm, based on neodymium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride (Nd:YLF), and at 1342 nm, based on neodymium-doped yttrium orthovanadate, which were used to improve yield in semiconductor memory manufacturing. For about 2 decades, from about 1988 to 2008, semiconductor manufacturers used the Lightwave Electronics miniature Q-switched lasers in the link blowing step[17] during the production of the majority of the world’s dynamic memory chips (DRAMS). These miniature Q-switched lasers were in systems built by Electro Scientific Industries, GSI, and Nikon.

Also of significant industrial importance was a series of internally frequency converted Q-switched lasers, with 2 to 20 Watt of ultraviolet output at 355 nm[18], used for a variety of micromachining applications. Lightwave introduced these UV lasers in 1998. The nonlinear frequency converting material was lithium triborate (LBO). Lightwave’s Q-switched multi-watt UV lasers emitted longer pulses than competing lasers and allowed effective processing of materials[19], probably by melting as opposed to ablation (vaporization), thus lowering the power needed for removing material in operations such as laser-drilling small holes in circuit boards, or laser-cutting circuit boards[20]

For a few years (circa 1996), Lightwave Electronics produced an acousto-optically mode-locked laser with low frequency jitter and drift. The most significant application was for high-speed measurements of voltages as a step in the design and improvement of integrated circuits.[21] A distinct line of mode-locked lasers produced ultraviolet output at 355 nm, used for fluorescence excitation in flow cytometry applications.[22] Mode-locking was passive, using a semiconductor saturable absorber. In the late 1990's Lightwave Electronics produced a Nd:YAG laser internally frequency doubled to 532 nm with potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP), used in ophthalmology.

Technology

Photograph shows the technique used to mount optics in a Lightwave Electronics single-frequency frequency-doubled laser. The optic in the left foreground is bonded with a thin layer of UV-curing adhesive to a support block, also made of glass, which is bonded to the platform. This design approach allows 5 degrees of freedom for the optic, with a thin adhesive bond.[23]

Early products benefited from relationships with Stanford University and other Bay Area laboratories. The nonplanar ring oscillator technology was invented at Stanford University,[24] and the patent[25] was licensed to Lightwave Electronics. The injection seeding product was developed with cooperation from SRI International and Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore).[13][14]

Lightwave Electronics is listed as the assignee on 51 United States patents.[3] Several of these relate to active laser stabilization, including stabilization of optical frequency,[26] of intensity,[27] and of pulse repetition rate[28] and pulse energy.[29] Another set relate to laser manufacturing techniques. Early Lightwave Electronics lasers used solder to permanently mount optics in place.[30] Later lasers, such the one shown in the figure, used adhesive cured by ultraviolet light.[23][31]

Lightwave Electronics' nonplanar ring lasers, and the infrared Q-switched lasers used for DRAM production, were "end-pumped," meaning that the beam from the semiconductor laser pump was co-axial with the beam of the pumped laser. Later lasers, including all of the 355 nm lasers, were side-pumped. Small-diameter (<2 mm) Nd:YAG rods were pumped by powerful (>20 watt), large-aperture semiconductor lasers placed alongside the rods. Lightwave Electronics developed and patented a design enabling efficient side-pumping of a laser while maintaining diffraction-limited output.[32] The end-pumped pumped products were limited in power to less than 1 watt, while side-pumped products have exceeded 20 watts.

Lightwave Electronics made extensive use of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, established in 1982.

Successor Companies

Spin-off companies from Lightwave Electronics Corporation include Electro-Optics Technology, of Traverse City MI; Time-Bandwidth Products of Zurich, Switzerland, now a part of Lumentum; and Mobius Photonics,[33] acquired by IPG Photonics. Products sold by Lumentum in 2015 which derive from Lightwave Electronics Corporation products are: the NPRO 125/126 series nonplanar ring lasers, the Q-series Q-switched 355 nm lasers, and the Xcyte quasi-continuous 355 nm lasers.[34]

