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VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser)
 

Optical interconnection is a technology to transmit signals in the form of light energy within and between devices in a system. It allows the transmission of larger-volume data at higher speeds than the conventional method using electricity. With a small signal loss, long distance transmission is also available. Furthermore, it has the advantage of high tolerance to external noise and no noise production of optical signals in the surrounding area. The two major components of optical interconnection technology developed by Fuji Xerox are the light source device, the Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL), and the light transmission path using optical sheet bus technology. In this section, an explanation is given about VCSEL used mainly as the light source.

What is VCSEL?
  Semiconductor lasers (edge emitting lasers) had conventionally been used as light sources for optical communications. However, there were problems in terms of cost, power consumption, and quality.

VCSEL stands for a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser. This name was given because such lasers emit light vertically from a light-emitting surface of a semiconductor substrate. Conventional semiconductor lasers (edge emitting lasers) emit light in parallel with the light-emitting surface at the edge.
   
Conventional semiconductor laser VCSEL
Conventional semiconductor laser VCSEL


Advantages of VCSEL
  VCSEL has the following advantages compared with conventional edge-emitting lasers:
  Low cost
Low cost production is possible since the “cleavage” process during manufacturing, which is required by conventional semiconductor lasers, becomes unnecessary and inspections in a wafer state are available
  Low electricity power consumption
VCSEL operates with low power consumption of approximately several mW, which is several tenths lower than that of a conventional semiconductor laser.
  VCSEL of 2-dimensional array
  VCSEL of 2-dimensional array
  Easy to form 2-dimensional large array
A two-dimensional laser array on a flat surface, which is difficult to achieve by edge emitting lasers, can easily be constructed. In addition, increasing array elements allows for a large structure.
  High speed operation
VCSEL can be driven at high speeds from several Gbps to more than 10 Gbps.


Features of Fuji Xerox’s VCSEL technology
  In addition to the above advantages of VCSEL, Fuji Xerox’s VCSEL technology has the following features:
  High uniformity: Less than 10% of threshold currency fluctuation in an entire 3" substrate
  Fast response: Allows high-speed direct modulation at 10 Gbps
  High reliability: Over 3 million hours at 85°C and 5mA. (MTTF of 2.5Gbps 850nm multi-mode VCSEL)
  Control of beam divergence angle: Realizes a narrow divergence angle by an oxidized multimode VCSEL array
  Technology to form a large array: Allows integration of over 1,000 elements
  Polarization regulation technology: Allows control of all polarized light of the single-mode VCSEL array in one direction
     
Fuji Xerox’s VCSEL (TO-46CAN package)   Fuji Xerox’s VCSEL (8 x 4 array configuration for color laser printer)
Fuji Xerox’s VCSEL
(TO-46CAN package)
   Fuji Xerox’s VCSEL
(8 x 4 array configuration for color laser printer)


Applications
  Fuji Xerox’s VCSEL technology has already been introduced as a light source for scanning of color laser printers and realizes high printing speed and high image quality.


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