Sh. Hall et al., VCSEL ELECTRICAL PACKAGING ANALYSIS AND DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR MULTI-GHZ APPLICATIONS, IEEE transactions on components, packaging, and manufacturing technology. Part B, Advanced packaging, 20(3), 1997, pp. 191-201
The introduction of the vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)
diode structure has created the need for enhanced performance, low co
st, optical packages capable of supporting data rates as high as 5 Gb/
s, The popular laser packages, such as the TO-46 and the TO-56 ''cans,
'' which have been traditionally used for edge emitting laser diodes a
t much lower frequencies, cannot support this dramatic increase in dat
a rates, Package parasitics and severe impedance discontinuities, inhe
rent in the TO-46 and TO-56, impose stringent frequency limitations an
d dramatically effect the integrity of the electrical signals, Because
electrical waveform control is essential for proper laser diode opera
tion, these high frequency performance problems must be identified and
overcome.This paper will describe electromagnetic and SPICE modeling
techniques which were used to create equivalent circuits of the TO-46
and the TO-56 cans for comparison to measured results to achieve model
verification, Subsequently, the models were used to determine frequen
cy limitations associated with the TO-46 and the TO-56 laser cans, Add
itionally, the specific problems associated with the operation of a VC
SEL laser package operating at high frequencies (i.e., >1 Gb/s) were i
dentified; possible solutions for typical driving configurations were
then developed, The lessons learned from the analysis of the TO-46 and
TO-56 cans were used to determine a rudimentary set of VCSEL package
design guidelines. Finally, these guidelines were used to design and m
odel a conceptual VCSEL laser package, dubbed optical package for adva
nced lasers (OPAL), capable of operation to data rates as high as 5 Gb
/s, The modeling techniques used to match the TO-46 and the TO-56 time
domain and frequency domain simulations to measurements were extrapol
ated to create a model of OPAL, and to evaluate it at high frequencies
.