Infineon first to manufacture 1310 nm VCSELs
Unlike the commonly used DFB and Fabry-Perot laser diodes, which emit light from the edge, VCSELs emit light from the surface, which greatly simplifies packaging and results in a significant cost-saving advantage. While VCSELs with an 850 nm wavelength have come to dominate short-reach datacom applications of up to 300 m, 1310 nm VCSELs allow transmission distances of up to 10 km.
Infineon has been producing 850 nm VCSELs in high volumes for several years, but like other manufacturers has been grappling with the problems of integrating the dissimilar materials that are required to implement the active and mirror regions of long wavelength devices. So far, long wavelength VCSELs have not had the output power or reliability demanded by customers who are using edge emitters for longer reach applications.
“Our experience and high-volume capability enable us to ensure reliability of our 1310 nm VCSEL right from the beginning,” said Martin Schell, director of Infineon’s Fiber Optic Components Business Unit. “We have all the experience, production capacity and other measures in place to deliver the quality and quantity our customers expect.”
Infineon’s VCSEL features a high-quality optical beam that provides easy and cost-effective assembly and single-mode coupling, which is further supported by the nature of vertical emission and allows performance tests and selection to be made on-wafer at an early stage of production. The spectral line width and side-mode suppression performance of the 1310 nm single-mode VCSEL are equivalent to or better than a DFB laser. It has very low threshold and operating currents, which allow its use in low-power consuming applications, and its heat dissipation is much less than that of a conventional edge-emitting laser.
Infineon uses a packaging approach based on a standardized packaging technology, thin shrink small outline package (TSSOP), that is widely used in the semiconductor industry. Included with devices delivered to customers will be an LC coupling unit and a flex-board electrical connection.
The 1310 nm VCSEL diode was demonstrated at the OFC Conference (Atlanta, March 25-27) operating in an iSFP transceiver module at 2.5 Gbit/s. Infineon’s iSFP transceiver modules provide a digital diagnostics monitoring interface that allows real-time access to operating parameters such as laser bias current, transmitted optical power, received optical power, internal transceiver temperature and supply voltage. They also feature internal calibration of measurements over operating temperature, as well as built-in alarm and warning threshold sensors that allow the user to determine when a particular value is outside of its operating range.
