Patents Assigned to Coherent, Inc.
  • MACRO-CHANNEL WATER-COOLED HEAT-SINK FOR DIODE-LASER BARS
    Publication number: 20140169394
    Abstract: A water-cooled heat-sink for a diode-laser bar includes a copper-cooling-unit having an integral mount thereon for the diode-laser bar. The copper-cooling-unit is attached to a steel base-unit. The base-unit and the cooling-unit are cooperatively configured such that at least one cooling-channel is formed in the cooling-unit by the attachment of the base-unit to the cooling-unit. The cooling-channel is positioned to cool the mount when cooling-water flows through the cooling-channel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2014
    Publication date: June 19, 2014
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: David SCHLEUNING, Athanasios CHRYSSIS
  • Output-power control apparatus for a COgas-discharge laser
    Patent number: 8731014
    Abstract: A carbon-dioxide CO2 gas-discharge laser is energized by the output a radio-frequency power supply (RFPS). Output-power of the laser is stabilized by adjustments of the RFPS responsive to periodic measurements of the laser output-power using detector output amplified by an amplifier. The amplifier has an offset-voltage which is subject to drift. A synchronous auto-zero arrangement is provided for canceling out the offset-voltage of the amplifier immediately prior to each periodic measurement of the laser output power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: David Allie, Joel Fontanella
  • Compact COslab-laser
    Patent number: 8731015
    Abstract: A compact CO2 slab-laser is contained in a fluid cooled housing having three compartments. One compartment houses discharge electrodes and a laser resonator. Another compartment houses a radio-frequency power supply (RFPS) assembled on a fluid-cooled chill plate and an impedance-matching network. The remaining compartment houses beam-conditioning optics including a spatial filter. The housing and RFPS chill-plate are on a common coolant-fluid circuit having a single input and a single output. The spatial filter is optionally fluid-coolable on the common coolant fluid circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Leon A. Newman, Adrian Papanide, Mathew David Rzewnicki, Thomas V. Hennessey, Jr.
  • Fiber-MOPA apparatus for delivering pulses on demand
    Patent number: 8717670
    Abstract: A fiber-MOPA includes a seed-pulse source followed by fiber amplifier stages. The seed pulse source delivers signal pulses for performing a laser operation and delivers radiation between the seed pulses to maintain the collective average of the seed pulse power and intermediate radiation power constant. Keeping this average power constant keeps the instantaneous available gain of the fiber amplifier stages constant. This provides that the seed pulse delivery can be changed from one regime to a next without a period of instability between the regimes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrei Starodoumov, Ronald Lambert, Michael Snadden, Andreas Diening
  • MACRO-CHANNEL WATER-COOLED HEAT-SINK FOR DIODE-LASER BARS
    Publication number: 20140119394
    Abstract: A water-cooled heat-sink for a diode-laser bar includes a copper-cooling-unit having an integral mount thereon for the diode-laser bar. The copper-cooling-unit is attached to a steel base-unit. The base-unit and the cooling-unit are cooperatively configured such that at least one cooling-channel is formed in the cooling-unit by the attachment of the base-unit to the cooling-unit. The cooling-channel is positioned to cool the mount when cooling-water flows through the cooling-channel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2012
    Publication date: May 1, 2014
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: David SCHLEUNING, Athanasios CHRYSSIS
  • MACRO-CHANNEL WATER-COOLED HEAT-SINK FOR DIODE-LASER BARS
    Publication number: 20140119393
    Abstract: A diode-laser bar is mounted on water-cooled heat-sink between two ceramic sub-mounts for electrically isolating cooling-water in the heat-sink from the diode-laser bar. Mounting between the two ceramic sub-mounts also provides for balancing stresses due to differences in coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the sub-mounts and the diode-laser bar. Both sub-mounts are in thermal communication with the heat-sink for providing two-sided cooling of the diode-laser bar.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2012
    Publication date: May 1, 2014
    Applicant: COHERENT, INC.
