Reliability studies of 0.85 mu m vertical cavity surface emitting lasers: 50000 h MTTF at 25 degrees C

Reliability studies of gain-guided 0.85 mu m GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well surface emitting lasers were performed on 45 randomly selected lasers operated at 25, 50 or 90 degrees C with biased currents up to 15 mA (about four times the threshold values). At 25 degrees C, no noticeable degradation was seen after 5000 h of operation. A 14% reduction of power was seen at 50 degrees C after 2700h. A faster degradation on power output was seen at 90 degrees C, though the lasers are still functional after 1000h. The mean time toward failure (MTTF) of these lasers operated at 25 degrees C and 15mA is extrapolated to be approximately 5*10⁴h.