Large integrated electronically addressed surface emitting laser arrays

The design, fabrication, and characterization of an 8*8 and a 32*32 InGaAs/GaAs vertical cavity surface-emitting laser array, each incorporating a different on-chip electronic addressing scheme, are reported. In the 8*8 laser array, each laser is independently addressable through band pads located around the perimeter of the array. In the 32*32 laser array, the electrical contact geometry is chosen to allow for matrix addressing of the array. In this scheme, the (i,jth) laser in the array is activated by applying voltage between ith row and jth column. Matrix addressing is attractive for large arrays, requiring only 2N bond pads for an N*N array. These are believed to be the first such electronically addressable arrays of vertical cavity laser structures.<>