PROCEDURE FOR EVALUATION OF THERMAL MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS IN A LASER-DIODE STRUCTURE

Temperature is either a direct catalyst or a precipitating factor in s everal common laser diode degradation mechanisms including dark-line d efects, catastrophic optical destruction, metal diffusion and electrod e delamination. This strong correlation between device temperature and performance degradation demonstrates the need for an efficient therma l management strategy. We have adopted a commonly used heat generation model to perform a finite element analysis to compute steady-state an d transient thermal profiles for a laser diode structure. The flexibil ity of the FE model is utilized in performing a parametric study of se lected variables affecting temperature in the structure. Taguchi princ iples are used in the set-up and analysis of this model, and quantitat ive correlations between the selected variables and temperature are de rived. The combined interaction expression is then modeled as an optim ization function that may be applied in thermal management analysis. T he approach demonstrated here conforms to a general methodology for th e development of physics of failure models for degradation in optoelec tronic devices. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.