Lidar laser driver charges and fires up to 1kW

SL2001 comes in a 14ball 1 x 3.5mm WLCSP (wafer-level chip-scale package) includes both a capacitor charging circuit and another block to dump that stored energy into the laser diode.

Operating from a power source between 3 and 24V it can produce a <2ns FWHM (full-width half-max) pulse, 1kW power peaks and fire EELs or VCSELs (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers) with pulses at >10MHz.

“The SL2001 also has a ‘laser fired’ output signal with sub-100ps peak-to-peak jitter,” according to the company, which claimed: “Built in laser output power sensing and control enables the SL2001 to meet eye-safety requirements.”

Allowing stand-alone operation, on-board three-time programmable non-volatile memory, set via an I²C interface. There are also 218 on-time programmable bytes for non-specific customer use.

SL2001 development board

Storage capacitor charging is though a resonant boost converter, using an external mosfet and capable of generating >80V with 3V at the input, and the output drive for the external fast output power switch can be compatible with GaN hemts. Output power is regulated by the charging circuit.

Time-of-flight lidar applications are foreseen in range finding, 3D mapping and automated driving.

There is no public data sheet, but an SL2001 data brief can be found here

Last year, Silanna launched its own 235nm ultra-violet LED for disinfection and sterilisation