OREANDA-NEWS. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that it has developed a 638-nanometer (nm) wavelength red laser diode (LD) offering output power of 1.8 W at continuous-wave operation, the world's highest level among 638-nm LDs in this package size used as light sources for projectors. A commercial launch is targeted for the fiscal year ending in March 2016 at which time laser light sources for projectors are expected to take off.

The breakthrough LD will be presented during the Laser Display Conference 2014 (LDC 2014) at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan on June 19 and 20.

Light sources for color projectors, conventionally lamps, are being replaced with solid-state light sources offering higher energy efficiency, higher color reproduction and longer life. LDs deliver high output power while consuming low power because of their high power-conversion efficiency.

Previously, the output power of red LDs with wavelengths shorter than 640 nm was not sufficient for high-brightness projector applications at high temperatures. As a first step to overcome this limitation, Mitsubishi Electric applied specialized window-mirror structures and epitaxial growth technology to develop an LD capable of 0.5 W power output at continuous-wave operation, which is packaged in a 5.6-mm-diameter transistor-outline can (TO-can). Thereafter, it applied a new LD structure in a 9.0-mm TO-can package to achieve industry-leading output power of 1.8 W at a 638-nm lasing wavelength, which meets demands for bright projector systems.