High Speed VCSEL-Based Parallel Optical Transmission Modules

Design and fabrication of a parallel optical transmitter are reported.The optimized 12 channel parallel optical transmitter,with each channel’s data rate up to 3Gbit/s,is designed,assembled,and measured.A topemitting 850nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser(VCSEL) array is adopted as the light source,and the VCSEL chip is directly wire bonded to a 12 channel driver IC.The outputs of the VCSEL array are directly butt coupled into a 12 channel fiber array.Small form factor pluggable (SFP) packaging technology is used in the module to support hot pluggable in application.The performance results of the module are demonstrated.At an operating current of 8mA,an eye diagram at 3Gbit/s is achieved with an optical output of more than 1mW.