High power laser diode manufacturing and reliability

High power single mode lasers emitting in the 820 nm to 860 nm wavelength range fabricated from AlGaAs/GaAs and 900 nm to 1000 nm from AlGaAs/InGaAs are widely used in printing, high speed data link and telecommunication applications. High power multi-mode (wide aperture) lasers from the same material system have also been used in diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) lasers, fiber laser/amplifier pumps, material processing and thermal printing. The device performance and reliability have improved significantly in the last few years with better epitaxial design and better packaging technology. In this paper, we summarize our lifetest data to date in three categories: (1) high power single-mode lasers, (2) high temperature, medium power single-mode laser, and (3) high power multi-mode lasers.