INVESTIGATION OF THE THERMAL-PROPERTIES OF A LINEAR-ARRAY OF LASER-DIODES ON A SILICON-CARBIDE HEAT SINK

An investigation was made of the operating characteristics of a linear array of AlGaAs laser diodes indium-soldered to an SiC heat sink. The average output power was 14 W and the efficiency was similar to 25%. The thermal impedance of the system was 0.05 K W-1. A comparison of th e experimental results with heat flow fluctuations showed that, in spi te of a thick solder layer, the system was capable of draining heat at an average rate twice that detected experimentally, The discrepancy b etween the experimental and theoretical results could be explained by structural imperfections of the solder layer, typical of the adopted m ethod for bonding a linear diode array to a heat sink and to electrode s.