By Posted in Features, Surgical Lasers, Treatment Devices on Tuesday, November 01 2011
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According to Pantec Biosolutions AG (Liechtenstein, Europe), the global aesthetic market, which includes skin rejuvenation, is expected to grow from a $4.4 billion market in 2010 to a $7.5 billion market in 2015. Meanwhile, the market for transdermal drug delivery is growing rapidly and is expected to be a multi-billion dollar market by 2015. Designed for medical professionals and consumers, these new devices offer a precise delivery method for a variety of medical applications, such as skin rejuvenation, in-vitro fertilization, and vaccinations.
Fig 1 - P.L.E.A.S.E.® Professional, a tabletop medical laser device targeted mainly for the dermatologic and aesthetic markets.
The following article discusses how Oclaro (San Jose, CA) worked with Pantec Biosolutions AG to develop this customized quasi-continuous wave (QCW) sub-assembly laser diode solution.
Market and Application Can Drive End-Product Requirements
An industrial application usually requires higher power and higher brightness, as well as a laser diode lifetime of several ten-thousand hours. Medical devices, on the other hand, tend to have lower requirements on diode lifetime and are more sensitive on parameters such as cost, efficiency, thermal management, and size. In this example, a small handheld batterypowered laser device needed to be developed. Oclaro was able to leverage its full skill set from epitaxial design of semiconductor lasers, wafer processing, optical coating and facet passivation, as well as assembly design. The Pantec Biosolutions' team was responsible for designing the solid state laser, as well as the overall application know-how, including clinical studies and compliance with laser safety and medical regulations.
This particular project with Pantec Biosolutions focused on its laser-based transdermal delivery platform P.L.E.A.S.E.® (Precise Laser Epidermal System). The first device using this new platform is the newly-released P.L.E.A.S.E.® Professional (Fig 1), a tabletop medical laser device targeted mainly for the dermatologic and aesthetic markets. It creates precisely controlled aqueous micropores through the stratum corneum into the epidermis (Fig. 2). An intelligent graphical user interface, together with the CE mark and the laser class 1 grading, make it simple and safe for the medical professional to use. At a later time, this device will be complemented by the P.L.E.A.S.E.® Private (Fig 4), a battery-powered handheld medical laser device targeted mainly for drug delivery.
Meeting Small Packaging Requirements is Crucial
Fig 2 - Schematic picture of the P.L.E.A.S.E.® Professional handset, illustrating the application of the device.
For the epitaxial design of the device, the focus was on optimizing power conversion efficiency and thermal robustness. The resulting structure is characterized by a single InGaAs quantum well, and an AlGaAs wave guide. Oclaro's E2 facet passivation technology, which protects the front facet of the bar against Catastrophic Optical Damage, enables reliable operation of multimode devices at high ex-facet power densities of 120mW/
