Thermal resistance of VCSELs bonded to integrated circuits

The thermal resistance of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) flip chip bonded to GaAs substrates and CMOS integrated circuits has been measured. The measurements on GaAs show that if the bonding is done properly, the bonding does not add significantly to the thermal resistance. However, the SiO
₂
under the CMOS bonding pad can double the thermal resistance unless measures are taken to improve the thermal conductance of these layers. Finite element simulations indicate that the thermal resistance of bonded VCSELs increases rapidly as the solder bond size and the aperture size decrease below /spl sim/10 μm.