Patents by Inventor Philipp Henning Gerlach

Philipp Henning Gerlach has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11469572
    Abstract: A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) has first and second electrical contacts, and an optical resonator. The optical resonator has first and second distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), an active layer, a distributed heterojunction bipolar phototransistor (DHBP), and an optical guide. The DHBP has a collector layer, light sensitive layer; a base layer; and an emitter layer. There is an optical coupling between the active layer and the DHBP for providing an active carrier confinement by the DHBP. The optical guide guides an optical mode within the optical resonator during operation. The optical guide is outside a current flow which can be provided by the first and second electrical contacts during operation of the VCSEL. The optical guide is outside a layer sequence between the first and second electrical contacts in the vertical direction of the VCSEL. The optical guide has an oxide aperture arranged in the second DBR.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: TRUMPF PHOTONIC COMPONENTS GMBH
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Rainer Michalzik, Sven Bader
  • Publication number: 20220094137
    Abstract: A vertical cavity surface emitting laser device includes: an optical resonator; a photodiode; and a contact arrangement. The optical resonator includes: two distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) and an active region between the DBRs. The photodiode has a light absorption region in the optical resonator. The contact arrangement provides drive current to pump the optical resonator, and contacts the photodiode. The active region has an InxGa1-xAs layer, where 0?x<1. The light absorption region has an InyGa1-yAs layer, where 0<y<1, and y>x. The InyGa1-yAs layer is an intrinsic layer of the light absorption region. The InyGa1-yAs layer is 15-50 nm thick. The light absorption region has an undoped layer with a material different from the InyGa1-yAs layer. The InyGa1-yAs layer is immediately adjacent to the undoped layer. An intrinsic zone of the light absorption region is at least 70 nm thick.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2021
    Publication date: March 24, 2022
    Inventors: Ulrich Weichmann, Philipp Henning Gerlach, Susanne Weidenfeld, Holger Joachim Moench
  • Publication number: 20210273399
    Abstract: A laser device includes a laser diode configured to emit radiation, an output power of the radiation being dependent on a laser diode driving current, and a photodiode configured to receive the radiation emitted by the laser diode. A photodiode current induced in the photodiode by the received radiation is dependent on a power of the received radiation. The laser device further includes circuitry configured to measure the photodiode current for a laser diode driving current and calculate a laser threshold current of the laser diode from the measured photodiode current as a measure of an actual laser threshold current of the laser diode. The circuitry is further configured to detect a malfunction or degradation of the laser diode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 6, 2021
    Publication date: September 2, 2021
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Susanne Weidenfeld, Robert Wolf, Soren Sofke
  • Publication number: 20210116355
    Abstract: A method reduces false-positive particle counts detected by an interference particle sensor module, which has a laser and a light detector. The method including: emitting laser light; providing a high-frequency signal during the emission of the laser light, a modulation frequency of the high-frequency signal being between 10-500 MHz; detecting an optical response by the light detector in reaction to the emitted laser light while providing the high-frequency signal, which is arranged such that a detection signal caused by a macroscopic object positioned between a first and second distance is reduced in comparison to a detection signal caused by the macroscopic object at the same position without providing the high-frequency signal. The high-frequency signal is provided to a tuning structure of the particle sensor module which is arranged to modify a resonance frequency of an optical resonator comprised by the laser sensor module upon reception of the high-frequency signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Publication date: April 22, 2021
    Inventors: Hans Spruit, Alexander Van der Lee, Philipp Henning Gerlach, Robert Wolf, Robert Weiss, Matthias Falk
  • Publication number: 20210104873
    Abstract: A Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) includes a VCSEL array, a multitude of detectors, a first electrical laser contact, and at least one second electrical laser contact. The VCSEL array comprises a multitude of laser diodes, each laser diode including an optical resonator having a first distributed Bragg reflector, a second distributed Bragg reflector and an active layer for light emission, the active layer being arranged between the first distributed Bragg reflector and the second distributed Bragg reflector. The first electrical laser contact and the at least one second electrical laser contact are arranged to provide an electrical drive current to electrically pump the optical resonators of the laser diodes. Each detector is arranged to generate an electrical self-mixing interference measurement signal associated to at least one laser diode upon reception of the laser light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2020
    Publication date: April 8, 2021
    Inventor: Philipp Henning Gerlach
