Patents Assigned to nLIGHT, Inc.
  • Laser burst logging systems and methods
    Patent number: 10608397
    Abstract: A burst logging system logs and transmits to a local or remote computing system event data related to errors in and or potential failures of laser system components. The system further provides for capturing data at different rates from different sensors, synchronization of data capture associated with system events and the possibility for aggregation of data from multiple systems, which can in turn be leveraged to predict and or remediate future system events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2020
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael C. Nelson
  • OPTICAL FIBER CLADDING LIGHT STRIPPER
    Publication number: 20200099190
    Abstract: Multi-clad optical fiber cladding light stripper (CLS) comprising an inner cladding with one or more recessed surface regions to remove light propagating within the inner cladding. A CLS may comprise such recessed surface regions along two or more azimuthal angles about the fiber axis, for example to improve stripping efficiency. One or more dimensions, or spatial distribution, of the recessed surface regions may be randomized, for example to improve stripping uniformity across a multiplicity of modes propagating within a cladding. Adjacent recessed surface regions may abut, for example, end-to-end, as segments of a recess that occupies a majority, or even an entirety, of the length of a fiber surrounded by a heat sink. One or more dimensions, or angular position, of individual ones of the abutted recessed surface regions may vary, according to a regular or irregular pattern.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2019
    Publication date: March 26, 2020
    Applicant: NLIGHT, INC.
    Inventors: Teemu Kokki, Christopher Luetjen, Ryan Hawke
  • OPTICAL FIBER SPLICE ENCAPSULATED BY A CLADDING LIGHT STRIPPER
    Publication number: 20200081182
    Abstract: Spliced multi-clad optical fibers with a cladding light stripper (CLS) encapsulating the splice. The splice may facilitate conversion between two optical fibers having different architectures, such as different core and/or cladding dimensions. The CLS may comprise a first length of fiber on a first side of the splice, and a second length of fiber on a second side of the splice, encapsulating the splice within the lengths of the CLS. The splice may abut one or more of the lengths of the CLS, or may be separated from one or more lengths of the CLS by an intermediate length of a first and/or second fiber joined by the splice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2019
    Publication date: March 12, 2020
    Applicant: NLIGHT, INC.
    Inventors: Ryan Hawke, Teemu Kokki, Shaun Hampton, Chris Luetjen
  • BACK-REFLECTION PROTECTION AND MONITORING IN FIBER AND FIBER-DELIVERED LASERS
    Publication number: 20200064573
    Abstract: A system includes an optical fiber situated to propagate a laser beam received from a laser source to an output of the optical fiber, a first cladding light stripper optically coupled to the optical fiber and situated to extract at least a portion of forward-propagating cladding light in the optical fiber, and a second cladding light stripper optically coupled to the optical fiber between the first cladding light stripper and the optical fiber output and situated to extract at least a portion of backward-propagating cladding light in the optical fiber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 20, 2019
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Applicant: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventor: Dahv A. V. Kliner
  • Fiber laser packaging
    Patent number: 10574020
    Abstract: A packaged fiber laser may include a wound fiber laser spiral including a metal ribbon having ends, surfaces, and edges; a fiber laser on a first one of the surfaces of the metal ribbon; and a metal sheet coupled to a first one of the edges of the metal ribbon or a second one of the surfaces of the metal ribbon. Packaging for a fiber laser may include a cooling plate coupled to a second one of the edges of the metal ribbon or the second surface of the metal ribbon, the cooling plate including: a casing including a cover, a bottom, and an outer sidewall; flow channels formed inside the casing, the flow channels defined by inner sidewalls of the cooling plate, wherein the cover is coupled to a top of the inner sidewalls to enclose the flow channel; and an inlet to deliver coolant to the flow channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: NLIGHT, INC.
