The term "VCSEL" was coined in 1989 by optical innovator and Picolight Founder/Chief Technology Officer Jack Jewell. Simply put, it expresses the technology’s ability to emit light vertically through the surface of a wafer—rather than through its edges, as with edge-emitting lasers. Picolight VCSELs are semiconductor lasers in which the active region on-chip is embedded between mirror layers on a semiconductor wafer. The devices require very little electrical current to produce energy output of 850nm and above, and they emit a narrow, circular beam that makes it easy to transmit the light into an optical fiber. VCSELs are also less expensive to manufacture, easier to test and more efficient to operate than other laser technologies.
Today, Picolight is a recognized leader in the 850nm VCSEL market, especially in high-bandwidth applications (4 Gbps and beyond) that require high reliability and performance. But the bar is being raised. Picolight is the first company to market 1310nm VCSEL-based transceivers and components for longer-reach applications. These VCSELs enjoy all the advantages of their short-reach 850nm counterparts, while achieving the longer reach of FP and DFB lasers. Technological leadership and a broad array of patents with early filing dates solidify Picolight’s position in the 1310nm VCSEL market.
Lower heat dissipation makes VCSELs the only solution for many high-density single-mode-fiber systems in the immediate future. Starting with the 10-Gbps SFP, the high drive currents of edge-emitting lasers make module-level heat dissipation unacceptable for high-density systems. Similarly, next-generation form factors—the QSFP, for example—will require exclusive use of VCSEL technology.
Picolight was the first company to commercialize "oxide VCSELs", with sales of 850nm oxide VCSEL components and transceivers beginning in 1999. To provide the highest reliability, Picolight controls every step of the manufacturing, all the way up from the VCSEL architectural design. Atom-by-atom deposition of the epitaxial layers, proprietary processing approaches, comprehensive testing, and stringent handling, set the industry standard for performance, uniformity and reliability of Picolight's transceiver and components.
While 850nm VCSEL currently leads in all multimode fiber applications, development of 1310nm VCSEL for long-reach single-mode applications posed abundant technical challenges for the optics industry. These technical challenges, coupled with the lack of in-house VCSEL expertise considerably slowed down 1310nm VCSEL programs for many optical players or even forced them to abandon them entirely. On the other hand, Picolight leveraged its past experience and strong expertise in the VCSEL technology to overcome those challenges. Based on its success, Picolight launched world’s first 1310nm VCSEL based product in the form of a 4 Gbps SFP for the Fibre Channel market in the second half of 2005. Picolight is moving ahead to introduce 1310nm VCSEL based 10 Gigabit Ethernet products for longer reach applications, with commercial production commencing in the second half of 2006.
Demonstrating higher reliability and performance is extremely important for any new technology. By placing the same type of controls on 1310nm VCSEL as Picolight developed for the 850nm VCSEL, Picolight has demonstrated that its 1310nm VCSELs are remarkably robust. Our 1310nm VCSEL has been proven through stringent, accelerated live testing to have superior product and reliability performance compared to edge emitting laser products.
Picolight’s vertical integration controls the entire manufacturing process, including epitaxial growth, processing the VCSEL, and optical packaging. Picolight owns the designs and processes for all of the key components in optoelectronic transceivers. While we standardize and design all critical processes, only those that are most critical and most scalable (e.g., -epitaxial growth and processing of VCSELs) are performed at Picolight. The vast majority of our product assembly and manufacturing is performed in Asia by a proven, high-quality tier 1 contract manufacturer, enabling us to reduce product costs and scale manufacturing to meet the growing demand for our products.
Picolight’s vertical integration enables components and transceivers to be customized more easily and efficiently. It dramatically accelerates product turns while shortening design cycles. And because control begins at the core of optical technology, our vertical integration provides an unparalleled degree of flexibility that translates into the industry’s highest level of product reliability. From material quality to proprietary burn-in to process management, Picolight controls the entire manufacturing process. We ensure that performance matches application requirements across the board, delivering components and optical transceivers to customers more quickly and efficiently than any other transceiver supplier. This provides our customers with the flexibility, reliability and time-to-market advantages they need to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.
