Monolithic Optical Data Transmitters

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This proposal describes a six month program to address the feasibility of commercial production processes for monolithic integration of a semiconductor laser diode and its associated driving/modulating transistor. The initiative for this work stems from an identified market. Pacific Monolithics has told NESI that they would purchase large quantities of this type of product if available. The laser will be of the Graded Index Separate Confining Heterostructure Single Quantum Well (GRINCSH-SQW) type which has produced the highest performance semiconductor lasers to date. The transistor structure will be the strained channel, Modulation Doped Field Effect Transistor (MODFET) type. This type MODFET has produced the world's fastest transistor for the proposed geometry. The AlGaAs quantum well laser and transistor structure will be grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and transferred in Phase II to Organometallic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (OMVPE) for mass production (cost reduction). These individual devices and materials, as well as the growth and fabrication technologies have been demonstrated at Cornell University. Phase I of this program would extend this knowledge to include the integration technology. This is a necessary condition for confidence in future manufacturability. The lasing wavelength will be = 850 nm, suitable for short haul plastic or multimode glass fibers (local area) optical signal transmission. In the future this technology would lead on to optical networking.