Improving Laser Reliability: Examples and Techniques

Level: Introductory Length: 4 hours Format: In-Person Lecture Intended Audience: Includes designers and builders of lasers or of systems that use lasers. This course welcomes laser engineers, laser scientists, manufacturing engineers, reliability engineers, quality engineers, optical engineers, laser technicians, optical technicians, project leaders, program leaders, and managers. A general understanding of lasers and optics is a prerequisite for this class, but you need not be an expert. Description: From science to so-called secret sauces, this course will share some of the tricks, methods, and good practices that go into designing and manufacturing reliable lasers and systems. Lasers are often expensive. Eliminating laser failures, even one laser failure, is a big win. This course examines both optical and non-optical issues that affect reliability. It will emphasize solid-state lasers, frequency-converted lasers, aspects of fiber lasers, and systems that use lasers. It will cover semiconductor lasers, but from the perspective of using them as dependable components. Together, we will discuss examples illustrating key failure modes and how to avoid failures throughout the product development cycle. This updated half-day course is based on the more comprehensive full-day course given previously, Improving Laser Reliability: An Introduction (SC1174) by Will Grossman and Cheryl Asbury. Learning Outcomes: This course will enable you to: - identify and mitigate risks to reliability for each phase of the laser product life cycle - utilize best-practices in your design and manufacturing to increase laser reliability - design tests for qualification and screening of lasers - troubleshoot problems for each phase of the laser product life cycle Instructor(s): William M. Grossman pioneered making reliable diode-pumped solid-state infrared and ultraviolet lasers. Will and his team designed and refined the Q-series line of ultraviolet lasers, made by Lightwave Electronics Corporation and then by JDS Uniphase (now Lumentum LLC). These have been among the best selling diode-pumped lasers ever built. Will has authored a broad range of publications and patents on lasers including work on: solid-state laser design, laser reliability, fiber lasers, laser applications, laser materials, nonlinear optics, and free-electron lasers. Will was Vice President of Engineering at Lightwave, Director of Lasers at JDSU, and Director of Lasers and Optics at Electro Scientific Industries. Currently Will is an independent consultant. Will earned a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Caltech. Event: SPIE Photonics West 2023 Course Held: 30 January 2023