Corning Incorporated

Lyle David Kinney

Mike Xu Ouyang

Chung-En Zah

Laura A Weller-Brophy

Gang Chen

Emmannuel C Onyiriuka

Martin (Hai) Hu

Emmanuel C Onyiriuka

A method of passivating an edge-emitting semiconductor diode laser and the resultant product. Laser bars are cleaved in air from a wafer containing multiple laser bars. The bars are placed into a vacuum processing chamber in which two steps are performed without breaking vacuum. The first step includes cleaning the facets including removing the native oxide by, for example, a low-energy ion beam or by an electron cyclotron resonance (EAR) plasma containing hydrogen and possibly argon or xenon with the bars being negatively biased. The second step includes coating the cleaned facets with a thin passivation layer of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), whereby the facets are coating by the passivation layer without an intervening oxide. A low oxygen partial pressure of no more than 10 Torr is maintained between the cleaning and deposition, both of which preferably are done in the same chamber. Also preferably, anti-reflective or highly reflective coatings are deposited on the facets without returning the laser bars to air.

Passivation of semiconductor laser facets

A copper-gallium alloy is deposited on a nonconductive substrate, such as glass, ceramic, or polymeric material, to provide a conductor to which solder will readily adhere, such that electrical contacts to photonic and electrical components can be made. The copper-gallium thin film can also be used to provide a surface for solder sealing a component within a hermetically sealed enclosure. In a preferred embodiment, the copper-gallium alloy was from about 1 to about 40 percent gallium to about 99 to about 60 percent copper and was deposited to a thickness of from about 400 nanometers to about 3 microns. The copper-gallium film is deposited utilizing sputtering or electron beam deposition equipment.

Solderable thin film

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Bath, NY, United States of America

Lyle David Kinney