REGENSBURG, Germany – The Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation recognized the research team based here for Ostram Opto Semiconductors with the Beckurts Prize for their work in researching direct green semiconductor lasers. Representing the entire research team, Osram's Désirée Queren, Stephan Lutgen and Adrian Avramescu received the prize, which is granted annually on Dec. 10 by the Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation to honor outstanding scientific and technical achievements that give rise to discernible impetus for industrial innovations in Germany.
The availability of very small and low-cost red, blue and green semiconductor lasers is crucial for large-scale diffusion of RGB laser projection, Osram noted. The laser diodes enable production of low-cost, compact and efficient pico-projectors, which can be incorporated into mobile devices such as smart-phones or digital cameras.
Due to the particular beam properties of lasers, these projectors have unlimited depth of sharpness and extremely high resolution, which go even beyond that of LED solutions. The low spectral bandwidth of semiconductor lasers enables lifelike display of colors plus razor-sharp contrasts.
Osram called its research team's achievement as "a milestone for many applications – this laser will open up new markets, for example, in ultra-compact mobile RGB laser projectors."
Others involved in creating laser effects for the live entertainment industry agreed. George Dodworth, president of Lightwave International, called the research "an important pioneering step that will have profound implications on future products once the proper scale has been achieved."
Osram Opto Semiconductors only started developing direct blue laser diodes for RGB laser projection in 2006. Today, these are used successfully in the first devices on the market. Based on the findings for the blue laser in the InGaN material system, the team managed within a very short time to break through the barrier to green from a wavelength of 500nm. In 2009, they took over the technological leadership in direct green laser diodes of >515nm with optical outputs of more than 50mW.
The basic development of blue and green laser diodes and research into miniaturization of systems in mobile laser projection are supported by project Molas – technologies for ultra-compact and mobile laser projection systems – as part of the "Optical components and systems for volume markets" funding initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (funding code FKZ 13N9373).
In addition, Osram is working together with several German universities and research institutes in the innovative research field of nitride lasers. Désirée Queren, for example, wrote her dissertation based on a collaboration with the University of Erlangen. The foundation for the results with the semiconductor lasers was laid as early as 1998 through development work with UV lasers, especially in the project "Blue laser based on GaN for innovative storage systems."
For more information, please visit www.osram-os.com.
