Multimode VCSELs for high bit-rate and transparent low-cost fiber-optic links

At Avalon Photonics Ltd. high-performance multimode VCSELs and VCSEL arrays are developed and fabricated for applications in low-cost fiber-optic communication links. We report on state-of-the-art oxide-confined 850 nm VCSELs for current-generation parallel optical link modules with data-rates up to 3.125 Gbit/s per channel. The high performance and high reliability of these devices is reviewed. Moreover, 10 Gbit/s VCSELs are developed for the next-generation 10-Gigabit Ethernet standard (10-GbE). Transmission over 600 m high-bandwidth multimode fiber at 10 Gbit/s is demonstrated. Mainly due to their low noise level and high linearity, these high-performance devices are also well suited for transparent fiber-optic links using subcarrier multiplexed modulation schemes in the low GHz range. Spurious-free dynamic ranges larger than 100 dBHz 2/3 were measured, which is sufficient for important applications like cable television distribution and remote antenna addressing in mobile phone systems.