  • Publication number: 20200350744
    Abstract: A vertical cavity surface emitting laser includes four contacts and an optical resonator (having two Bragg reflectors, a photodiode, and an active layer between the Bragg reflectors). The second Bragg reflector has three parts. The first part has a pair of layers with different refractive indices and a second conductivity type. The second part has a pair of layers with different refractive indices and a first conductivity type. The third part has a pair of layers with different refractive indices and the second conductivity type. A light absorption structure of the photodiode is between the second and third parts. The first and second electrical contacts provide a current to pump the resonator. The light absorption structure is outside the current path. The third and fourth electrical contacts contact the photodiode. The second and third electrical contact respectively contact the first and second parts and are separated by a semiconductor layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 16, 2020
    Publication date: November 5, 2020
    Inventor: Philipp Henning Gerlach
  • Publication number: 20200287351
    Abstract: A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) has first and second electrical contacts, and an optical resonator. The optical resonator has first and second distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), an active layer, a distributed heterojunction bipolar phototransistor (DHBP), and an optical guide. The DHBP has a collector layer, light sensitive layer; a base layer; and an emitter layer. There is an optical coupling between the active layer and the DHBP for providing an active carrier confinement by the DHBP. The optical guide guides an optical mode within the optical resonator during operation. The optical guide is outside a current flow which can be provided by the first and second electrical contacts during operation of the VCSEL. The optical guide is outside a layer sequence between the first and second electrical contacts in the vertical direction of the VCSEL. The optical guide has an oxide aperture arranged in the second DBR.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 22, 2020
    Publication date: September 10, 2020
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Rainer Michalzik, Sven Bader
  • Patent number: 10707646
    Abstract: The invention describes a laser device comprising between two and six mesas (120) provided on one semiconductor chip (110), wherein the mesas (120) are electrically connected in parallel such that the mesas (120) are adapted to emit laser light if a defined threshold voltage is provided to the mesas (120). Two to six mesas (120) with reduced active diameter in comparison to a laser device with one mesa improve the yield and performance despite of the fact that two to six mesas need more area on the semiconductor chip thus increasing the total size of the semiconductor chip (110). The invention further describes a method of marking semiconductor chips (110). A functional layer of the semiconductor chip (110) is provided and structured in a way that a single semiconductor chip (110) can be uniquely identified by means of optical detection of the structured functional layer. The structured layer enables identification of small semiconductor chips (110) with a size below 200 ?m×200 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: TRUMPF PHOTONIC COMPONENTS GMBH
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Alexander Weigl
  • Patent number: 10658817
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (100) comprising a first electrical contact (105), a substrate (110), a first Distributed Bragg Reflector (115), an active layer (120), a second Distributed Bragg Reflector (130) and a second electrical contact (135). The Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser comprises at least two current aperture layers (125) arranged below or above the active layer (120), wherein each of the current aperture layers (125) comprises one AlyGa(1?y)As-layer, wherein a first current aperture layer (125a) of the at least two current aperture layers (125) is arranged nearer to the active layer (120) as a second current aperture layer (125b) of the at least two current aperture layers (125), wherein the first current aperture layer (125a) comprises a first current aperture (122a) with a bigger size as a second current aperture (122b) of the second current aperture layer (125b). The disclosure also relates to a method of manufacturing such a VCSEL (100).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: TRUMPF PHOTONIC COMPONENTS GMBH
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Roger King
  • Publication number: 20190058307
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (100) comprising a first electrical contact (105), a substrate (110), a first Distributed Bragg Reflector (115), an active layer (120), a second Distributed Bragg Reflector (130) and a second electrical contact (135). The Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser comprises at least two current aperture layers (125) arranged below or above the active layer (120), wherein each of the current aperture layers (125) comprises one AlyGa(1-y)As-layer, wherein a first current aperture layer (125a) of the at least two current aperture layers (125) is arranged nearer to the active layer (120) as a second current aperture layer (125b) of the at least two current aperture layers (125), wherein the first current aperture layer (125a) comprises a first current aperture (122a) with a bigger size as a second current aperture (122b) of the second current aperture layer (125b). The disclosure also relates to a method of manufacturing such a VCSEL (100).
