Laser Driver

The present invention relates to laser drivers, and more particularly to a laser driver which allows high-frequency continuous-wave modulation of laser diodes in the presence of package reactance.

Currently laser diodes are driven from a fifty (50) ohm source via a matching impedance transmission line which is AC coupled directly to the laser. The laser diode is enclosed in an hermetic package which in turn is mounted on a circuit board. At high frequencies the package parasitics due to the bond wires which connect the package to the circuit board tend to degrade the peformance of the laser diode since the bond wires tend to act as a series LC circuit.

What is desired is a laser drive circuit which compensates for the package parasitics to minimize laser diode degradation at high frequencies.

Accordingly the present invention provides a laser driver which allows high-frequency continuous-wave modulation of laser diodes in the presence of package reactance with a minimum of degradation. The modulation signal is input via a common-base buffer amplifier to a common-emitter amplifier operating in a current source mode and having an essentially constant amplitude a.c. component. The current from the current source drives the laser diode.

The objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the appended claims and attached drawing.

FIG. 1 is an equivalent schematic view of a laser diode with associated package parasitics.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a laser driver according to the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1 an equivalent circuit for a laser diode D is shown. The laser diode is equivalent to a parallel combination of a resistor R and a capacitor C. In series with the laser diode D is shown a series inductance L which represents the reactance of the bond wires connecting the laser diode package to a circuit board. As is apparent, if a conventional voltage driven, direct drive circuit is used to modulate the laser diode D, as indicated by the intermittent dotted line 10 in FIG. 2, the reactance L created by the bond wires acts as a voltage divider with the laser diode. Since the reactance L is directly related to frequency, at high frequencies more of the drive voltage appears across the reactance, resulting in reduction of the drive current to the laser diode D with concomitant degradation in performance.

As shown in FIG. 2 an input modulation signal is applied to an input RC impedance matching circuit 12 and AC coupled to the laser driver circuit 14 which is located on a circuit board 16. The laser diode D is situated in a package 18 and connected to the circuit board via bond wires. The bond wire interface between the circuit board 16 and the package 18 is indicated by a dotted line 20. The laser driver circuit 14 has an input common-base buffer amplifier 2 to which the input modulation signal is applied at the emitter. The collector of the buffer amplifier 22 is input to the base of a common-emitter amplifier 24 which is biased to operate in a current source mode. The collector of the common-emitter amplifier 24 is connected to the laser diode D to provide the drive current. Also, as is well known in the art, emitter degeneration of the common-emitter amplifier 24 and interstage coupling between the buffer amplifier 22 and the common-emitter amplifier can be changed to flatten response. The quiescent point of the laser diode D is determined by another stage (not shown) connected to the laser diode through a low pass filter, as is well known in the art.

Since the current to the laser diode D is derived from the common-emitter amplifier 24 operating as a current source, the effect of the reactance L is minimized as, regardless of frequency, the laser diode is driven by a constant amplitude a.c. component of the drive current. Thus the voltage divider effect of the reactance L is essentially eliminated, and the performance of the laser diode D is not degraded.

Therefore, the present invention provides a laser driver which uses a current source with an essentially constant amplitude a.c. component to drive a laser diode in order to eliminate package parasitics due to bond wire reactance at high frequencies.