Optical Networking Best Practices Handbook

3.3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Advances in both 1.3- and 1.55-μm VCSELs have been rapid and exciting. It is anticipated that low-cost manufacturing, single-wavelength emission, and facilitation of array fabrication will remain the major advantages to drive these lasers to the marketplace, particularly for metro area networks (MANs) and LAN applications. It is, however, important to note that the cost of single-mode components tends to be dominated by packaging and testing. Unless long-wavelength VCSEL manufacturers greatly reduce these costs and simplify manufacturing procedures, it could be difficult to compete in a replacement market with conventional edge-emitting lasers that have large-volume production.

Finally, the monolithic integration of MEMS and VCSELs has successfully combined the best of both technologies and led to excellent tuning performance in tunable lasers. Tunable VCSELs are widely tunable and have a simple monotonic tuning curve for easy wavelength locking. The general availability of widely tunable lasers could dramatically reduce network inventory and operating costs. Furthermore, they may find interesting enabling applications as uncooled WDM transmitters and in reconfigurable optical networks.