References

  1. ^ Jeff Hecht, "Photonic Frontiers: Laser diodes: Looking back/Looking forward: Laser diodes have come a long way and brought five Nobel prizes," Laser Focus World, April 2015
  2. ^ Anne Gibbons, “Optics Boom Spawns Need For More Experts,” The Scientist, May 1, 1989
  3. ^ a b Search US Patents with Assignee Name = Lightwave Electronics
  4. ^ Search US Patents with Description/Specification = Lightwave Electronics and Assignee Name ≠ Lightwave Electronics
  5. ^ Reuters, "Mobius Photonics Names Robert L. Mortensen CEO," Sept 15, 2009.
  6. ^ Bloomberg, Company Overview of Lightwave Electronics Corporation, Executive Profile, Phillip Meredith.
  7. ^ Laser Focus World, "JDSU buys Lightwave Electronics for $65 million," March 21, 2005.
  8. ^ JDS Uniphase Corporation's 10-K form, filed Aug. 29, 2007, states that the purchase was “for approximately $67.2 million in cash.”
  9. ^ RP Photonics Encyclopedia of Laser Physics (online), "Nonplanar Ring Oscillators,"
  10. ^ https://www.advancedligo.mit.edu/diode_laser.html
  11. ^ Deep Space Optical Communications, edited by Hamid Hemmati, page 444-445. Wiley.
  12. ^ D. C. Gerstenberger, G. E. Tye, and R. W. Wallace, "Efficient second-harmonic conversion of cw single-frequency Nd:YAG laser light by frequency locking to a monolithic ring frequency doubler," Opt. Lett. 16, 992-994 (1991)
  13. ^ a b Randal L. Schmitt and Larry A. Rahn, "Diode-laser-pumped Nd:YAG laser injection seeding system," Appl. Opt. 25, 629-633 (1986)
  14. ^ a b M. J. Dyer, W. K. Bischel, and D. G. Scerbak, "Injection locking of Nd:YAG lasers using a diode-pumped cw YAG seed laser," in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, Vol. 14 of OSA Technical Digest (1987), paper WN4.
  15. ^ US Patent 5,130,995, “Laser with Brewster angled-surface Q-switch aligned co-axially.”
  16. ^ William M. Grossman, Martin Gifford, and Richard W. Wallace. "Short-pulse Q-switched 1.3-and 1-μm diode-pumped lasers." Opt. Let. 15, 622-624 (1990)
  17. ^ Edward J. Swenson ; Yunlong Sun and Corey M. Dunsky "Laser micromachining in the microelectronics industry: a historical overview", Proc. SPIE 4095, Laser Beam Shaping, 118 (October 25, 2000)
  18. ^ US Patent 5,850,407, “Third-harmonic generator with uncoated brewster-cut dispersive output facet.”
  19. ^ Rizvi, Nadeem H., et al. "Micromachining of industrial materials with ultrafast lasers." Proc. ICALEO. Vol. 15. No. 1. 2001.
  20. ^ L. Rihakova and H. Chmelickova, “Laser Micromachining of Glass, Silicon, and Ceramics,” Advances in Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 2015
  21. ^ US Patent 6,496,261, "Double-pulsed optical interferometer for waveform probing of integrated circuits."
  22. ^ Farr, Christina, and Stuart Berger. “Measuring Calpain Activity in Fixed and Living Cells by Flow Cytometry.” Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE 41 (2010): 2050. PMC. Web. 28 Nov. 2015.
  23. ^ a b US Patent 6,366,593, "Adhesive precision positioning mount."
  24. ^ Thomas J. Kane and Robert L. Byer, "Monolithic, unidirectional single-mode Nd:YAG ring laser," Opt. Lett. 10, 65-67 (1985)
  25. ^ US Patent 4,578,793, "Solid-state non-planar internally reflecting ring laser."
  26. ^ US Patent 4,829,532, "Piezo-electrically tuned optical resonator and laser using same."
  27. ^ US Patent 5,757,831, "Electronic suppression of optical feedback instabilities in a solid-state laser."
  28. ^ US Patent 6,909,730, "Phase-locked loop control of passively Q-switched lasers."
  29. ^ US Patent 5,982,790, "System for reducing pulse-to-pulse energy variation in a pulsed laser."
  30. ^ US Patent 4,749,842, "Ring laser and method of making same."
  31. ^ US Patent 6,320,706, "Method and apparatus for positioning and fixating an optical element."
  32. ^ US Patent 5,774,488, "Solid-state laser with trapped pump light."
  33. ^ Optics.org, "Start-up Spotlight: Mobius Photonics," April 11, 2008.
  34. ^ Lumentum company website, Commercial Product Finder.
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