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2018
    Publication date: February 21, 2019
    Inventors: PHILIPP HENNING GERLACH, ROGER KING
  • Publication number: 20190052048
    Abstract: The invention describes a laser device comprising between two and six mesas (120) provided on one semiconductor chip (110), wherein the mesas (120) are electrically connected in parallel such that the mesas (120) are adapted to emit laser light if a defined threshold voltage is provided to the mesas (120). Two to six mesas (120) with reduced active diameter in comparison to a laser device with one mesa improve the yield and performance despite of the fact that two to six mesas need more area on the semiconductor chip thus increasing the total size of the semiconductor chip (110). The invention further describes a method of marking semiconductor chips (110). A functional layer of the semiconductor chip (110) is provided and structured in a way that a single semiconductor chip (110) can be uniquely identified by means of optical detection of the structured functional layer. The structured layer enables identification of small semiconductor chips (110) with a size below 200 ?m×200 ?m.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2018
    Publication date: February 14, 2019
    Inventors: PHILIPP HENNING GERLACH, ALEXANDER WEIGL
  • Patent number: 10181701
    Abstract: The invention describes a laser device (100) comprising between two and six mesas (120) provided on one semiconductor chip (110), wherein the mesas (120) are electrically connected in parallel. The laser device (100) is adapted such that degradation of at least one mesa (120) results in a decreased laser power emitted by the laser device (100) in a defined solid angle when driven at the defined electrical input power. The laser device (100) is adapted such that eye safety of the laser device (100) is guaranteed during life time of the laser device (100). Eye safety may be guaranteed by designing the semiconductor structure or more general layer structure of mesas (120) of the laser device (100) in a way that degradation of one or more layers of the layer structure results in a reduction of the maximum optical power emitted in a defined solid angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Holger Moench, Alexander Weigl, Philipp Henning Gerlach
  • Patent number: 10128636
    Abstract: The invention relates to a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (100) comprising a first electrical contact (105), a substrate (110), a first Distributed Bragg Reflector (115), an active layer (120), a second Distributed Bragg Reflector (130) and a second electrical contact (135). The Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser comprises at least one AlyGa(1-y)As-layer with 0.95?y?1 with a thickness of at least 40 nm, wherein the AlyGa(1-y )As-layer is separated by means of at least one oxidation control layer (119, 125b). The invention further relates to a laser device (300) comprising such a VCSEL (100) preferably an array of such a VCSELs (100) which are driven by an electrical driving circuit (310). The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing such a VCSEL (100).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Roger King
  • Patent number: 10116119
    Abstract: The invention describes a laser device comprising between two and six mesas (120) provided on one semiconductor chip (110), wherein the mesas (120) are electrically connected in parallel such that the mesas (120) are adapted to emit laser light if a defined threshold voltage is provided to the mesas (120). Two to six mesas (120) with reduced active diameter in comparison to a laser device with one mesa improve the yield and performance despite of the fact that two to six mesas need more area on the semiconductor chip thus increasing the total size of the semiconductor chip (110). The invention further describes a method of marking semiconductor chips (110). A functional layer of the semiconductor chip (110) is provided and structured in a way that a single semiconductor chip (110) can be uniquely identified by means of optical detection of the structured functional layer. The structured layer enables identification of small semiconductor chips (110) with a size below 200 ?m×200 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2018
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Alexander Weigl
  • Publication number: 20180261979
    Abstract: The invention relates to a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (100) comprising a first electrical contact (105), a substrate (110), a first Distributed Bragg Reflector (115), an active layer (120), a second Distributed Bragg Reflector (130) and a second electrical contact (135). The Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser comprises at least one AlyGa(1-y)As-layer with 0.95?y?1 with a thickness of at least 40 nm, wherein the AlyGa(1-y)As-layer is separated by means of at least one oxidation control layer (119, 125b). The invention further relates to a laser device (300) comprising such a VCSEL (100) preferably an array of such a VCSELs (100) which are driven by an electrical driving circuit (310). The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing such a VCSEL (100).
