DC drift failure rate estimation on 10 Gb/s x-cut lithium niobate modulators

Application of the previously reported DC drift activation energy Ea=1.4 eV to lifetime estimation on 10 Gb/s x-cut LiNbO/sub 3/ (LN) modulators is demonstrated. Notably, as the drifting bias voltage V(t) is proportional to the initially applied bias voltage V(O), it is proposed to determine the end-of-life criterion by the ratio A(t)=V(t)/V(O), independent of designed initial bias voltage of LN modulators and voltage limit of drivers. For instance, when the EOL is set at A(t)=2 for 65/spl deg/C operation, the DC drift failure rate is calculated to be 300 failures-in-time from 120/spl deg/C accelerated biased aging data on 28 pieces of 10 Gb/s x-cut LN modulators.