Abstract— In this paper, we investigate the time to failure (tf) analysis of a Single Mode 1.55 µm InGaAsP vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) with two different electrical confinement structures. The electrical confinement introduced by the oxide aperture or air-posted design are compared with conventional structure. Air-posted VCSEL shows an average of 7.43X and 19.83X Improvement in time to failure than that of the similar oxide confined and conventional VCSEL, respectively. This paper provides key results of the device characteristics, including the DC V-I, junction temperature as a function of the optical power and the time to failure vs. junction temperature. Results suggest that the 1.55 μm InGaAsP air-posted VCSEL seems to be the most optimal choice for light sources in high reliability optical communication systems.

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