LOW-COST, INTEGRATED 4-ELEMENT LASER ARRAYS WITH PASSIVE FIBER ALIGNMENT FOR OPTICAL-DATA COMMUNICATIONS LINKS

The design, fabrication and characterisation of 4-element laser arrays operating at 1300nm for use in low cost data communication links is d escribed. The design of the chip and package incorporated flip-chip so lder bonding to achieve passive alignment of the laser elements to opt ical fibre. Individual elements exhibited lasing threshold currents of <20mA with output powers > 30mW at a drive current of 100mA. Coupling efficiencies of up to 10% into singlemode optical fibre were achieved by laser modules fabricated using passive alignment techniques. At a drive current of 70mA, the small signal 3dB bandwidth of the devices w as 5GHz.