The economics of high-duty-factor, high-average-power diode-pumped solid-state-lasers (DPSSLs)

We are engaged in the development of a suite of prototype high-average-power, high duty-factor DPSSLs for use in various military and civilian applications. Because the pump array is anticipated to be the biggest cost driver in these laser systems, we emphasize array manufacturing process development and costing in this presentation. We forego the more business-contingent topic of product pricing. For the mentioned DPSSLs to be economically viable, we estimate that a pump array OEM manufacturing unit cost of goods (COG) below a few dollars per average watt will be necessary. Is this a reasonable expectation at the OEM array production levels anticipated or the associated applications? We conclude it is, provided 1) the basic manufactured unit produces about 100 watts of average power with adequately long operating life (typically >10,000 hours or >10¹⁰ shots); and 2) a low-cost, highly-reliable, mass-manufacturable cooler is developed that is amenable to 2-D stacking at a high packing density (~500 watts average per cm²). To implement this low-cost, high-duty-factor pump array strategy, and to provide progressively more quantitative cost and performance information upon which to base strategic programmatic decisions, we adopted and significantly further developed the silicon microchannel cooler approach first reported by Tuckerman and Pease (1981)