Integration of Diffractive Lenses with Addressable Vertical-Cavity Laser Arrays

An optical interconnection system is being developed to provide vertical, digital data channels for stacked multichip modules. A key component of the system is an array of individually addressable verticalcavity surface-emitting lasers with diffractive lenses integrated into the substrate to control beam divergence and direction. The lenses were fabricated by direct-write e-beam lithograpliy and reactive ion beam etching into the GaAs substrate. Preliminary device performance data and the design and fabrication issues are discussed.