A newly developed wavelength tunable light source with a near-infrared wavelength range of 800-1700 nm is presented. The NIR-TLS delivers relatively higher output flux with a narrow bandwidth and high stability. The critical components that led to superior performance include: (1) a higher brightness laser-driven light source (LDLS), (2) optimized achromatic optics for light collection and focusing, (3) a higher throughput monochromator, (4) wavelength matched order sorting filters to eliminate second-order and stray light in output, and (5) a 1500μm core diameter optical fiber optimized for NIR transmission.

With a 1 mm slit width monochromator setting, the TLS produces an average in-band flux of 0.44 mW with an 8.5 nm full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) bandwidth. The maximum in-band power reached is 1.6 mW near 920 nm. We will also discuss the results of output stability measurements.

The NIR-TLS could be beneficial for calibrating and testing NIR detectors and image sensors used in growing consumer products.