Patents Assigned to Coherent, Inc.
  • Line-projection apparatus for arrays of diode-laser bar stacks
    Patent number: 8596823
    Abstract: In optical apparatus for illuminating a mask-plane with a line of light, a light source includes four fast-axis stacks of laser diode bars. One optical arrangement collects light beams from all of the diode-laser bar stacks, homogenizes and expands the beams in the fast-axis direction of the diode-laser bar stacks and partially overlaps the homogenized and expanded beams in the fast-axis direction. Another optical arrangement homogenizes the sum of the partially overlapped beams and images the sum of the beams as a line of light having a length in the fast-axis-direction and a width in the slow-axis direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Sivarama Krishna Kuchibhotla
  • Beam-combiner for fiber-delivered laser-beams of different wavelengths
    Patent number: 8599487
    Abstract: A beam combiner for combining laser-beams of different colors along a common path includes a directing-prism for each of the laser-beams and one combining-prism. The directing-prisms are arranged to transmit the laser-beams to the combining-prism. The directing-prisms and the combining-prism are configured and arranged with respect to each other such that the directing-prism transmits the beams along the common path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Rüdiger Von Elm, Chantal Marois
  • Frequency-tripled fiber-MOPA
    Patent number: 8582611
    Abstract: In a frequency-tripled fiber-MOPA, a pre-amplified plane-polarized seed-pulse having a fundamental frequency is divided into two pulse-components, plane-polarized in polarization-orientations at 90-degrees to each other. The fundamental-wavelength pulse-components are amplified in a common amplifier-fiber. The amplified components are separately propagated on different optical paths. One of the amplified components is frequency-doubled. The frequency-doubled component on one path and fundamental-frequency component on the other path are then combined on a common-path and sum-frequency mixed to provide a frequency-tripled pulse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Andrei Starodoumov
  • Edge-emitting semiconductor laser with photonic-bandgap structure formed by intermixing
    Patent number: 8582616
    Abstract: A separate-confinement heterostructure, edge-emitting semiconductor laser having a wide emitter width has elongated spaced apart intermixed and disordered zones extending through and alongside the emitter parallel to the emission direction of the emitter. The intermixed zones inhibit lasing of high order modes. This limits the slow axis divergence of a beam emitted by the laser.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas C. Hasenberg, Jason P. Watson
  • PULSED CO2 LASER OUTPUT-PULSE SHAPE AND POWER CONTROL
    Publication number: 20130272325
    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: Application
    Filed: May 9, 2012
    Publication date: October 17, 2013
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Rosenthal, John Kennedy, Vern Seguin, David Allie
  • Laser printer with multiple laser-beam sources
    Patent number: 8558859
    Abstract: A laser printer arranged to print a pixellated image on laser sensitive tape includes a carriage on which are arranged two laser-beam sources delivering separately modulated laser-beams and optics for focusing the beams on the tape. The tape is mounted on a tape drive which drives the tape incrementally in one direction. The carriage is translated over the tape in a direction perpendicular to the tape-drive direction, while the modulated beams are focused. Two rows of the pixellated image are drawn across the tape in this manner. The tape is then incremented and a further two rows are drawn.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: John H. Jerman, Sergei Govorkov
  • Single-mode intra-cavity frequency-doubled CW solid-state laser with volumetric gain-grating
    Patent number: 8559472
    Abstract: A solid state-gain medium is in the form of a thin disk backed by a reflective coating. A laser resonator is formed by the reflective coating and another mirror. Optical pump radiation is directed into the thin-disk gain-medium for energizing the gain-medium and generating a standing wave of fundamental-wavelength radiation in the resonator. The pump-radiation is directed into the gain-medium at an angle to the resonator axis and pump-radiation fringes are formed by interference between incident and reflected pump-radiation. The pump-radiation angle is selected such that the pump-radiation fringes are aligned with antinodes of the fundamental-wavelength standing wave.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Andrea Caprara
  • COMPOUND ENCLOSURE FOR OPTICAL APPARATUS
    Publication number: 20130259076
    Abstract: An optically pumped semiconductor laser is assembled in an enclosure comprising a base, a first mounting frame attached to the base, a second mounting frame attached to the first mounting frame and a cover attached to the second mounting frame. The assembly base, frames, and cover forms an undivided enclosure, with the frames contributing to walls of the enclosure. Components of the laser are assembled sequentially on the base and the frames. The frames are irregular in height to permit flexibility in the mounting-height of components. This reduces the extent to which compactness of the enclosure is limited by any one component.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2012
    Publication date: October 3, 2013
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Matthias ROTH
  • COMPACT CO2 SLAB-LASER
    Publication number: 20130259074
    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: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2013
    Publication date: October 3, 2013
    Applicant: COHERENT, INC.
    Inventors: Leon A. NEWMAN, Adrian PAPANIDE, Mathew David RZEWNICKI, Thomas V. HENNESSEY, JR.
