Surface Emitting Laser Power Reduction via Direct Drive
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional surface emitting laser apparatuses fail to achieve sufficient reduction in power consumption due to excessive power consumption in the laser driving unit, even when the bias voltage is lowered, as they require voltage stepping down and amplification of differential voltage signals.
Innovation Solution
A surface emitting laser apparatus with an arithmetic processing unit that directly connects to the surface emitting laser device via capacitors, generating a driving voltage signal by superimposing the differential voltage signal with a commonly supplied core voltage as a bias voltage, eliminating the need for a laser driving unit and reducing power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a laser driving unit is used to step down bias voltage and amplify differential voltage signals, then the surface emitting laser device can operate properly, but the power consumption of the laser driving unit becomes excessively high (500 mW to 1 W)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the laser driving unit from the system entirely. Instead of using a separate driving unit to step down voltage and amplify signals, the invention directly connects the arithmetic processing unit to the surface emitting laser device through capacitors, eliminating the source of excessive power consumption while maintaining proper device operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the functions of the arithmetic processing unit and the laser driving unit. The arithmetic processing unit directly generates and outputs the drive voltage signal without requiring a separate driving unit, combining signal processing and voltage generation into a single integrated function that reduces overall power consumption.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the bias voltage is lowered to reduce power consumption of the surface emitting laser device, then device power consumption decreases, but the laser driving unit still consumes excessive power for voltage step-down
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the voltage step-down function from the system by eliminating the laser driving unit. The arithmetic processing unit directly outputs signals at the appropriate voltage level for the surface emitting laser device, preventing energy loss in the voltage conversion process entirely.
3Use of energy by moving object
If the surface emitting laser device operates at low power consumption (100 mW), then device efficiency improves, but total system power consumption remains high due to the laser driving unit (500 mW to 1 W)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the power-hungry laser driving unit from the system, eliminating the discrepancy between device efficiency and overall system efficiency. This allows the low-power operation of the surface emitting laser device to translate directly into low total system power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The arithmetic processing unit is made multi-functional by having it directly drive the surface emitting laser device without requiring a separate driving unit. This universal approach allows the same unit to perform both arithmetic operations and voltage signal generation, eliminating redundant power consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
A surface emitting laser apparatus includes an arithmetic processing unit including an I/O unit for externally inputting an instruction and a core unit that performs an operation based on the instruction and outputs a differential voltage signal modulated with a predetermined amplitude according to a result of the operation, capacitors respectively arranged on output paths of the differential voltage signal, and a surface emitting laser device that is directly connected to the arithmetic processing unit via the capacitors. An I/O voltage and a core voltage are externally supplied to the I/O unit and the core unit, respectively. The arithmetic processing unit generates a driving voltage signal by superimposing the differential voltage signal with the core voltage commonly supplied as a bias voltage without stepping up or down the core voltage and without amplifying the differential voltage signal and supplies the driving voltage signal to the surface emitting laser device.