Contributed by: C. David Chaffee, Chaffee Fiber Optics
IPG Photonics gains in fiber laser market
Santa Clara—IPG Photonics continues to cause marketdisruption with its fiber lasers, which lead IPG officials have decided to priceat the low end of the spectrum to make IPG’s leadership in this budding fieldeven harder to crack.
“The corporate leaders want as many people as possible touse lasers, period,” says Tony Holt, who recently joined the company and whopresented here at Green Photonics yesterday. While revenues have dippedrecently due no doubt to the recession, IPG continues to take market share fromother laser makers.
“It’s a lot easier to sell a fiber laser than any other typeof laser,” said Holt. “Laser diodes are the most efficient in directlyconverting electrical power to coherent laser light,” he continued. The simplethree-step process includes exciting the atoms, irradiating them with astimulating wavelength, and then allowing them to de-excite simultaneously.
Holt acknowledges that much of the technology came fromtelecom. While IPG Photonics makes its own optical fiber, Holt admits that IPG’sfiber is not that dissimilar from the standard optical fiber used in telecom.
Regarding wall plug efficiencies, Holt observed that fiberlasers have a 30 percent efficiency while carbon dioxide lasers have only a 20percent efficiency. Flashlamp-pumped solid state lasers have a 3.5 percentefficiency.
“The fewer optical components the better,” said Holt, whopreviously worked at Lumonics, Lucas Aerospace and Coherent.
IPG Photonics is using frequency doubling. “The 532 nm greenwavelength, achieved through frequency doubling, is a useful wavelengthparticularly for photovoltaics applications,” Holt observed.
Laser soldering of lead free alloys is “very easy,”according to Holt.
The company already is involved in some fascinatingapplications, including laser cutting for the underwater dismantlement ofnuclear installations. Laser welding of fuel cells and laser welding ofbatteries are other green applications IPG Photonics hopes to get involvedwith.
“Some of these lasers already are being used 24-7 on theproduction line,” said Holt. “There has been some very good technologydeveloped out of the meltdown.”
Ocean Optics spectrometers have global impact
Ocean Optics started as a “green company” back in the late1980s, when it won its first Department of Energy SBIR grant to develop aspectrometer, according to CTO Jason Eichenholz. Since then, the company hassold more than 100,000 units.
“Optical sensing drives a plethora of green applications,”said Eichenholz at the Green Photonics conference. Eichenholz served as generalco-chairman of the conference. The company instituted the color changes thatimpacted people so profoundly during the Olympic ceremonies in Beijing at theBird’s Nest, Eichenholz said.
The spectroscopy that Ocean Optics uses can be deployed fora wide variety of purposes, including the analysis of ozone depletion, foroptimizing crop production such as growing the healthiest soy beans.
UV tech useful in water treatment
UV technology forwater treatment has several inherent advantages over other technologies,according to OIDA.
Two different UVwavelengths, 254 nm and 185 nm, are used in water treatment. UV light at awavelength of 254 nm UV light is used in disinfection and ozone destructionapplications. At this wavelength, UV light penetrates the outer cell wall ofthe microorganism, passes through the cell body, reaches the deoxyribonucleicacid (DNA), and alters the genetic material, preventing replication. This typeof UV light also can destroy residual ozone present in a water stream.
Organic LEDs will have major market effect
While inorganicLED solid state lighting (SSL) is shipping today in many applications, organiclight emitting diodes (OLED) will begin to come to the lighting market over thenext several years, according to OIDA.
OLED lightingtechnology is advancing rapidly based on strong R&D support from industryand governments worldwide. OLED lighting, while not as far along thecommercialization path as LEDs, will encounter many of the same issues.
Significantimprovements in OLED luminous efficacy and stability remain to be achieved,according to OIDA. Of particular concern among many observers is cost. SinceOLEDs are fabricated as area light sources rather than point sources as areLEDs, a relatively large area of OLED panel is required for a given lightoutput. This characteristic places strong demands on the cost of substratematerials and on cost effective manufacturing processes for OLED panelfabrication.
It remains to beseen if fabrication of OLEDs on large panels of glass as in the LCD industry,and as for some photovoltaic technologies, will be cost effective for lightingapplications, OIDA says. Alternatively, roll-to-roll fabrication on polymer ormetal foil substrates may be required to produce cost competitive OLED lightingproducts. While OLED lighting is at an early development stage, the promise ofhighly efficient lighting products based on OLED technology remains a strongargument for continuing invest-ment in the technology.
OLEDs forlighting applications are under intense research and development worldwide withsubstantial funding from both industry and government driven by the expectationof large energy savings.
The GermanFederal Ministry of Education and Research is investing €100 million over fiveyears for OLED research with industry contributing €500 million more, OIDAreports. The European Commission invests several million euro yearly inresearch projects including OLLA and ROLLED. In 2008 the European Commissionrolled out several new programs on OLED lighting.
Although OLEDlighting has not yet reached the commercial market, active research anddevelopment is being carried out worldwide and across the spectrum of technicaland economic challenges, according to OIDA. As with many new technologies withpotentially high risk and high impact, early investment is coming fromgovernment, industry, and venture capital investors.
For example, in2007 General Electric and Konica-Minolta announced a strategic alliance toaccelerate development and commercialization of organic LEDs for lightingapplications. GE and Konica-Minolta have a goal to bring OLED lighting tomarket within the following three years. They see applications for OLEDlighting ranging from ceiling lighting for office and residential applications,to interior automotive and aircraft lighting, and to specialty lightingapplications including task lighting, signage and interior retail lighting. Onthe venture capital side, NanoMarkets reports that investments in organicelectronics startups was more than $200 million from 2003-2005.
The U.S.Department of Energy SSL Program has set ambitious goals meant to drive energysavings and OLED products to market. The U.S. Department of Energy has invested $40 million over five years beginning in 2003 in OLED solid-state lighting research.