SBIR-STTR Award

TransWave Photonics proposes to develop a high-power quantum cascade laser emitting near 4.6 um with > 65 W average power and 35% wall-plug efficiency under quasi-continuous wave operation at operating temperature of > 30 C. Using an optimized active region and cooling system design, we expect that the device should exhibit low thermal resistance and high effective thermal conductivity of a heat spreader to meet the operation requirements.

Benefit:
The proposed approach will result in compact, high power, mid-wave infrared quantum cascade devices that can be further integrated with various military applications. Successful demonstration of the proposed devices will be immediately beneficial for various military applications including infrared countermeasures, chemical detection, and light detection and ranging, and commercial applications including health care and sensing. Considering health-care and sensing applications that are one of the biggest markets for quantum cascade laser applications, whose global market is projected to reach from $1.4 billion to $2.3 billion, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.9% from USD 800 million in 2020 to 1.5 billion in 2025. The demand for quantum cascade laser photonic integrated circuits for gas sensing applications is expected to be particularly high from oil and gas industries. Given the fact that quantum cascade lasers are already widely used in gas sensing systems, TransWave Photonics expects multiple commercial opportunities for the development of on-chip quantum-cascade-laser-based gas sensors using our proposed photonic integrated circuit technology.

Keywords:
MWIR, MWIR, high power, Quantum Cascade Laser