mirSense

Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are semiconductor lasers emitting at wavelengths ranging from 4 to 20 microns and mirSense is a French company that designs and manufactures these devices as well as the electronics assembly around them.

 

Watch here a video presentation of the mirSense company.

The QCLs designed and manufactured by mirSense are either high-powered diodes (typically watt-level for defense applications) emitting in the main transmission bands of the atmosphere (4.0µm, 4.6µm, 4.8µm, 9.xµm) or either CW DFB lasers (typically mW level for spectroscopy applications) between 10 to 17 microns of wavelength.

The high-power lasers are called the “PowerMir” product line and the CW DFB lasers are called the “UniMir” product line.

For each of these two product lines, mirSense can also supply the electronics assembly around these devices (for example, plug-and-play turnkey systems for lab use or OEM pcb driving boards to pulse lasers down to tens of nanoseconds of pulse width). mirSense can also advise you on your setup (regarding the choice of drivers or detectors for example).

Besides these two standard product lines, mirSense is also able to manufacture special customized products for R&D purposes. For example, mirSense can manufacture a system that combines different laser beams, either for spectroscopy applications when customers want to resolve different absorption lines of a molecule or for defense applications when customers want to get several watts of output combined power in the far field.

The ITAR-free QCLs from mirSense are proudly manufactured in clean-rooms in France and customers will find that mirSense offers a very high beam quality. mirSense engineers supervise the process of QCL production inside the clean rooms and in this way, mirSense is not fabless.

The QCLs from mirSense are the only ones in the world able to reach long wavelengths range from 10 to 17 microns and new wavelengths means new spectroscopy applications for customers. This unique technology of mirSense was a finalist at the 2021 Prism Award.

 

Watch here a video explaining the benefits of the 10 to 17 microns wavelength QCLs from mirSense.

PowerMir Turnkey system for plug-and-play use in a lab environment.

Watch here a youtube video showing how easy it is to use the QCL turnkey system.

For lab experiments, we offer a plug-and-play easy to use turnkey system that includes laser heads, a driver and the cooling mechanism as well as a user-friendly PC software (only currently available for the high-power product line).  In order to accommodate you in your future projects, the mirSense turnkey platform is very modular. It is able to control simultaneously 2 different laser heads (with different or identical wavelengths).

Features:

• Plug-and-play system perfect to use inside a lab
• Create pulses down to 20ns of pulsewidth
• Stand alone system including: laser head, driver, air cooling
• Onboard security features prevent laser damage from overheat or wrong current/voltage injection.
• User-friendly PC software allows users to:
  • Turn ON/OFF the laser
  • Easily change the operating mode (power, modulation)
• External TTL for synchronization
• Red laser beam to find the IR beam in the far field

PowerMir HHL Package with Driver

The PowerMir OEM system (POEM) is meant for customers who wish to acquire the laser with its driving electronics in a compact format. Each POEM is made up of a packaged QCL laser plugged to a driving electronics board.

This board is embedded with unprecedented functionalities such as laser driver, complex programmable modulation schemes and of course full laser protection.  The onboard firmware protects the laser from burning through temperature management of the TEC element. The customer can communicate with the board through MODBUS commands and a TTL trigger allows the customer to modulate each board with confidentiality.  Several POEM systems can be combined to combine and increase the total optical output power. The customer must take care of maintaining the base plate of the HHL-package within a temperature range (typically -20°C to +30°C for standard versions).

Features:

• Compact stand-alone OEM product for system integration
• Create pulses down to 20ns of pulsewidth
• MODBUS communication for system integration and user-friendly PC software for configuration and tests
• External TTL for synchronization
• Cost effective for series-productions

UniMir and PowerMir HHL Package

For clients who wish to purchase only the laser without the driving electronics, all of our laser wavelengths are available in a packaged version alone. Our standard offer is in an HHL package with a built-in thermo electric cooler (TEC) to regulate the chip temperature and a collimating lens. We are used to developing and supplying custom packages as well. 

 

Features:

• Standard high heat loads package (9-pins HHL) or custom package on request 
• Integrated Peltier TEC cooler with a thermistance to measure chip temperature
• Integrated collimating lens (High beam quality, M²<1.5)

Chips on submount

For special demands, mirSense can sell chips on submount.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This article refers to: mirSense