Software Analyzes Heat Buildup in VCSELs

Internal heating is a key issue for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), a semiconductor microlaser diode that emits light in a cylindrical beam vertically from the surface of a fabricated wafer. They generally have higher thermal impedance than edgeemitting lasers and are fairly efficient for optical devices, running at roughly 25% efficiency in contrast to light emitting diodes’ (LEDs) typical 2% to 3%. For instance, they produce 10 mW of optical power from a 40-mW input; the remaining is dissipated as heat.