Nichia Shows Blue-Green LDs

Nichia said it has developed a 488-nm blue-green GaN-based laser diode designed for biomedical applications. It is exhibiting the laser diode, which it will begin shipping in volume in March, this week at Photonics West (Booth 6308).

"We confirmed that estimated lifetime exceeded 10,000 hours and stable operation was achieved for 1000 hours with the condition of 5 mW in continuous-wave operation at 25°C case temperature," the company said in a statement.

Nichia also said it will start engineering sample shipments in March of its first 1-W continuous-wave GaN-based laser diode with a 445-nm wavelength available as blue light sources for display, which is said will play a vital role in acheiving a full-color laser display.

The power conversion efficiency (i.e. wall-plug efficiency, or WPE) of the device when operated at 1 W is above 20 percent; the estimated half-lifetime exceeds 30,000 hours.
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