Reliability of oxide VCSELs in non-hermetic environments

We have identified three failure mechanisms in oxide VCSELs under bias in high humidity and developed environmentally robust oxide VCSELs. Following the discussion of the failure mechanisms, we report on our environmental reliability test results. We have identified three failure modes in the biased 85/85 testing. The most common moisture-related failure mode is dislocation growth in the active layers. The other two failure modes, semiconductor cracking and aperture surface degradation are accelerated by the bias current.