    Inventors: David SCHLEUNING, Athanasios CHRYSSIS
  • Pulsed COlaser output-pulse shape and power control
    Patent number: 8687661
    Abstract: In order to maintain a constant laser output pulse power in a RF-energized, sealed-off, diffusion cooled, pulsed, CO2 gas-discharge laser, each laser output pulse is generated by train or burst of shorter RF pulses. When the time between laser output pulses becomes short enough that the power in one pulse would be reduced by gas-discharge heating effects of a previous pulse, power in the RF pulse trains is varied by varying the duration or duty cycle of pulses in the bursts, thereby keeping output-pulse power in the laser output pulses constant. RF pulses in any burst can have a different duration for tailoring the temporal shape of a corresponding laser-output pulse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Rosenthal, John Kennedy, Vern Seguin, David Allie
  • UNIFORMITY ADJUSTMENT METHOD FOR A DIODE-LASER LINE-PROJECTOR
    Publication number: 20140085616
    Abstract: In a line projector a diode-laser beam having an elliptical cross-section is projected onto a Powell lens which spreads the beam to form a line of light. Distribution of power along the line of light is adjusted by rotating the diode-laser beam with respect to the Powell lens.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2012
    Publication date: March 27, 2014
    Applicant: COHERENT, INC.
    Inventors: Erik NACKERUD, Jimson LOUNSBURY, Patrick KAIN
  • Externally frequency-converted CW hybrid MOPA
    Patent number: 8675709
    Abstract: A hybrid CW MOPA includes an OPS-laser resonator delivering radiation in a plurality of longitudinal lasing-modes or wavelengths. The multiple longitudinal mode output is amplified in a fiber-amplifier. Amplified lasing-modes from the fiber-amplifier are frequency-converted by an optically nonlinear crystal in a ring-resonator having the same length as the laser resonator, such that the ring-resonator is resonant for all of the amplified lasing-modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Sergei Govorkov, Andrei Starodoumov, Arnaud Lepert
  • WAVEGUIDE CO2 LASER WITH MULTIPLY FOLDED RESONATOR
    Publication number: 20140064318
    Abstract: A gas-discharge waveguide CO2 laser has a Z-shaped folded waveguide formed by three ceramic tubes. Ends of the adjacent tubes are shaped and fitted together to form a common aperture. The tubes are held fitted together by spaced-apart parallel discharge electrodes. Four minors are arranged to form a laser-resonator having a longitudinal axis extending through the tubes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 11, 2013
    Publication date: March 6, 2014
    Applicant: COHERENT, INC.
    Inventors: Anthony J. DEMARIA, R. Russel AUSTIN
  • Unit-magnification catadioptric and catoptric projection optical systems
    Patent number: 8659823
    Abstract: Ring-field, catoptric and catadioptric, unit-magnification, projection optical systems having non-concentric optical surfaces are disclosed. Each system has a system axis with object and image planes on opposite sides of the system axis. The non-concentric surfaces allow for working distances of the object and image planes in excess of 100 millimeters to be achieved, with a ring-field width sufficient to allow a rectangular object-field having a long dimension in excess of 100 mm to be projected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Romeo I. Mercado
  • Short-pulse fiber-laser
    Patent number: 8654799
    Abstract: A mode-locked fiber laser has a resonator including a gain-fiber, a mode-locking element, and a spectrally-selective dispersion compensating device. The resonator can be a standing-wave resonator or a traveling-wave resonator. The dispersion compensating device includes only one diffraction grating combined with a lens and a minor to provide a spatial spectral spread. The numerical aperture of the gain-fiber selects which portion of the spectral spread can oscillate in the resonator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Dmitri Simanovski, Andrei Starodoumov
  • Apparatus and method for balancing combined RF power-supplies for driving a COgas-discharge laser
    Patent number: 8654805
    Abstract: Radio-frequency (RF) power supply apparatus for supplying RF power to discharge electrodes of a gas-discharge laser includes a plurality of amplifier modules each having an RF output. A power combining arrangement is provided for combining the amplifier module RF-outputs into a single combined RF-output connected to the discharge electrodes. A DC power supply is connectable to or disconnectable from each of the transistor amplifier modules, separately, to allow current drawn by any of the amplifier modules to be monitored by a single current sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: David P. Schmelzer, Frederick W. Hauer
