20-Gb/s 850-nm Oxide VCSEL Operating at 25 $^{\circ}$C–70 $^{\circ}$C

We report a small aperture 850-nm oxide vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) operating at 20 Gb/s (pseudorandom bit sequence 31) 25°C-70°C with 5 dB extinction ratio. The VCSEL is designed to target anticipated 20-Gb/s transceiver module requirements, and is fabricated using production equipment including metal-organic chemical vapor deposition reactors for the growth of GaAs-AlGaAs epitaxy. We have characterized small signal modulation response properties in detail and obtained good agreement with finite element VCSEL simulation results. Preliminary accelerated lifetime testing indicated that the wear out lifetime would exceed 10 years for 70°C operations.