Mark Carpaij

VCSEL based sensors for distance and velocity

VCSEL based sensors can measure distance and velocity in three dimensional space and are already produced in high quantities for professional and consumer applications. Several physical principles are used: VCSELs are applied as infrared illumination for surveillance cameras. High power arrays combined with imaging optics provide a uniform illumination of scenes up to a distance of several hundred meters. Time-of-flight methods use a pulsed VCSEL as light source, either with strong single pulses at low duty cycle or with pulse trains. Because of the sensitivity to background light and the strong decrease of the signal with distance several Watts of laser power are needed at a distance of up to 100m. VCSEL arrays enable power scaling and can provide very short pulses at higher power density. Applications range from extended functions in a smartphone over industrial sensors up to automotive LIDAR for driver assistance and autonomous driving. Self-mixing interference works with coherent laser photons scattered back into the cavity. It is therefore insensitive to environmental light. The method is used to measure target velocity and distance with very high accuracy at distances up to one meter. Single-mode VCSELs with integrated photodiode and grating stabilized polarization enable very compact and cost effective products. Besides the well know application as computer input device new applications with even higher accuracy or for speed over ground measurement in automobiles and up to 250km/h are investigated. All measurement methods exploit the known VCSEL properties like robustness, stability over temperature and the potential for packages with integrated optics and electronics. This makes VCSEL sensors ideally suited for new mass applications in consumer and automotive markets.

Measuring the pressure in ultrahigh-pressure mercury arcs

Ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) mercury lamps are important as high-brightness light sources for digital projection. Hg pressures are usually above 20 MPa and difficult to measure. We have built special UHP lamps with a liquid Hg condensate in a temperature-controlled reservoir, allowing us to tune the Hg vapor pressure p between 14 and 30 MPa. As a simple measure for p, we recorded the width Δλ of the 546 nm Hg line while varying p and also the lamp current I and voltage U. The data define a function p(Δλ,I,U) that will deliver p to better than 3% from simple measurements of Δλ, I, and U for most UHP lamps in the important 100–200 W power range. The method is applied to sample lamps, yielding pressures up to 26 MPa and demonstrating how filled Hg amount, burning position, arc gap, and lamp power affect the pressure. The effective temperature of typical UHP lamps is found to be 2400 K. We also derive an improved characteristic U(d,p,I) for the dependence of the arc voltage on arc gap, pressure, and current for e...

Invited Paper: UHP‐lamp systems for projection applications

— Projection systems have found widespread use in conference rooms and other professional applications during the last decade and are now entering the home-TV market with considerable pace. Projectors as small as about one liter are nowadays able to deliver a screen flux of several thousand lumens and are, with a system efficacy of more than 10 lm/W, the most-efficient display system realized today. Because such highly efficient projectors employ microdisplays as light valves, short-arc lamps are a key component in realizing these properties. The introduction of the UHP-lamp system by Philips in 1995 can be identified as one of the key enablers for the commercial success of projection systems. The ultra-high-performance (UHP) lamp concept features outstanding arc luminance, a well-suited spectrum, long life, and excellent flux maintenance. For the first time, it combines a very-high-pressure mercury-discharge lamp having an extremely short and stable arc length with a regenerative chemical cycle that keeps the discharge walls free from blackening, leading to lifetimes of over 10,000 hours. In this review, the most important aspects of the UHP concept that enabled its success in the projection market are described, followed by a discussion of some recent additions to the UHP-product portfolio.