Laser diodes are mounted on one or more of the edge surfaces of a triangularly shaped header with the light emitting surfaces of the laser diodes all facing in substantially the same direction. A plurality of triangular headers can be mounted on a supporting base with an edge surface of each of the headers abutting an edge surface of an adjoining header and the light emitting surfaces of each of the diodes facing in substantially the same direction.
A support member (11) for optical devices has a device support face (12) which tapers between two sides (22, 25). Such a support member (11) can be used to support any one of a set of optical devices, the optical devices in the set being of different lengths, while still providing access to both ends of the optical device. The support member (11) has particular application in optical communications.
An improved light emitting device, comprising a light emitting element affixed to a tapered quadrilateral mounting surface of a copper heatsink, is disclosed. The tapered mounting surface includes two slightly divergent mounting edges whereby the width of the mounting surface varies to accommodate light emitting elements of varying sizes. The angle of divergence between the two mounting edges should be kept small to provide accurate facet-to-edge alignment of the light emitting element to the mounting surface.
A directly cooled diode-laser bar package includes a diode-laser bar bonded to a heat-sink. The operating temperature of the diode-laser bar can be selectively varied by varying the thermal impedance of the heat-sink in or near a region of the heat-sink on which the diode-laser bar is bonded. The thermal impedance is selectively varied by varying the insertion depth of screws inserted into corresponding screw holes extending into the heat-sink close to or immediately adjacent the region on which the diode-laser bar is bonded.
A laser diode is soldered between metal plates for intimate thermal and electrical contact. The plates are prefabricated and are provided with an insulated spacer therebetween. The two metal plates are held together in a preferred orientation by the spacer which is firmly adhered and sealed to the two plates during the diode soldering operation. The laser diodes so mounted can be tested in this configuration and after testing are formed into an array by stacking the laser diode subassemblies providing spacer elements therebetween and series contacts from one end to the other of the array so that an array of laser diodes with matched characteristics can be constructed in a line which may not be in alignment with the total package to provide an intense light output at a predetermined wavelength.
A diode laser array assembly made from a plurality of linear diode laser array subassemblies stacked one above the other. Each subassembly is an array of individual laser beam emitters, such as a laser bar, mounted on a support plate. An electrically conductive path goes from one major surface of a support plate, through the linear laser array, to an opposite major surface of the support plate. Each subassembly is connected physically and electrically to adjacent subassemblies to form the final assembly. In one embodiment, the support plates are electrically insulating and partly coated or covered with conducting material. The plates are either rectangular with projections and directly connected, rectangular with metal plates between each other, or rectangular and connected in a staircase configuration. Alternatively, the support plates may be electrically conducting with an insulating layer and a conducting layer disposed in a sandwich configuration. The plates may also be made up of an electrically insulating support plate and an electrically conducting spacer plate.
