Laser Diode Driver IC with analog mod. up to 2Ghz ?

[rafael2323]

Hi,

I've been searching for a while on the Web but all
manufacturers(Analog,Texas,Maxim,...) offer only digital modulation solutions or
low freq(tens of Khz) analog modulation.
Does anyone know a LD Driver IC with analog modulation capability up
to 2Ghz ?
I want to assembly an small demo board on FR4 with some TO-can Laser
diodes but I dont find any solution to provide a high freq analog
modulation.

Thanks a lot.
Regards,
Rafael

 

[HoracioG]

Hi Rafael2323,

I was looking the same as you, but for lower frequencies (arround 100MHz), I have found the IC AD9660, which is specified up to 25 MHz
analog modulation. It's far from 2GHz you need but at least is a start. I think there are not much IC drivers for analog modulation, maybe you can do it yourself using some RF transistor configuration.

In my case I didn't used the AD9660, I did a simple LED modulator with one transistor up to 20 MHz insted, and works correctly. I'm going to test it with a laser diode. But I might consider some improvement using the laser diode's PD monitor as well. There are some example circuits on the internet.

Best regards,
Horacio

 

[keith1200rs]

One possibility is to use a steady state laser driver to set the average power and 'pull' extra current in/out of the laser with a resistor, driving it up & down the steep part of the current/light curve.

Keith