Low-cost and high-performance 1.3-μm AlGaInAs-InP uncooled laser diodes

We utilize a self-terminated oxide polish (STOP) planarization technique to fabricate high-yield, high-performance, low-cost, and uncooled 1.3-μm ridge-waveguide AlGaInAs-InP laser diodes (LDs). The STOP technique is superior to the polyimide planarization, which suffers from high-temperature sustainability. The LDs fabricated by the STOP technique exhibit threshold currents of 8.5 and 30.5 mA, and light output powers of 25.9 and 4.8 mW at 100 mA for 20/spl deg/C and 110/spl deg/C, respectively. The characteristic temperatures (T
₀
) are 82.6 K from -30/spl deg/C to 80/spl deg/C and 55.9 K from 80/spl deg/C to 110/spl deg/C. Since the metal pad lies on a thick SiO
₂
layer, the parasitic capacitance can be effectively lowered to 2 pF. The 3-dB modulation bandwidths of the LDs at 50 mA are 12.1 and 9.44 GHz at 20/spl deg/C and 90/spl deg/C, respectively.