Design and analysis of single-mode oxidized VCSELs for high-speed optical interconnects

Oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diodes (VCSELs) are fabricated for applications in high-performance optical interconnects. Both 980-nm as well as 850-nm wavelength devices in one- and two-dimensional arrays are investigated. Noise properties of single- and multimode devices under different operation conditions are relative intensity noise of single-mode devices can be as low as -150 dB/Hz at output powers of about 1 mW and feedback levels up to -30 dB. Data rates up to 12.5 Gb/s with bit error rates below 10/sup -11/ are achieved with VCSELs showing stable single-mode emission at large-signal modulation, combined with modulation bandwidths exceeding 10 GHz. Arrays with 4/spl times/8 elements flip-chip mounted on Si CMOS driver chips ready for use in parallel data transmission systems are presented.