No space too tight for ultra-compact polygon scanner

Precision Laser Scanning has announced its Gecko series of ultra-compact polygon scanners. According to the company, the devices can perform high speed laser scanning even in small spaces. It is worth noting that polygon scanners are 10-100 times faster than galvanometer scanners.

Geckos have the motor polygon assembly mounted directly to the control board and the size of the board has been drastically reduced with application specific ICs. Efficiency of these polygon scanners are high so bulky heat sinking is eliminated. The polygon scanner can be powered by a single voltage power supply further saving system space and cost.

Figure 1: A complete motor polygon assembly with controller can have a footprint smaller than a credit card!

The air bearing motors do not required pressurized air and can exceed 50,000RPM. This speed is sought for microscopy, biomedical, lithography and high speed inspection applications.

The ball bearing motors are very rugged for mobile applications. UAVs are becoming smaller, so polygon scanners used for LIDAR must be reduced in size, weight and power consumption. Autonomous vehicles including self-driving cars may use compact polygon scanners for collision avoidance.

Figure 2: The Gecko motors are made with ball bearings as well as self-generating air bearings.

The small size and low mass of a Gecko polygon scanner is optimum for use on the end of a rapidly moving robotic arm. ULTRAFAST lasers require polygon speed to fully utilise MHz pulse rates in material processing.

The highly integrated and compact Gecko polygon scanners are available with custom polygon sizes, speeds with facet count to meet OEM requirements for high speed laser scanning.