VCSEL reliability studies at SUN microsystems physical sciences center

In this paper, we describe the experiment and review our results to date. Degraded VCSEL arrays have been censored and are currently being subjected to a detailed physical characterization. This analysis will provide a glimpse into the manifestation of VCSEL failures, the mechanisms and physics of emission degradation. Optical interconnects will be required for the bandwidth needs for computing systems in the near future. We have investigated the specific parameters that produce the most reliable VCSELs - the emitter engines for optical interconnects.