Paper
15 March 2023 Reliability and failure mode analysis of high-speed 850nm oxide-confined multi-mode VCSELs for space applications
Yongkun Sin, Jesse Theiss, Michael Huang, Jeffrey Childs, In-Tae Bae, Zachary Lingley
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Abstract
Remarkable progress made in performance characteristics and reliability of high-speed (> 10 GHz) 850-nm multi-mode (MM) oxide-confined vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) during the last decade has led them to find applications in space satellite systems. The main advantage of deploying high-speed VCSELs in space satellites over directly modulated 850-nm edge emitting lasers is the absence of COMD (catastrophic optical mirror damage). In recent years, leading VCSEL manufacturers introduced higher speed (~ 20 GHz or 25 Gbps) VCSELs with encouraging characteristics. However, little has been reported on reliability and failure modes of these state-of-the-art VCSELs although it is crucial to understand failure modes and degradation mechanisms in these VCSELs through physics of failure investigation and subsequently develop VCSELs that exceed lifetime requirements for space satellite systems. For the present study, we performed short-term and long-term accelerated life-tests on 25 Gbps oxide-confined MM VCSELs to study reliability of these devices. Our goal is to extract credible reliability model parameters (thermal activation energy and current exponent factor) from these life-tests to determine suitability of these lasers for future space satellite systems. We also performed failure mode analysis on VCSELs at different stages of degradation using various techniques. We employed nondestructive techniques including optical beam induced current (OBIC) and electron beam induced current (EBIC) techniques as well as destructive techniques including focused ion beam (FIB) and high-resolution TEM techniques. Our detailed reliability and failure mode analysis results are reported along with our understanding on the physical origin of degradation in high-speed VCSELs with strained InGaAs quantum wells.
© (2023) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Yongkun Sin, Jesse Theiss, Michael Huang, Jeffrey Childs, In-Tae Bae, and Zachary Lingley "Reliability and failure mode analysis of high-speed 850nm oxide-confined multi-mode VCSELs for space applications", Proc. SPIE 12439, Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers XXVII, 124390D (15 March 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2647286
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KEYWORDS
Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

Failure analysis

Reliability

Transmission electron microscopy

Quantum wells

Indium gallium arsenide

Accelerated life testing

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