Lifetime extrapolation of 650 nm InGaAlP laser diodes with or without adequate burn-in time

The 650 nm InGaAlP laser diodes are the most popular photonic device in consumer electronics. Some of these lasers do not receive adequate burn-in time before sending downstream to practical applications. Lasers without adequate burn-in time may exhibit decreasing operating current and ageing tests may not generate results that can be used to predict laser lifetime and reliability. This paper presents a unified approach that allows us to predict lifetime of lasers with either increasing or decreasing operating current in short-duration ageing tests. Methods for data processing are illustrated by case examples regarding lifetime extrapolation of the data from a 1000 h ageing test of commercially available 650 nm, InGaAlP, 10 mW lasers.