Design and operation of uncooled 10 Gb/s, 1310 nm electroabsorption modulated lasers

We describe the design and operation of a 10 Gb/s, 1310 nm wavelength, electroabsorption modulated laser (EML) working uncooled between 0-85 °C. The limiting nature of the EA modulator transfer curve simplifies RF drive environment, reduces RF testing and enables excellent RF performance in low-cost TO-can based packages. The performance advantage of the EML for 1310 nm short reach links is demonstrated at the die level with SONET eye-margins >20% and extinction ratios >9 dB. We also report for the first time a high performance, SONET compliant TO-can based TOSA using an uncooled EML.