Improving Laser Reliability: an Introduction

Level: Introductory Length: 7 hours Format: In-Person Lecture Intended Audience: Includes designers and builders of lasers or of systems that use lasers. We welcome 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, we will share some of the tricks, techniques, 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. We will emphasize solid-state lasers, frequency-converted lasers, aspects of fiber lasers, and systems that use lasers. We will cover semiconductor lasers, mainly from the perspective of using them as components. Our goal is to help you make more reliable lasers and more reliable laser systems. Together, we will discuss many examples illustrating key failure modes and how to avoid failures. 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 - estimate laser lifetime - 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 working on lasers and optics. Will earned a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Caltech. Cheryl G. Asbury has over 20 years of experience developing laser systems for space applications that require high optical power output and high reliability over mission lifetimes of 10+ years. She currently serves as the Photonics Specialist in the Component Engineering and Assurance Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA. Cheryl came to JPL after 5 years at Lightwave Electronics Corporation, where she managed the development and delivery of 6 space-qualified diode-pumped solid-state lasers to the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) Instrument on NASA’s Aura spacecraft, which collected data on the Earth’s atmosphere for 14 years from its launch in 2004 to instrument decommissioning in January 2018. Cheryl earned a BS in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University and an MS in Applied Physics from the University of Michigan. Event: SPIE Photonics West 2020 Course Held: 03 February 2020