Fabrication and characterization of individually addressable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays and integrated VCSEL/PIN detector arrays

Abstract

With the emergence of the internet, the demand for high data transmission rates in short haul area networks and fiber-to-the- desktop applications is increasing every year. Densely packed one-dimensional and two-dimensional vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays offer new possibilities for future short haul parallel optical links, free-space optical interconnects at the chip-to-chip, board-to-board, and on-board level. In this paper, we describe the manufacturing process of individually addressable two-dimensional VCSEL arrays, PIN detector arrays, and integrated VCSEL / PIN detector arrays. We also present measurement results of the fabricated devices and comment on the reliability.