Ultralow-Cost Optical Transceiver Modules Based on Leadframe Plastic-Package Technology

We have developed ultralow-cost optical transceiver modules based on leadframe (LF) based plastic package. The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) based transmitter shows stable optical power output with a variation of less than 0.2dB over a wide temperature range from -40degC to +105degC. Optical output eye-diagrams at 50Mbps show excellent timing performance with low jittering less than 150ps. The extinction ratio is maintained around 8dB from -40degC to +105degC. The transmitter modules show excellent reliability data including 1000 cycles of temperature cycling from -40degC to +125degC. On the receiver side, we have fabricated GaAs metal-semiconductor-metal photo detectors (MSM-PD). The MSM-PD has a lower capacitance per unit area compared to conventional pin-photodiodes. The capacitance of the MSM-PD with diameter 250mum at different bias voltages is around 0.8pF at bias voltages from 0.5V to 10V. The MSM-PD receiver shows a wide open eye diagram at 3.2Gbps. From the bit error rate curve of the receiver we interpolate a sensitivity of better than -18dBm for error rate of 10^-12. We have demonstrated high speed transmission at 1.25Gbps over 10m PCS fiber with our VCSEL transmitter and MSM-PD receiver. For lower data rates and extended reach applications in low cost POF systems, we have developed Green-LED transmitters operating at 520nm wavelength. For a 40m POF system we obtain a 3.1dB wider power budget margin over the operating temperature range from 0degC to 85degC compared the red LED transmitters. The 10Mbps optical output waveforms are wide open at 25degC and 85degC