Piecewise linear modeling of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers

Introduces a technique for component level modeling of non-linear electronic and optoelectronic devices found in optoelectronic systems. By component level, we mean high level models suitable for fast evaluation in system level simulators. For illustration, we focus on VCSELs, which have become the optical source of choice for most currently proposed and fabricated optoelectronic links. The methodology is based on solving general linear ODEs with piecewise linear (PWL) models representing non-linear functions. This allows for a computationally efficient simulation of the non-linear system, with the ability to couple both the electrical and optical domains.