Lasers & Sources

Innovation Award Laser Technology goes to Philips Photonics for VCSEL arrays

May 6, 2016

Philips Photonics won the 10,000-euro award for its industrial VCSEL array technology for digital heat treatment.

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Philips GMBH Photonics Aachen won the 10,000-euro Innovation Award Laser Technology presented during AKL'16, in Aachen, Germany, April 27. Armand Pruijmboom and his team from Philips GmbH Photonics Aachen developed an innovative vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) array technology for digital heat treatment. The 10-member international jury selected 3 finalists from 15 applications.

A VCSEL-array chip assembled on a board forms an illumination module (a-c). These modules can be assembled next to each other for higher powers (d). A 400 W emitter consists of 56 chips arranged in four rows of 14 chips (e). A 9.6 kW module has an emitting area of 40 x 200 mm2 (f).

Approximately 320 guests attended the award ceremony in the historic coronation hall of the Aachen Town hall. Paul Hilton, spokesman for the international jury emphasized the outstanding innovations of the three top-ranked project teams in the field of laser technology. As Philips team leader, Armand Pruijmboom was appointed AKL Fellow and European Laser Institute Fellow.

Related article: High-power VCSEL arrays make ideal industrial heating systems, by Armand Pruijmboom, in Laser Focus World, December 2014

Second place went to a team from Audi, which developed laser remote welding of aluminum for automotive lightweighting. And third place went to a team from Coherent for developing UVblade, a method for mass production of flexible displays

Source and for details on the finalists: www.innovation-award-laser.org

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.