Method of fabricating an integrated semiconductor light modulator and

Abstract

In a method of fabricating an integrated semiconductor light modulator and laser device, a semiconductor layer having first and second regions of different crystal compositions is produced on each chip region of a semiconductor wafer by a selective crystal growth using, as a mask, a dielectric film having a prescribed pattern. Thereafter, a semiconductor laser and a light modulator that modulates laser light emitted from the semiconductor layer are produced in a first semiconductor region and a second semiconductor region, respectively, of each chip region. In this method, the shape of the dielectric mask pattern and the shape of the opening of the mask pattern on each chip region is symmetrical with the dielectric mask pattern and opening of an adjacent chip region along the optical waveguide direction of the semiconductor laser. The semiconductor layer is grown on the wafer so that the first and second semiconductor regions of different crystal compositions on each chip region are in contact with semiconductor regions having the same crystal composition of an adjacent chip region. As the result, at opposite edges of the chip region in the optical waveguide direction, the crystal compositions of the first and second semiconductor regions are the same.