    Inventors: Aaron Ludwig Hodges, Mitchell Ryan Reynolds
  • Scanner drift compensation for laser material processing
    Patent number: 10569357
    Abstract: A scanned optical beam is divided so as to form a set of scanned subbeams. To compensate for scan errors, a portion of at least one subbeam is detected and a scan error estimated based on the detected portion. A beam scanner is controlled according to the estimated error so as to adjust a propagation direction of some or all of the set of scanned subbeams. The scanned subbeams with adjusted propagation directions are received by an f-theta lens and directed to a work piece. In typical examples, the portion of the at least one subbeam that is detected is obtained from the set of scanned subbeams prior to incidence of the scanned subbeams to the f-theta lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Scott R. Karlsen, Robert J. Martinsen
  • Passively aligned single element telescope for improved package brightness
    Patent number: 10564361
    Abstract: Beam compressors include separated surfaces having positive and negative optical powers. A surface spacing is selected so that a collimated beam input to the beam compressor is output as a collimated beam. In some examples, beam compressors are situated to compress a laser beam stack that includes beams associated with a plurality of laser diodes. Beam compression ratios are typically selected so that a compressed beam stack focused into an optical waveguide has a numerical aperture corresponding to the numerical aperture of the optical waveguide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2020
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: David Martin Hemenway, David C. Dawson, Wolfram Urbanek
  • Optimization of high resolution digitally encoded laser scanners for fine feature marking
    Patent number: 10559395
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are laser scanning systems and methods of their use. In some embodiments, laser scanning systems can be used to ablatively or non-ablatively scan a surface of a material. Some embodiments include methods of scanning a multi-layer structure. Some embodiments include translating a focus-adjust optical system so as to vary laser beam diameter. Some embodiments make use of a 20-bit laser scanning system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2020
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventor: Ken Gross
  • SHORT PULSE FIBER LASER FOR LTPS CRYSTALLIZATION
    Publication number: 20200043736
    Abstract: Laser pulses from pulsed fiber lasers are directed to an amorphous silicon layer to produce a polysilicon layer comprising a disordered arrangement of crystalline regions by repeated melting and recrystallization. Laser pulse durations of about 0.5 to 5 ns at wavelength range between about 500 nm and 1000 nm, at repetition rates of 10 kHz to 10 MHz can be used. Line beam intensity uniformity can be improved by spectrally broadening the laser pulses by Raman scattering in a multimode fiber or by applying varying phase delays to different portions of a beam formed with the laser pulses to reduce beam coherence.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2019
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Applicant: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert J. Martinsen, Scott R. Karlsen, Ken Gross
  • High-power, single-mode fiber sources
    Patent number: 10535973
    Abstract: An optical apparatus includes one or more pump sources situated to provide laser pump light, and a gain fiber optically coupled to the one or more pump sources, the gain fiber including an actively doped core situated to produce an output beam, an inner cladding and outer cladding surrounding the doped core and situated to propagate pump light, and a polymer cladding surrounding the outer cladding and situated to guide a selected portion of the pump light coupled into the inner and outer claddings of the gain fiber. Methods of pumping a fiber sources include generating pump light from one or more pump sources, coupling the pump light into a glass inner cladding and a glass outer cladding of a gain fiber of the fiber source such that a portion of the pump light is guided by a polymer cladding surrounding the glass outer cladding, and generating a single-mode output beam from the gain fiber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: NLIGHT, INC.
    Inventors: Dahv A. V. Kliner, Roger L. Farrow
  • FIBER MANAGEMENT CARTRIDGE
    Publication number: 20200003980
    Abstract: Some embodiments may include a fiber management cartridge, comprising: a plurality of sheets of material arranged in a stack, each sheet including: a first section to fasten to a surface; and a second section to make movement relative to the surface when the first section is fastened to the surface, the second section to hold one or more loops of one or more optical fibers, respectively, of a fiber laser. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Applicant: NLIGHT, INC.
    Inventors: Christopher Andrew Luetjen, Nicolas Trent Meacham, Shaun Cody Hampton, Rodney Mark Stephens
  • CALIBRATION TEST PIECE FOR GALVANOMETRIC LASER CALIBRATION
    Publication number: 20200001396
    Abstract: Some embodiments may include a galvanometric laser system, comprising: a laser device to generate a laser beam; an X-Y scan head module to position the laser beam on a work piece, the X-Y scan head module including a laser ingress to receive the laser beam and a laser egress to output the laser beam; a support platen located below the laser egress; an in-machine imaging system integrated with the galvanometric laser, wherein a camera of the in-machine imaging system is arranged to view a surface of an object located on the support platen using one or more optical components of the X-Y scan head module to generate assessment data associated with a calibration of the X-Y scan head module by imaging the surface of the object, wherein a calibration fiducial is located on the surface of the object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Applicant: NLIGHT, INC.
