Laserline to Use Bookham VHB Bar

Bookham Inc. of San Jose, Calif., announced today at Photonics West 2008 (Booth 1207), being held this week at the San Jose Convention Center, that Laserline has selected its very-high-brightness (VHB) bar to support its high-brightness direct diode laser systems.

Volker Krause, managing director and co-founder of Laserline, a German manufacturer of direct-diode laser systems for industrial material processing, said, "The VHB bar, with its unique form factor, is the perfect match for our high-brightness direct-diode systems, as it features the Bookham hard-solder technology to support the typical intermittent operation mode we find in industrial and automotive applications."

The VHB bar has a power output of 80 W, up to four times the brightness of a typical 10-mm bar, and is only 3.2-mm wide. It supports direct industrial laser systems and enables fiber coupling without beam transformation optics by delivering high-output power at a narrow emitting area.

Bookham also announced this week it has shipped more than 4 million polarization-stabilized VCSELs (vertical extended cavity surface-emitting laser) for optical computer mouse applications and that it is now manufacturing them at its high-power laser facility in Zurich, Switzerland, to meet volume demand from consumer applications. The VCSELs were previously made at the Zurich facilities of Avalon Photonics, which Bookham acquired in 2006.

For more information, visit: www.bookham.com