Reliability and degradation behavior of semiconductor optical amplifiers integrated with spot-size converters

The semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is one of the most promising devices for gate-switching because it enables fiber-to-fiber lossless operation and has a high extinction ratio. Recently, an SOA gate array integrated with the spot-size converter (SS) has been developed for application to a high-speed wavelength selector for WDM systems. However, the changes in the characteristics of the SOA during degradation have not been clarified yet. To apply an SOA to actual systems, confirmation of reliability based on its degradation mechanism is necessary. In this paper, the changes in the characteristics of the SOA due to degradation are clarified through several accelerated aging tests. Estimated lifetime based on the characteristic changes due to degradation shows sufficient stability for actual use conditions.