Lasers & Sources

Axsun develops tunable VCSEL platform for OCT imaging

July 26, 2018

The technology integrates all the major tunable VCSEL components into a single compact butterfly package.

The tunable OCT VCSEL is shown in a conventional butterfly package.

Developer and supplier of MEMS-based optical engines for medical imaging, industrial spectroscopy, and optical telecommunications, Axsun Technologies (Billerica, MA) announced the development of a new tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) platform for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging applications.

Axsun says the new tunable VCSEL platform raises the bar on OCT imaging performance, leveraging the company's core strengths of high-performance optical integration and cost-effective volume manufacturing. By integrating all the major tunable VCSEL components into a single compact butterfly package, the Axsun tunable VCSEL enables higher performance and flexibility, reliability, and scalability with low power consumption.

"While our patented external cavity laser designs offer excellent value and performance, such as wide tuning bandwidth and high power, Axsun's Tunable VCSEL promises significant benefits in performance and scalability for targeted applications, and we are excited about our progress in this area," said Peter Whitney, Axsun founder and chief science officer. "Based on our proven MEMS and optical hybrid packaging technology, we are confident that our VCSEL will provide a superior solution for many existing and emerging OCT imaging applications."

"We are extremely proud of the ongoing commercial adoption and technical success we have had with our core technology," said Axsun CEO Jonathan Hartmann. "This next generation of Axsun technology will build on that to offer even greater value and performance to our customers. We look forward to partnering with our customers to bring this technology to the market."

Axsun has made rapid progress in its VCSEL development to date and has commenced work with leading medical imaging OEMs on customized development of products based on the new tunable VCSEL platform. Further announcements on technical performance and commercial availability will be forthcoming in 2018.

SOURCE: Axsun Technologies; http://www.axsun.com/new-blog/2018/7/25/axsun-technologies-announces-breakthrough-tunable-vcsel-platform-for-optical-coherence-tomography-oct-imaging

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.