New laser-based light sources are highly desired for projection displays because of the need for longer lifetime, lower etendue, and higher color gamut. High power, frequency doubled red, green and blue (RGB) surface emitting diode laser arrays have been developed for use in low cost projection microdisplay television, digital cinema and pocket projectors. Single green lasers for pico-projectors using MEMS scanners have also been demonstrated.
Joachim Krueger, Reena Sabharwal, Scott McHugo, Kimanh Nguyen, Ningxia Tan, Naginder Janda, Myrna Mayonte, Mike Heidecker, David Eastley, Mark Keever, Christopher Kocot
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) damage is considered to be the leading cause for IC field failures. With increasing integration densities, devices tend to become more and more sensitive to ESD events. This observation holds in particular true for 850nm VCSELs, as the quest for higher modulation frequencies calls for shrinking device dimensions and aperture sizes in particular.
This publication is geared towards an understanding of the various factors that lead to ESD-related failures of oxide VCSELs. A broad variety of current VCSEL product lines at Agilent have been investigated in respect to their ESD resistance and related long-term reliability. Intentionally stressed devices have been characterized in terms of their electrical, optical and visual failure patterns as well as the medium time-to-failure. Cross-sectional and plan-view TEM have been employed to localize ESD damage and its propagation. For the first time, emission microscopy has been used to study the electroluminescence pattern of damaged VCSELs at very low currents. The paper will conclude by listing experimental signatures allowing for differentiation between ESD and other failure modes. Based upon these, effective screening methods are proposed.
Oxide VCSELs are the emitter of choice for high-speed optical communication applications. A low divergence circular beam, wafer-level testing and the capability to create dense two-dimensional arrays provide the VCSEL with unique advantages over edge emitting lasers, such that VSCELs have become a significant part of the optical communication market. An equally important metric for VCSELs is field reliability since significant failure rates are unacceptable for implementation of reliable networks.
In order to better understand potential failure paths of VCSELs during field use, a variety of failures have been intentionally created on oxide VCSELs made from AlGaAs / GaAs materials operating at 850nm. Failures were created with epitaxial defects, scratches, surface contamination, thermal shock , ESD and elevated temperature and humidity (85C/85% humidity). We will present the results of these intentional failures, assess high-probability failure paths and compare and contrast the various failure mechanisms.
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