Transfer Prize goes to FBH in cooperation with Jenoptik Diode Lab
Berlin, Germany--During Laser Optics Berlin (March 19-21), researchers from the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH) were awarded the Transfer Prize for sustainable transfer of specifically powerful diode lasers for materials processing. In winning the prize, the FBH collaborated closely with Jenoptik Diode Lab (Berlin-Adlershof, Germany) on the project and ensuring the rapid transfer of the research results into an industrial environment.
The Transfer Prize is endowed with 50,000 euros and is assigned by the friends of the Technology Foundation Berlin (TSB). "We are very proud of this award—it manifests and acknowledges the long-term and extraordinarily fruitful collaboration with industrial partners like Jenoptik," says Götz Erbert, leader of the research team. "This is the second time that the FBH has received the prize. In 2004, the institute won for the development of DFB high-power laser diodes. Then the transfer was accomplished with another FBH spin-off, Eagleyard Photonics (Berlin, Germany).
Based on novel designs, the FBH team has developed diode lasers that achieve an efficiency of 63% at an output power of 12 W; 15 to 20 W are expected to be achieved while maintaining excellent efficiency and beam quality. Such diode lasers set the stage for purely diode-laser-based laser systems for materials processing in the future.
Jenoptik Diode Lab is a spinoff of FBH and was founded in 2002. The company runs a semiconductor fabrication in Berlin at the Adlershof campus and continues to use research results from the FBH for its diode lasers. The FHB is part of the Leibniz-Institut fuer Hoechstfrequenztechnik and researches electronic and optical components, modules, and systems based on compound semiconductors.
Conard Holton
Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.