Vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers are a potential device technology for a variety of uses ranging from optical interconnects to displays. Two related issues of crucial importance for this device technology are the temperature dependence of the performance of individual devices, and limitations imposed on operation of an N × N array by thermal dissipation considerations. Here we discuss both issues. First, we report experimental measurements of the temperature dependence of threshold current, maximum power, and differential efficiency for MBE-grown InGa-As/GaAs vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers with current confinement provided by proton implantation techniques. We observe maximum cw outputs in the temperature range ~11–85°C pf ~8 mW–100 μW for a 20-μm diameter device. Device threshold current over this temperature range varies from ≃2–22 mA. We also report a calculation that set limits on per-element power dissipation in an 8 × 8 array as a function of temperature, element spacing and thermal resistance. These results essentially delineate the range of current-voltage for each element (laser) given a fixed maximum desired temperature rise.