News

26 March 2009

 

Alight and ULM partner on volume VCSEL production

Alight Technologies ApS of Copenhagen, Denmark says that Philips Technologie GmbH U-L-M Photonics (Philips U-L-M Photonics) is to provide contract volume manufacturing for its 1300nm photonic bandgap vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (PBG-VCSELs).

Via its own its prototyping facilities, Alight currently has a high-speed 1300nm PBG-VCSEL under development (for limited sampling from Q3/2009). The firm presented its latest results at this week's Optical Fiber Conference (OFC 2009) in San Diego, where Alight and U-L-M are co-exhibiting.

Alight acquired Infineon Technologies' dilute-nitride 1300nm VCSEL platform in September 2005, with the aim of meeting the increasing demand for high-power and high-speed single-mode VCSELs operating at 1300nm. The combination of a qualified material platform and the add-on PGB technology creates unique opportunities not only for Alight but also for the firm’s partners, it reckons.

Alight is initially targeting applications such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet LR/LRM and up to 10km links for 8Gb/s Fiber Channel. The firm claims that its proprietary PBG VCSEL technology enables an increase in the single-mode output power or improvement in the characteristics of high-speed VCSELs.

"We are targeting excellent high-temperature performance whilst offering lower power consumption and module flexibility, and expect that this will make our 1300nm PBG VCSEL a candidate to replace edge-emitting lasers in next-generation modules for datacom and telecom applications," says CEO Dirk Jessen. Working with U-L-M as Alight's foundry manufacturing partner gives proven volume manufacturing capability, he adds, as well as shortening the time from prototyping to products.

"Alight's VCSEL technology platform in combination with the photonic bandgap structures will enable 1300nm VCSELs as a complementary solution to edge-emitting lasers," comments U-L-M's general manager Dr Martin Grabherr.

U-L-M is already a volume manufacturer of a complete portfolio of high-speed multi-mode VCSELs emitting at a wavelength of 850nm for the datacom market (being presented at OFC) and has delivered short-wavelength single-mode VCSELs for non-communications applications such as sensing since 2002.

Now, as well as contract manufacturing of Alight's 1300nm PBG-VCSEL, U-L-M will also participate in the reliability testing. "We know that reliability is key to the success of 1300nm VCSELs, and we have set-up a reliability testing program together with Philips U-L-M Photonics," says Alight's CTO Dr Dan Birkedal. "We have already demonstrated good reliability of our 2.5Gb/s PBG-VCSELs [for which initial results were presented at OFC 2006] due to the large oxide operation, and we expect that we will maintain the good reliability also in our 10Gb/s PBG-VCSELs," he adds.

See related item:

U-L-M qualifies ALSI laser dicing system for VCSELs

Search: Philips U-L-M Photonics VCSELs

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Visit: www.ulm-photonics.com