Expensive semiconductor laser diodes have no tolerance for fast voltage or current transients. To minimize the risk of damage, a standard JFET-clamp circuit shorts the laser when there is no supply ...

This circuit was designed to meet a medical application’s requirement to drive a laser diode with reasonable precision and a minimum of components and footprint (the device is now in clinical trials).

Newport has developed a diode laser current driver circuit with noise characteristics that it says are as much as 10 times lower than currently available. The company also claims that the circuit ...

If you’ve played around with laser diodes that you’ve scavenged from old equipment, you know that it can be a hit-or-miss proposition. (And if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?) Besides the real ...