RELIABILITY STUDIES OF 0.85 MU-M VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS - 50000-H MTTF AT 25-DEGREES-C

Reliability studies of gain-guieded 0.85 mum GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well surface emitting lasers were performed on 45 randomly selected lasers operated at 25, 50 or 90-degrees-C with biased currents up to 15 mA (about four times the threshold values). At 25-degrees-C, no noticeable degradation was seen after 5000 h of operation. A 14% reduction of power was seen at 50-degrees-C after 2700h. A faster degradation on power output was seen at 90-degrees-C, though the lasers are still functional after 1000h. The mean time toward failure (MTTF) of these lasers operated at 25-degrees-C and 15mA is extrapolated to be approximately 5 x 10(4)h.