US 11,876,348 B2
Trench process for dense VCSEL design
Mariam Sadaka, Austin, TX (US); and Date J. Noorlag, Seongnam (KR)
Assigned to Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed by Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 25, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/032,673.
Prior Publication US 2022/0102940 A1, Mar. 31, 2022
Int. Cl. H01S 5/183 (2006.01); H01S 5/42 (2006.01); H01S 5/40 (2006.01); H01S 5/22 (2006.01)
CPC H01S 5/18313 (2013.01) [H01S 5/18327 (2013.01); H01S 5/18344 (2013.01); H01S 5/2205 (2013.01); H01S 5/4025 (2013.01); H01S 5/423 (2013.01); H01S 2301/176 (2013.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An emitter structure comprising:
an emitter cluster comprising a non-uniform distribution of emitters comprising a common bottom DBR layer shared with each emitter in the emitter cluster and a top DBR layer, the top DBR layer including an oxide aperture (OA) layer, each emitter comprising:
an inside mesa trench in the top DBR layer, and defining a top DBR layer mesa structure laterally interior to the inside mesa trench;
wherein the OA layer for each top DBR layer mesa structure includes a non-oxidized portion and an oxidized portion extending from a sidewall of the inside mesa trench into the top DBR layer mesa structure; and
one or more outside moat trenches in the top DBR layer, each outside moat trench adjacent to the inside mesa trench for one or more emitters in the emitter cluster, wherein each outside moat trench extends to a depth past the OA layer in the top DBR layer;
wherein the OA layer intersecting each inside mesa trench in the top DBR layer is selectively oxidized, and the OA layer intersecting each outside moat trench in the top DBR layer is non-oxidized.