    Inventors: Aaron Brown, Jay Small, Robert J. Martinsen
  • FINE-SCALE TEMPORAL CONTROL FOR LASER MATERIAL PROCESSING
    Publication number: 20200001400
    Abstract: Methods include directing a laser beam to a target along a scan path at a variable scan velocity and adjusting a digital modulation during movement of the laser beam along the scan path and in relation to the variable scan velocity so as to provide a fluence at the target within a predetermined fluence range along the scan path. Some methods include adjusting a width of the laser beam with a zoom beam expander. Apparatus include a laser source situated to emit a laser beam, a 3D scanner situated to receive the laser beam and to direct the laser beam along a scan path in a scanning plane at the target, and a laser source digital modulator coupled to the laser source so as to produce a fluence at the scanning plane along the scan path that is in a predetermined fluence range as the laser beam scan speed changes along the scan path.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2019
    Publication date: January 2, 2020
    Applicant: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert J. Martinsen, Qi Wang
  • Fiber with depressed central index for increased beam parameter product
    Patent number: 10520671
    Abstract: A method includes generating a multimode laser beam having an initial beam parameter product (bpp) and directing the multimode laser beam to an input end of a fiber so as to produce an output beam at an output of the fiber with a final bpp that is greater than the initial bpp. Another method includes measuring a base bpp associated with a multimode laser beam generated from a laser source and emitted from an output fiber output end, determining a bpp increase for the multimode laser beam, and selecting a bpp increasing optical fiber having an input end and an output end so that the multimode laser beam with the base bpp coupled to the input end has an output bpp at the output end of the bpp increasing optical fiber corresponding to the determined bpp increase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Roger L. Farrow, Chris A. Rivera
  • Reverse interleaving for laser line generators
    Patent number: 10466494
    Abstract: An apparatus includes beam shearing optics situated to receive a collimated beam and to shear the collimated beam along a first direction so as to form a plurality of adjacent collimated beam portions, and homogenization optics situated to receive and homogenize the adjacent collimated beam portions along at least the first direction so as to produce a homogenized output beam. A method includes shearing a collimated beam having a beam parameter product (bpp) along an axis so as to form a plurality of sheared collimated beam portions, and arranging the sheared collimated beam portions adjacent to each other so that a line beam having a length and thickness that is formed with the light from the sheared collimated beam portions has a lower bpp associated with the line beam thickness than the bpp of the collimated beam along the axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Scott A. Lerner, R. Kirk Price, Scott R. Karlsen
  • Patterning conductive films using variable focal plane to control feature size
    Patent number: 10464172
    Abstract: A processing system directs a laser beam to a composite including a substrate, a conductive layer, and a conductive border. The location of a focus of the laser beam can be controlled to bring the laser beam into focus on the surfaces of the conductive materials. The laser beam can be used to ablatively process the conductive border and non-ablatively process the conductive layer by translating a focus-adjust optical system so as to vary laser beam diameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert J. Martinsen, Adam Dittli, Ken Gross
  • High brightness coherent multi-junction diode lasers
    Patent number: 10461505
    Abstract: Laser diodes formed on a common substrate with layers of suitable thickness and refractive indices produce output beams that are coherently coupled. A phase mask can be situated to produce phase differences in one or more of the output beams to produce a common wavefront phase. The phase-corrected beams propagate with reduced angular divergence than conventional lasers that are not coherently coupled, and the coherently coupled laser diodes can provide higher beam brightness, enhanced beam parameter product, and superior power coupled into doped fibers in fiber lasers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Zhigang Chen, Manoj Kanskar
  • Short pulse fiber laser for LTPS crystallization
    Patent number: 10453691
    Abstract: Laser pulses from pulsed fiber lasers are directed to an amorphous silicon layer to produce a polysilicon layer comprising a disordered arrangement of crystalline regions by repeated melting and recrystallization. Laser pulse durations of about 0.5 to 5 ns at wavelength range between about 500 nm and 1000 nm, at repetition rates of 10 kHz to 10 MHz can be used. Line beam intensity uniformity can be improved by spectrally broadening the laser pulses by Raman scattering in a multimode fiber or by applying varying phase delays to different portions of a beam formed with the laser pulses to reduce beam coherence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: nLIGHT, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert J. Martinsen, Scott R. Karlsen, Ken Gross
  • Laser module service shelf
    Patent number: 10451823
    Abstract: A laser module service shelf is generally presented. In some embodiments, a laser system includes a rack including a stack of slots to support a plurality of laser modules in first positions within the rack, wherein the rack comprises a pair of struts extending at opposite sides of an opening in the rack through which the laser modules may pass, and a module service shelf attachable to the struts to support a weight of one of the laser modules in a second position that is cantilevered from the rack in alignment with the opening and one of the slots, wherein the module service shelf comprises a plurality of detachable sections. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: NLIGHT, INC.
    Inventors: Joseph J. Emery, Rodney Stephens, Eric Martin, Jeremy Young, Shelly Lin
  • Laser fault tolerance and self-calibration system
    Patent number: 10447004
    Abstract: A laser diode system includes plurality of laser pumps, each of the plurality of laser pumps including a plurality of laser diode drivers and a plurality of laser diode elements, wherein each of the plurality of laser diode drivers is electrically coupled to power at least two of the plurality of laser diode elements. A combiner electrically is coupled to the plurality of laser diode elements to combine an output of each of the plurality of laser pumps to generate a combined output light. A controller identifies a failed laser pump or a failed laser diode element, receives an encoded key to gain access to the controller, and disables the failed laser pump or the failed laser diode element based at least in part on authenticating the encoded key.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: NLIGHT, INC.
    Inventor: Robert Joseph Foley