Reliability of a 1550-nm MQW DFB high-power laser source

John D. Evans; I. G. A. Davies; A. Richard Goodwin; Jeffrey C. Yu; Adrian P. Janssen

doi:10.1117/12.273823

Translator Disclaimer

1 May 1997 Reliability of a 1550-nm MQW DFB high-power laser source

John D. Evans, I. G. A. Davies, A. Richard Goodwin, Jeffrey C. Yu, Adrian P. Janssen

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3004, Fabrication, Testing, and Reliability of Semiconductor Lasers II; (1997) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.273823
Event: Photonics West '97, 1997, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

Controlled lifetests totaling 1.9 million device hours have been carried out on a distributed feedback (DFB) laser emitting at a wavelength near 1.55 micrometers with an output power in excess of 50 mW. The degradation rate is typically found to decrease with increasing operating time for a wide range of drive currents and temperatures. The effective activation energy was found to be 0.52 eV. End of life was defined by the following three criteria: the maximum operating power decreasing to 48 mW; the change in the center wavelength due to aging equaling +/- 0.5 nm; the operating current increasing by 20% (approximately equals 40 mA). Conservative predictions of operating lifetime are made using the worst case of constant degradation over the lifetime and an activation energy of 0.4 eV. Less than 0.01% of the sample are expected to wear-out in 20 years at 30 degree(s)C. No random failures were observed giving a random failure rate below 32 FITs. These results provide a high degree of confidence that the 1550 nm MQW DFB high power laser structure investigated is fit for both high speed optical communications and CATV systems.

Citation Download Citation

John D. Evans, I. G. A. Davies, A. Richard Goodwin, Jeffrey C. Yu, and Adrian P. Janssen "Reliability of a 1550-nm MQW DFB high-power laser source", Proc. SPIE 3004, Fabrication, Testing, and Reliability of Semiconductor Lasers II, (1 May 1997); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.273823

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE