Degradation of InGaAsP-InP lasers in hot-humid ambients: determination of temperature-humidity-bias acceleration factors

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Abstract
Reliable nonhermetic lasers are expected to both reduce the cost of InP-based optoelectronics and lead the way for the development of revolutionary low cost packaging technologies. To date, the functional dependence of the degradation rate of lasers on temperature and humidity in noncondensing ambients is not known, Without knowledge of these dependencies, degradation rates measured in real time, tens to hundreds of hours, at high temperatures, T>60/spl deg/C, and high relative humidities, RH>60%, cannot be used to estimate the degradation rate which occurs at nominal use conditions, T>50/spl deg/C, and RH<50%, Therefore, the field reliability of nonhermetic InP-based lasers is not presently known nor can it be calculated. In this paper, we report the first temperature and humidity acceleration factors for InP-based lasers in nonhermetic, noncondensing ambients. These acceleration factors will, for the first time, provide a tool for estimating the reliability of nonhermetic InP-based lasers in the field.