Northern Telecom Limited

Christopher M Look

Anthony J Springthorpe

Tibor F Kovats

Tibor F Devenyi

Julian P Noad

John C Dyment

Kiu-Chi D Chik

A known electro-optic has a semiconductor laser, a temperature sensor for controlling an electrically operated cooler, and an optical fiber end portion anchored close to the laser to receive light from it. Usually the fiber is anchored by a mass of cured epoxy. This invention proposes anchoring the fiber in a mass of fusible alloy which is melted and solidified using a Peltier effect device which is driven with one polarity current to function as a heater and with a reverse polarity current to function as a cooler. Once the package is complete and the laser is operating, the temperature sensor together with the Peltier effect device functioning as a cooler are used to cool the laser.

Light emitting device package having combined heater/cooler

In a method and apparatus for bonding a semiconductor laser chip to a heatsink and testing the bond obtained, temperature in the bonding operation is regulated by passing a small fixed current through the forward biased laser and monitoring corresponding change in voltage caused by alteration of the laser pn junction temperature. Current is passed to the laser through a floating contact consisting of a conducting vacuum pick-up pressed against the laser top surface. Bond integrity is subsequently tested at low temperature by passing a dc current greater than a threshold current through the laser and measuring the resulting light output and then passing a pulsed current with identical peak current level and again measuring light output. The difference in light output is a function of the bond thermal resistance.

Semiconductor laser bonding technique

In a fabricating a III-V compound, for example, GaAs, having a layered structure a first layer is grown on a planar substrate by a vapor deposition process adapted to produce differential growth while a subsequent layer is grown by a deposition process which restores planarity. In this way a uniformly thick combination layer is produced with a non-planar junction between its composite layers. Particularly in the fabrication of channelled substrate double heterostructure lasers, a channelled blocking layer is grown by organo-metallic pyrolysis (OMP) and a subsequent confining layer is grown using liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). The OMP process produces a channel with flanking shoulder portions which permit LPE growth of a very thin confining layer immediately above the shoulder portions thereby improving linearity of the device.

Channelled substrate double heterostructure lasers

Semiconductor lasers exhibit transient relaxation oscillation on start-up and specific lasers often exhibit sustained spontaneous pulsations caused probably by crystalline defects. These fluctuations are suppressed in a laser having an integrally formed light emitting diode (LED) which generates spontaneous light which is coupled into the laser by virtue of the close proximity of the laser and the light emitting diode.

Semiconductor lasers with integrally formed light emitting diodes

In fabricating a III-V compound, for example, GaAs, having a layered structure a first layer is grown on a planar substrate by a vapor deposition process adapted to produce differential growth while a subsequent layer is grown by a deposition process which restores planarity. In this way, a uniformly thick combination layer is produced with a non-planar junction between its composite layers. Particularly in the fabrication of channelled substrate double heterostructure lasers, a channelled blocking layer is grown by organo-metallic pyrolysis (OMP) and a subsequent confining layer is grown using liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). The OMP process produces a channel with flanking shoulder portions which permit LPE growth of a very thin confining layer immediately above the shoulder portions thereby improving linearity of the device.

Growing community of inventors

Nepean, Canada

Christopher M Look