  • Fiber-laser pumped by stabilized diode-laser bar stack
    Patent number: 8537865
    Abstract: A fiber is laser is pumped by radiation from a plurality of diode-laser bars which are wavelength-locked by a single feedback mirror in combination with a single band-pass filter. The locked wavelength of the plurality of diode-laser bars is tunable by tilt-tuning the band-pass filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Nathan Shou
  • Hybrid fiber-MOPA
    Patent number: 8508844
    Abstract: A master oscillator power-amplifier stages includes multiple stages of fiber-amplification with a final power amplifier stage in the form of a multi-pass amplifier. With a thin-disk gain medium in one example the thin-disk amplifier includes a common optical arrangement for providing multiple incidences of radiation to be amplified and multiple incidences of a pump-radiation beam on the thin-disk gain medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hertwig, Norman Hodgson, Luis A. Spinelli
  • OUTPUT-POWER CONTROL APPARATUS FOR A CO2 GAS-DISCHARGE LASER
    Publication number: 20130202004
    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: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2012
    Publication date: August 8, 2013
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: David ALLIE, Joel Fontanella
  • ATHERMALIZED PERMANENT-ALIGNMENT OPTICAL-ELEMENT MOUNT
    Publication number: 20130200062
    Abstract: A mounting fixture for mounting an optical element on a base-plate has spaced-apart parallel legs attachable by brackets to the base-plate and a mounting platform attached to the legs. The platform can be heated by a removable heater. The optical element is held in a mounting tab attached to the platform by a solder-pad. Heating the platform softens the solder-pad allowing the tab and the element to be aligned. Removing the heat allows the pad to harden to complete the attachment and retain the alignment of the element on the mount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2012
    Publication date: August 8, 2013
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Andreas DIENING, Donald E. Harryman, Ezra Allee
  • FREQUENCY-TRIPLED FIBER-MOPA
    Publication number: 20130188658
    Abstract: In a frequency-tripled fiber-MOPA, a pre-amplified plane-polarized seed-pulse having a fundamental frequency is divided into two pulse-components, plane-polarized in polarization-orientations at 90-degrees to each other. The fundamental-wavelength pulse-components are amplified in a common amplifier-fiber. The amplified components are separately propagated on different optical paths. One of the amplified components is frequency-doubled. The frequency-doubled component on one path and fundamental-frequency component on the other path are then combined on a common-path and sum-frequency mixed to provide a frequency-tripled pulse.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 20, 2012
    Publication date: July 25, 2013
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Andrei STARODOUMOV
  • Large-field unit-magnification catadioptric projection system
    Patent number: 8493670
    Abstract: A unit magnification projection optical system includes, listed in order along a system axis, a mirror, a lens group having negative power and a lens group having positive power. The optical system is a symmetric system, with an object plane on one side of the system axis and an object plane on an opposite side of the system axis. The object and image planes are spaced apart from the positive lens group by a working distance greater than 100 millimeters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Romeo I. Mercado
  • Diode-laser bar package
    Patent number: 8483249
    Abstract: A diode-laser bar package includes a diamond composite heat-sink on which is soft-solder bonded a copper-pad having an area much greater than that of the diode-laser bar. A constraining-block of a metal having a CTE matching that of the diode-laser bar is hard-solder bonded to the conductive pad. The constraining-block is configured such that the conductive pad in the region of the diode-laser bar has a CTE about equal to that of the constraining-block, and, accordingly, the diode-laser bar.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Sergei Govorkov, John H. Jerman
  • MULTIPLE PHASE-LOCKED LOOPS FOR HIGH-POWER RF-POWER COMBINERS
    Publication number: 20130170512
    Abstract: An RF power-supply for driving a carbon dioxide CO2 gas-discharge laser includes a plurality of power-oscillators phase-locked to a common reference oscillator. Outputs of the phase-locked power-oscillators are combined by a power combiner for delivery, via an impedance matching network, to discharge-electrodes of the laser. In one example the powers are analog power-oscillators. In another example, the power-oscillators are digital power-oscillators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2011
    Publication date: July 4, 2013
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: David P. SCHMELZER, W. Shef ROBOTHAM, JR., Frederick W. HAUER, Joel FONTANELLA
  • CARRIER-ENVELOPE-PHASE STABILIZATION OF A MASTER OSCILLATOR OPTICAL AMPLIFIER SYSTEM
    Publication number: 20130170510
    Abstract: A laser and amplifier combination delivers a sequence of optical pulses at a predetermined pulse-repetition frequency PRF. An interferometer generates a signal representative of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of the pulses at intervals corresponding to the PRF. The signal includes frequency components from DC to the PRF. The signal is divided into high and low frequency ranges. The high and low frequency ranges are sent to independent high frequency and low frequency control electronics, which drive respectively a high-frequency CEP controller and a low frequency controller for stabilizing the CEP of pulses in the sequence.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 26, 2013
    Publication date: July 4, 2013
    Applicant: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventor: Coherent, Inc.
  • Optical parametric oscillator pumped by femtosecond thin-disk laser
    Patent number: 8477410
    Abstract: Pulses from a mode-locked Yb-doped laser are spectrally broadened, and temporally compressed, then frequency-doubled and used to pump an optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The OPO output is tunable over a wavelength range from about 600 nm to about 1100 nm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Norman Hodgson, Dmitri Simanovski, Andrei Starodoumov
  • Polarization maintaining multi-pass imaging system for thin-disk amplifiers and oscillators
    Patent number: 8477825
    Abstract: Multi-pass optical imaging apparatus includes a concave mirror in combination with two retro-reflecting mirror pairs and at least one reflective surface. The mirror, the retro-reflecting mirror pairs and the reflecting surface are arranged such that a light-ray input into the apparatus parallel to and spaced apart from the optical axis of the concave mirror and incident on the concave mirror is caused to be incident on the thin-disk gain-medium at least four times, with each of the four incidences on the gain-medium being from a different direction. If the input ray is plane-polarized, the arrangement provides that the polarization orientation of the ray on each incidence on the gain-medium is in the same orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: Coherent, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Hertwig, Norman Hodgson