Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. Signs Licensing Agreement With Lucent Technologies

Business Wire, July 12, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

SUGAR LAND, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 2000

Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AOI) has entered into a licensing agreement with Lucent Technologies Inc. that gives AOI the right to manufacture and distribute the much-publicized quantum cascade (QC) laser for applications in industries other than telecommunications. The agreement marks the first time Lucent has licensed this technology.

The QC laser was invented and demonstrated in 1994 at Bell Laboratories by Federico Capasso, Alfred Cho and their collaborators. It operates with unprecedented performance in the mid-infrared portion of the spectrum, in which it has previously been difficult for scientists to create high-efficiency lasers. This spectral region is particularly important from an applications standpoint because many chemicals -- including pollutants, industrial chemicals, explosives, and medically important substances -- can only be sensitively detected using mid-infrared lasers. Until recently, efforts to create high-performance, low-cost, laser-based sensors for these materials have been hampered by the high price or limited spectral or power performance of existing lasers.

Quantum cascade lasers are the first mid-infrared semiconductor lasers that operate at room temperature with operating power as high as 0.5 Watts. Room-temperature operation is important for the development of compact and portable sensors. The Bell Labs group and other collaborators have shown that the wavelength of QC lasers can be precisely selected and continuously tuned over a broad range to detect a variety of trace gases with a sensitivity of a few parts per billion in volume.

A quantum cascade laser system, including the laser active element and the necessary cooling equipment, can be made as small as a few cubic inches and will cost a fraction of the price of the older lasers.

"The QC laser has revolutionized the way scientists think about semiconductor lasers, and it now stands as a viable commercial product." says Dr. Thompson Lin, founder and President of Applied Optoelectronics.

"The QC laser is one example of the revolutionary new technologies that Lucent makes available for licensing," said Dan McCurdy, President of Lucent's Intellectual Property Business. "Through technology licenses such as this, Lucent works with other companies to transform some of its technologies into commercially viable products outside of Lucent's core business. In the case of the QC lasers, for example, while Bell Labs continues to develop its applications in the communications industry and pursue long-term research, AOI and its customers are pursuing sensor applications in markets such as combustion diagnostics, environmental sensing, medical diagnostics, industrial process control and law enforcement."

The crystal structure of the QC laser contains up to 1000 alternating layers of different types of crystalline material, some thinner than one billionth of an inch, which is the size of just a few atoms. All the layers must be within a few percent of the target composition and thickness for the device to work properly. Applied Optoelectronics has purchased several state of the art molecular beam epitaxy systems to handle high volume production of these devices.

"The equipment AOI has amassed is really world-class, allowing the company to produce semiconductor crystals of extremely high quality. The quantum cascade laser is probably the most complicated semiconductor structure ever commercially produced, in terms of the number of atomic layers and the precision control required to produce working devices. Highly trained personnel are necessary to develop the techniques to produce these devices, and AOI has managed to attract some of the brightest talent from around the world," comments Dr. James Baillargeon, one of the developers of the QC laser at Bell Laboratories, now with AOI as Vice President for Laser Development.

AOI recently produced its first quantum cascade laser, and reported the technical details at the 42nd annual Electronic Materials Conference, held recently in Denver, CO. Performance of these devices is already close to the best results achieved previously at Lucent Technologies, and future generations of devices are expected to further improve the performance.

The QC lasers are expected to be available commercially directly from AOI in September 2000. Performance of these devices should meet or exceed the results published so far by Lucent Technologies. The company already has several orders for the new lasers for use in sensing applications.

Applied Optoelectronics was founded in 1997 to provide advanced semiconductor optoelectronic devices for emerging applications including biomedical sensing and data communications. The company's lasers and photodetectors have diverse applications in such products as glucose sensors for diabetic monitoring, long-distance sensing of potentially hazardous chemicals, and monitoring of industrial processes for yield enhancement and environmental impact assessment. The company is currently constructing a 24,000 square foot manufacturing facility to house all its production equipment, as well as provide additional laboratory and office space.