  • Impedance-matching circuits for multi-output power supplies driving COgas-discharge lasers
    Patent number: 8648665
    Abstract: Electrical apparatus for connecting a radio frequency power-supply having two outputs to a load includes two radio frequency transmission-lines, each one connected to a corresponding power-supply output. A transformer arrangement connects the two transmission-lines to the load. Each transmission-line includes a series-connected pair of twelfth-wave transmission-line sections. The series-connection between the twelfth wave transmission-line sections in one transmission line is connected to the series-connection between the twelfth-wave transmission-line sections in the other by a device having an adjustable impedance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Frederick W. Hauer, Joel Fontanella, Patrick T. Tracy
  • Optical pumping of a solid-state gain-medium using a diode-laser bar stack with individually addressable bars
    Patent number: 8638831
    Abstract: A diode-laser bar stack includes a plurality of diode-laser bars having different temperature dependent peak-emission wavelengths. The stack is arranged such that the bars can be separately powered. This allows one or more of the bars to be “on” while others are “off”. A switching arrangement is described for selectively turning bars on or off, responsive to a signal representative of the temperature of the diode-laser bar stack, for providing a desired total emission spectrum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: David Schleuning, Mark M. Gitin, R. Russel Austin
  • MULTI-CHIP OPS-LASER
    Publication number: 20140016657
    Abstract: A two-chip OPS laser includes first and second OPS-chips each emitting the same fundamental wavelength in first and second resonators. The first and second resonators are interferometrically combined on a common path terminated by a common end-mirror. The interferometric combination provides for automatic wavelength-locking of the laser, which can eliminate the need for a separate wavelength selective device in the laser.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2012
    Publication date: January 16, 2014
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Qi-Ze SHU
  • OPTICAL PARAMETRIC OSCILLATOR PUMPED BY FEMTOSECOND THIN-DISK LASER
    Publication number: 20140009821
    Abstract: Pulses from a mode-locked Yb-doped laser (12) are spectrally broadened in an optical fiber (28), and temporally compressed in a grating compressor (32), then frequency-doubled (34) and used to pump an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) (40). The OPO output is tunable over a wavelength range from about 600 nm to about 1100 nm. Mode-locking in the Yb-doped laser (12) is accomplished with a SESAM (14) or by Kerr-lens mode-locking with a Kerr medium (82) and a hard aperture (84).
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2012
    Publication date: January 9, 2014
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Norman Hodgson, Dmitri Simanovski, Andrei Starodoumov
  • Optically-pumped surface-emitting semiconductor laser with heat-spreading compound mirror-structure
    Patent number: 8611383
    Abstract: A gain-module for use in an OPS-laser includes a multilayer semiconductor gain-structure surmounting a multilayer compound mirror-structure. Within the multilayer compound mirror-structure is a relatively thick layer of diamond which serves as a heat-spreader.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Sergei Govorkov, Luis Spinelli
  • Waveguide COlaser with mutiply folded resonator
    Patent number: 8611391
    Abstract: A gas-discharge waveguide CO2 laser has a Z-shaped folded waveguide formed by three ceramic tubes. Ends of the adjacent tubes are shaped and fitted together to form a common aperture. The tubes are held fitted together by spaced-apart parallel discharge electrodes. Four mirrors are arranged to form a laser-resonator having a longitudinal axis extending through the tubes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Anthony J. DeMaria, R. Russel Austin
  • Diode-laser illuminator with interchangeable modules for changing irradiance and beam dimensions
    Patent number: 8602592
    Abstract: Projection apparatus for projecting a radiation spot on a working plane includes a plurality of stacks of diode-laser bars. Each stack provides a beam of laser radiation. The diode-laser bars in each stack are arranged one above another in the fast-axis direction of the diode-laser bars. A corresponding plurality of beam-expanders expands the beam from the corresponding diode-laser bar stack in the slow-axis direction of the diode laser bars only. A focusing lens collects the slow-axis expanded beams and projects the slow-axis expanded beams into the working plane to form the radiation spot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: S. Krishna Kuchibhotla, Xing Ming Zheng