It is simple to turn to select a pulsed laser diode driver in a multi-day process. A small number of specialized companies still hold a monopoly on the creation and production of fast pulsing current sources exclusively for semiconductor lasers. Finding the manufacturers of these drivers is challenging, but it's frequently much harder to receive timely information from them so you can compare several options and determine which one best suits your needs. In addition to giving you a list of the best pulse manufacturers, Pulsed laser diode driver should give you a basic grasp of the most crucial elements to take into account when making your decision. Additionally, it will give a summary of the key features to look for when buying a driver. Finally, it has fundamental design principles in an effort to aid you in making the best choice possible for your particular application.
The purpose of a Capacitor charging power supply is to deliver a repeating sequence of current pulses at a predetermined output level over user-defined time intervals. It is a voltage-controlled constant current source. The amplitude and time units of their output to the laser are also specified. This kind of driver produces time units with pulse widths between 100s of picoseconds and 500MHz, as well as nano- and microseconds.
The only parameters that are normally programmable are the output current amplitude and pulsing time. Typically, you won't notice an output voltage adjustment. However, manufacturers will state the voltage, which is typically referred to as the compliance voltage on data sheets. This is the range of output voltage that a source of continuous current can deliver to the load. It is the maximum voltage that a current source will experience while working to generate the desired current.
Applications
Fiber laser seeding, sensing, range finding, LiDAR, and upcoming medical applications like tomography, on pulsed laser diode, are examples of applications that call for drivers in the 100's picosecond through single-digit microsecond pulse width range. The size of the laser head can also be significantly decreased due to the semiconductor diodes' small size.
