TOPTICA EAGLEYARD

High quality is an essential part of TOPTICA EAGLEYARD’s DNA. We’re making sure that every laser diode that leaves our company premises is thoroughly tested with regards to endurance, environmental changes, mechanical stress, thermal vacuum, radiation and aging. Let’s take a closer look at aging tests today.   Typically, a statistically representative test group of laser diodes runs through an aging test and additionally, every product masters a “burn-in” test as screening measure before it is shipped. But as we have very high quality standards, we decided to go even a step further and developed an inhouse aging test system that is more advanced and precise. There is an expert team involved and our colleagues from manufacturing engineering and quality management work closely together.   EAGLEYARD’s newest aging test equipment for a large space program is designed with 40 individually controlled channels that all allow in-situ monitoring of six individual laser parameters: laser drive current, heat sink temperature, laser voltage, optical power >/< 1000 nm and back facet monitoring. Long-term tests of >10,000 hours are possible as well as short-term burn in sequences (<100 hours). Special test rails were developed that contain 10 laser diodes each and have proper electrical connections for precise measurements and high accuracy. Operational Qualification (OQ) of such equipment consists of a DoE (Design of Experiment) test plan and gage R&R (repeatability & reproducibility) with six focus areas: functional test and specification limits, accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility and long term stability. Extensive aging test like this are often used for space programs but can be applied for any application that requires outstanding reliability.   Being experts not only in the development and manufacturing of laser diodes feels already great, but developing and mastering our own testing equipment to prove performance and reliability of the diodes feels extremely magnificent! Talk to us to find out more about quality standards and laser diode performance – we can’t wait! 😀      #EAGLEYARD #laserdiodes #THINKINGBEYOND #photonics            

“What’s best for my spectroscopic application – a DFB or a miniECL?” - we often hear this question and would like to give you some guidance.   If you’re looking for a laser with a broad mode hop free tuning range, we highly recommend a Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser diode while the miniECL is ideal when you require a very narrow linewidth.   DFB lasers exhibit linear behavior in wavelength, making them ideal for applications that require stable and continuous tuning.   On the other hand, if your application requires a very narrow linewidth, the miniECL is the ideal choice. While miniECLs have mode hops (as displayed in the graphic), they offer a very narrow linewidth, typically around 100 kHz. This makes them perfect for applications where precision at a specific wavelength is crucial, and a broad tuning range is not necessary.   Both products are available in a 14 pin hermetically sealed butterfly package with free space output. Our DFB laser diodes in 14 pin butterfly packages are additionally available fiber-coupled and/or with integrated isolator. Moreover, TO-packages complete our DFB portfolio.   Remember, DFB lasers must be selected carefully making sure its assets match to your requirements. We’re looking forward to helping you find the ideal solution! You can also check our product finder and select relevant criteria for your search (link in comment).

Application insights are probably the most interesting part of our jobs. Developing and measuring innovative laser diode is great – but seeing what these products enable along the value chain is impressive. 🤩   We plan to share many application insight stories with you in the upcoming months and would like to start with CareGlance Srl today – an Italian company that develops photonic devices for real-time monitoring of industrial applications.   ➡️Read the whole case here: https://bit.ly/3zfZbNY   Thank you Maria Chiara Ubaldi for sharing so many interesting facts with us!

We had a great time at the EPIC - EUROPEAN PHOTONICS INDUSTRY CONSORTIUM Technology Meeting on “Photonic Integration and Packaging” at Fraunhofer IZM this week. Very valuable insights and presentations – thank you to everybody who made these two days so valuable. 🤗

There are some moments that simply make you feel very proud. One of this moment occurred last fall. After a visit at Harvard university, we received an e-mail stating “I feel like the whole field of cold atoms will be dominated by your lasers in the next 5 years.” Wow – so let’s talk about laser cooling. 😉   Laser cooling is a cool way (pun intended!) to slow down and control the movement of tiny particles called atoms. Imagine it as a high-tech method that helps scientists chill atoms to extremely low temperatures. Lithium is a special kind of metal that has simple characteristics, making it perfect for cooling experiments. By using lasers, scientists can cool lithium atoms down to super low temperatures, allowing them to create unique quantum states and measure things with incredible precision. This wasn‘t possible before laser cooling came along in the 1980s. Here‘s the basic idea: Laser cooling works like a gentle breeze for atoms. Just as a breeze can slow you down, lasers slow down atoms by making them absorb and then release light particles (photons). This process lowers the atoms‘ energy and makes them really, really cold. For lithium, scientists use a laser with a specific color, like 671 nm, to cool it efficiently. Now, why is this cool (pun intended again 😉)? Well, when we cool down lithium atoms using lasers, they become great candidates for something called quantum computing. It‘s like they become tiny, super-efficient processors for futuristic computers that can process information really, really quickly. As scientists keep exploring laser cooling and playing around with lithium atoms, they‘re discovering new things in areas like fancy optics, the tiniest bits of matter, and super cool technologies. So, laser cooling is not just a cool trick; it‘s a whole area of exciting research that‘s helping us understand and use atoms in amazing ways.   We’re happy to be involved here and empower visions to become reality! If you’re interested in laser cooling, check out our miniECL and/or miniTA!

We value EPIC - EUROPEAN PHOTONICS INDUSTRY CONSORTIUM meetings very strongly and are more than happy to be part of the “EPIC technology meeting on Photonic Integration and Packaging” at the Fraunhofer IZM next week in Berlin. The meeting is packed with various very interesting talks, one of them will be held by our Head of R&D/Frontend Björn Globisch on “Packaging Challenges for single frequency lasers in the NIR / VIS”. As the title suggest, Björn will dive deeply into the micro assembly technology with a focus on how an ECDL is assembled in a 14pin butterfly module and will report on challenges and solutions for PIC lasers. The presentation contains many measurement results so that the audience will get a very comprehensive impression.   We can’t wait for your questions and seeing you next week at the EPIC event in Berlin!

When our CEO Claus Heitmann invites all employees to a barbecue and even turns the sausages on the grill for everybody then you know there is something to celebrate.   TOPTICA EAGLEYARD has been breaking many records in the past months and is growing very strongly. This time we celebrated a major monthly turnover record and love the image of more and more EAGLEYARD laser diodes being shipped around the world to enable applications and empower great visions of our innovative customers.   We’re sending you lots of sun and a bit of barbecue odor from Berlin!☀️😎

This week, we felt inspired by the diversity festival that took place at the technological park EAGLEYARD is based on (thank you WISTA Management GmbH for the organization). So we asked our employees some questions to find out how divers we are – not only in the classical meaning of the term but in many more aspects that differentiate us from one another- and finally we know which sweets and drinks to bring to the next EAGLEYARD party. 😉   Watch the short video below to find out more about us – which facts that are most surprising for you?

For many people Japan means this: sushi, historic temples, the mount Fuji, ancient culture and maybe mangas. For us Japan means: loyal customers, great sales partners, extreme growth and many possibilities.   The OPIE just came to an end and we’re more than happy that we were able to discuss so many requirements face-to-face with industrial key accounts accompanied by our local sales partners Hanamura Optics and SevenSix. Together, we combined the highest level of technical/product knowledge and local support/understanding and we could not think of a better way to serve our customers. THANK YOU for making this OPIE so special to us!   素晴らしい時間とおもてなしをありがとうございました. #opie #laserdiodes