Oct 17 2007
QPC Lasers, Inc. a world leader in the development and commercialization of high-brightness, high-power semiconductor lasers for the industrial, defense, and medical markets, today announced that it has shipped its first 100-watt Generation III semiconductor laser to a medical customer in the U.S. for a surgical application. The 100-watt laser is the first in the highly anticipated Generation III product family and represents a major milestone for the Company.
"The initial shipment of our 100-watt BrightLaseR laser marks the inauguration of our Generation III product line, which we believe could potentially revolutionize the existing multibillion dollar solid state and gas laser market by enabling the replacement of conventional laser technology with our more efficient, rugged, and cost effective semiconductor based solutions," said QPC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Jeffrey Ungar. "These Gen III lasers provide more than twice the power than our Gen I and Gen II products, while offering reduced size, weight and cost compared to traditional laser technology. We look forward to continuing the roll out of higher-powered additions to this product line and anticipate growth in the medical, defense, and industrial markets for these Gen III products in 2008," Dr. Ungar concluded.
The 100 watt Generation III laser is ideal for surgical laser applications such as urology or cardiology that require high-power laser beams to be delivered with high-brightness in small diameter optical fiber in order to reach locations inside the body in a minimally invasive fashion. QPC's BrightLaseR semiconductor lasers offer a compact, reduced cost solution with wavelength flexibility, offering medical customers the ability to accelerate their return on investment while optimizing treatment wavelengths. Traditionally, higher-cost, multi-stage lasers such as lamp-pumped or diode-pumped systems have been used for these applications.
Defense applications of the Gen III product family include laser engines for widely deployable directed energy weapons based on direct diode or fiber lasers technology. Additionally, Gen III products are being designed for high power industrial applications, including materials processing, welding, marking, and engraving.