Gerard Alphonse's Contact Details

Gerard Alphonse's Company Details

GDAC Photonics, Inc.

, , • 2 Employees
Electrical/electronic Manufacturing

GDAC Photonics is an early-stage company commercializing an advanced broadband semiconductor light – a core technology underlying current and future applications in guidance, autonomous navigation, fiber optic sensing for industrial, military, and medical systems. Superluminescent diodes (SLDs) are the preferred light sources for applications in which a broad spectrum of light is required, as opposed to the narrow bandwidth of a laser. A smooth, extended spectral width is the key physical characteristic required for many applications in interferometric sensing – now in use with many more applications coming.These include smart fiber sensors, interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes (IFOGs), and optical coherence tomography (OCT), widely used today in ophthalmology to aid in the treatment of glaucoma and macular degeneration.The original SLD, now the current commercial state-of-the art, was invented by GDAC's co-founder Gerard A. Alphonse under a US government program to create a viable source for IFOGs to replace bulky mechanical gyros. It is a semiconductor chip including an optical waveguide configured at an angle to reduce facet reflections, preventing operation as a laser. However, residual reflections from the chip facets of standard SLDs inherently cause ripples in the output spectrum. These ripples and inherent inefficiencies limit the utility of standard SLDs, which require high drive current to produce their output.Based on a new, patented advanced design called the Double-Pass Light Source (DPLS), the front facet reflection is reduced to practically zero, eliminating the ripples regardless of the output power. This novel design enables many benefits: high power, negligible spectral ripple, much lower drive current, Increased bandwidth, and high fiber coupling.