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 31, 2016
    Publication date: September 13, 2018
    Inventors: PHILIPP HENNING GERLACH, ROGER KING
  • Publication number: 20180076598
    Abstract: The invention describes a laser device (100) comprising between two and six mesas (120) provided on one semiconductor chip (110), wherein the mesas (120) are electrically connected in parallel. The laser device (100) is adapted such that degradation of at least one mesa (120) results in a decreased laser power emitted by the laser device (100) in a defined solid angle when driven at the defined electrical input power. The laser device (100) is adapted such that eye safety of the laser device (100) is guaranteed during life time of the laser device (100). Eye safety may be guaranteed by designing the semiconductor structure or more general layer structure of mesas (120) of the laser device (100) in a way that degradation of one or more layers of the layer structure results in a reduction of the maximum optical power emitted in a defined solid angle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Publication date: March 15, 2018
    Inventors: HOLGER MOENCH, ALEXANDER WEIGL, PHILIPP HENNING GERLACH
  • Patent number: 9882355
    Abstract: The invention describes a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser and a method of manufacturing such a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2018
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Roland Aloisius Jaeger
  • Publication number: 20170302059
    Abstract: The invention describes a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser and a method of manufacturing such a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2015
    Publication date: October 19, 2017
    Inventors: Philipp Henning GERLACH, Roland Aloisius JAEGER
  • Patent number: 9627854
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a laser device being formed of at least one VCSEL (15) with intracavity contacts. The VCSEL comprises a layer structure (18) with an active region (6) between a first DBR (4) and a second DBR (10), a first current-injection layer (5) of a first conductivity type between the first DBR (4) and the active region (6), and a second current-injection layer (8) of a second conductivity type between the second DBR (10) and the active region (6). The first and second current-injection layers (5, 8) are in contact with a first and a second metallic contact (11, 12), respectively. The first and/or second DBR (4, 10) are formed of alternating Aluminum oxide and Al(x)Ga(1?x)As containing layers. The proposed design of this VCSEL allows an increased efficiency and lower production costs of such a laser since the top and bottom DBRs may be formed of a considerable reduced thickness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2017
    Assignee: KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.
    Inventors: Philipp Henning Gerlach, Alexander Weigl, Christian Wimmer
  • Publication number: 20160254640
    Abstract: The invention describes a laser device comprising between two and six mesas (120) provided on one semiconductor chip (110), wherein the mesas (120) are electrically connected in parallel such that the mesas (120) are adapted to emit laser light if a defined threshold voltage is provided to the mesas (120). Two to six mesas (120) with reduced active diameter in comparison to a laser device with one mesa improve the yield and performance despite of the fact that two to six mesas need more area on the semiconductor chip thus increasing the total size of the semiconductor chip (110). The invention further describes a method of marking semiconductor chips (110). A functional layer of the semiconductor chip (110) is provided and structured in a way that a single semiconductor chip (110) can be uniquely identified by means of optical detection of the structured functional layer. The structured layer enables identification of small semiconductor chips (110) with a size below 200 ?m×200 ?m.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2014
    Publication date: September 1, 2016
    Inventors: PHILIPP HENNING GERLACH, ALEXANDER WEIGL