Ribbed submounts for two dimensional stacked laser array

A laser diode submount comprising,

• a linear laser diode array having first and second electrical contacts, said first electrical contact mounted on a first surface, said first surface providing a first electrically conducting surface region,
• a second surface which is electrically isolated from said first surface, said second surface having multiple indented sections, said indented sections providing a plurality of second electrically conducting surface regions,
• means for electrically connecting said second electrical contact of said linear laser diode array to said second electrically conducting surface regions, and
• means associated with one of said first and second surfaces for affixing the submount to a corresponding opposite surface of another submount with a precise spacing between linear laser diode arrays of the submounts.

A method of assembling a two-dimensional laser array with precise separation between the adjacent linear arrays of laser diodes that form the two-dimensional array, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of linear laser array submounts, each submount including a support plate having first and second opposed major surfaces, means on the support plate for providing spacing between adjacent support plates when the submounts are assembled together, said spacing means having plural spaced apart ridges protruding perpendicular to a major surface of said support plate with channels defined therebetween, and a layer of deformable metal material disposed on the opposite major surface from said spacing means,
• mounting a semiconductor laser diode array to a front edge of said support plate of each submount,
• providing an electrically conductive path through said laser diode array to said second major surface,
• stacking said submounts one on top of another with the front edges of the support plates facing the same direction, and
• pressing said submounts together to a specified separation between laser diode arrays of adjacent submounts, said ridges penetrating said deformable metal layer of an adjacent submount, said deformable metal material spreading to fill a portion of said channels between said ridges of an adjacent submount.