Bidirectional Multimode Fiber Interconnection at Gb/s Data Rates With Monolithically Integrated VCSEL–PIN Transceiver Chips

We present the monolithic design, fabrication, and properties of 850-nm wavelength AlGaAs-GaAs-based transceiver chips for low-cost bidirectional optical data transmission over a butt-coupled standard multimode fiber of a few hundred meter length. The chips with a stacked layer structure of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) and a PIN (p-doped-intrinsic-n-doped) photodetector can well handle data rates of 9 Gb/s in back-to-back mode and 7 Gb/s over a 500-m-long 50-μm core diameter fiber.