2020083-ACAN - COMPACT, HIGH POWER, HIGH REPETITION RATE FEMTOSECOND LASER FOR MATERIAL PROCESS

Notice is hereby given by the University of Ottawa of the intent to enter into a contract with Coherent Canada Inc to procure:

• A compact, HASS tested industrial grade femtosecond laser with a high uptime in 24/7 applications to enable current and future requirements in laser material processing applications.

• The laser must be able to operate at user-selectable repetition rates from single-shot to 50 MHz with an output power greater than 50W, a wavelength of 1035 ± 5 nm, pulse duration of ~ 290 fs that can be varied up to 10ps, and a pulse-on-demand mode.

• Power supply and chiller.

• The laser should be a compact, turn-key, one-box, industrial grade femtosecond laser system

• The laser system must meet HALT and HASS standards for reliability, quality control and design integrity, which the vendor must prove. HALT and HASS, collectively referred to as Accelerated Stress Testing (AST), requires vendor to perform random six-degree-of-freedom vibration and rapid thermal change rates (from -10C to 40C) - in the combined environment necessary to drive out latent failure modes prior to shipment.

• The laser should have a high up-time for 24/7 applications with good beam shape, along with high beam pointing, pulse energy and power stability.

• The laser system must meet the critical parameters highlighted below.
  • The laser must be operable at user-selectable repetition rate from single shot to 50 MHz.
  • The output power must be greater than 50W.
  • The laser must operate at a wavelength of 1035 ± 5 nm.
  • The bandwidth limited output pulse duration should be ~ 290 fs. The pulse duration must be user adjustable from 290 fs to 10 ps by internal pulse compressor that can be computer controlled.
  • Integrated pulse picker for full control of the laser output with single pulse selection in synchronization with end-user’s gate up to 1.5 MHz.
  • The spatial mode measured by M2 must be less than 1.2.
  • Beam circularity greater than 90%.
  • Beam pointing stability must be less than 25 mrad/oC over an 8 hour period.
  • Pulse energy stability must be less than 1.5% (RMS).
  • Polarization extinction must be greater than 100:1.
  • Pre-pulse contrast ratio must be greater than 200:1
  • Post-pulse contrast ratio must be greater than 200:1
  • Beam divergence must be less than 1 mrad
  • Fast power control via an analog/digital input signal.
  • User configurable burst mode to obtain pulse energies greater than 300uJ to increase material processing efficiency.
  • Pulse-on-demand capability to eliminate pulse stacking when traversing corners in contour operation on material to maintain the Heat Affected Zone by keeping the femtosecond pulse spacing constant.
  • System must allow for end user to perform installation.
  • Power requirements: 120V, 60 Hz, CSA approved.
  • Enironmental requirement: The laser must operate in a temperature range of 10-30oC at a relative humidity (non-condensing) of less than 80%.

• Three key laser parameters differentiate the pre-selected supplier (Coherentt) with other vendors. They are (i) Output power (> 50W), (ii) Repetition rate (up to 50 MHz), and (iii) Pulse duration (< 290 fs). Most vendors can meet only two requirements as it is challenging to produce high output power at high repetition rates and short pulse durations.
• HALT-designed and HASS verified to ensure quality and reliability.
• Compact design with small footprint (laser head dimensions: 660 mm x 360 mm x 180 mm) and a laptop sized AC to 48 V DC converter with no external power supplies for diode bands and umbilicals.