VCSEL is one of the important components in 3D tof camera, not only in its function in its value. With the further penetration of 3D tof camera in mobile phones, the market size of VCSELs will expand accordingly.
What does VCSEL mean?
VCSEL stands for vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser – this is a laser diode with a monolithic laser resonator which radiates the light vertically to the surface of the semiconductor chip, as opposed to edge-emitting laser diodes, where the light exits at the edge of the chip.
What are the advantages of VCSEL
Decisive features of the surface emitter lasers (compared to edge emitting lasers) are the lower production costs and the better beam quality – however with a lower output power. The coupling efficiency in optical fibers is high due to the small footprint, the good beam quality and the good focusability.
As an SMT (surface-mountable component), a VCSEL combines characteristics of an LED with those of a laser and is easier to assemble than an EEL (edge emitting laser).
It offers coherent light with directed emission, the higher power density and simple packaging of an IRED, but has the spectral width of a line emitter, like EEL or DFB (distributed feedback laser diodes) technology.
The beam shape of a VCSEL is a circular spot, compared to the elliptical shape of FP-EEL (Fabry-Perot Edge Emitting Laser) and DFB. Unlike the temperature sensitive wavelength of an EEL, VCSEL suffer way less wavelength shift under the influence temperature changes.
The main advantages of the different IR technologies can be summarized as follows:
VCSEL: cost effective chip, narrow divergence, high efficiency
