High-speed 850 nm oxide-confined VCSELs for DATACOM applications

Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) are low cost and reliable light sources for high-speed local area and storage area network (LAN/SAN) optical fiber data communication systems and short-reach computer interconnects. The continuing rapid increase of serial transmission data rates driven by multi-core microprocessor's bandwidth upgrades cannot be sustained via conventional copper-based links as bit rates move beyond 10 Gbit/s and distances greater than 1 m. The intrinsic limitation of copper at high single-channel data rates facilitates the need to transition to optical fiber-based links at ever shorter distances. For LAN/SAN applications the 850 nm wavelength is standard. This same wavelength is also the standard for several other evolving short-reach application areas including Fibre Channel, CEI, USB, InfiniBand, and HDMI optical link systems. Herein we present our recent results on 850 nm oxide-confined VCSELs operating at data bit rates up to 40 Gbit/s. The low operational current density in the range of similar to 10 kA/cm2 ensures viable device reliability and long-term stability based on well-known industry certification specifications. Key VCSEL device parameters including the relaxation resonance frequency, damping, and parasitic cut-off frequency are determined for VCSELs with oxide-confined apertures of various diameters. We find that a parasitic cut-off frequency of 24-28 GHz limits the VCSEL's high speed operation at the highest optical modulation rates. We believe that with some effort the device parasitics can be further reduced such that current modulated VCSELs can be realized with larger than 30 GHz optical modulation bandwidth and reliable and practical operation beyond 40 Gbit/s.