Broadband SLED-based light source (BeST-SLED^TM) and spectrometer

A small footprint, low power, cost effective single mode fiber coupled broadband light source and spectrometer is presented. It is based on Super Luminescent Diode (SLED) devices and a compact design enables coverage of the 1250 nm-1750 nm region with a total optical power of 50 mW at the output of the fiber. This Broad Spectrum Tunable Super Luminescent (BeST-SLED^TM) light source can operate at temperatures ranging from -40°C to 60°C, and resides in a custom designed 26-pin package. The fiber is a polarization maintaining fiber with a FC/APC connector at the output. Three variations of the BeST-SLED^TM were developed, BEST-SLED™ Bands, BeST-SLED^TM Tunable and BeST-SLED^TM FTNIR. In the Bands version six SLEDs were packaged allowing for one SLED on at a time or any combination of the SLEDs on. In the Tunable version an Acoustic Optical Tunable Filter (AOTF) was integrated into the package allowing the user to select one wavelength at a time to pass into the fiber with resolution of ∼1 nm @1550nm. In the FTNIR version, a Silicon Photonic based interferometer (the Nano-Spec^TM) was integrated into the package for a Fourier Transform Near Infrared based Spectrometer and light source. The BeST-SLED^TM is being used in process control applications such as steam quality measurements, oil in water, gas composition and air quality monitoring.