Abstract

The use of vertical-cavity surface-emitting (VCSE) laser arrays has been discussed for a number of applications; these include optical interconnects¹ and beam steering in display and holographic-memory applications.² Previously, we have described the fabrication of a matrix, or row-column-addressable InGaAs/GaAs VCSE laser array.³ This array is a 32 × 32 element array in which the electrical contact geometry is such that all lasers in each row and in each column are connected. Such a scheme is extremely attractive because it requires only 2N bond pads to address N devices. It is particularly appropriate for the two applications described above. In this paper, we will discuss rastered operation of matrix-addressed laser arrays. This involves sending streams of time-multiplexed data along the row/column address lines. Each laser device is enabled only when it simultaneously receives "on" pulses from the row and column data streams. The uniformity of various operating characteristics across the array under row–column addressing will also be discussed.

© 1990 Optical Society of America