Optical transmission link capable of high temperature operation without cooling with an optical receiver module having temperature independent sensitivity performance and optical transmitter module with laser diode source

An optical transmission link comprising:

• a single transverse mode semiconductor laser diode having an active region comprising strained multiple quantum wells and barrier layers providing at least 0.2 eV of carrier confinement for said active region to provide for both high T.sub.0 and lower laser diode threshold at high operating temperatures;
• a driving circuit for modulating said laser diode;
• at least one contact to said laser in said circuit minimized in its area of contact to said laser diode to reduce the RC time constant of said driving circuit to permit high frequency modulation of said laser diode source in excess of 1 Gb/sec;
• the combined effect of the multiple quantum wells and area minimized laser contacting eliminating the need for any applied cooling to the optical transmission link at tempneratures in excess of about 100.degree. C.

In an optical transmission link, a transmitter module comprising:

• a laser diode source;
• a circuit driver for driving said laser diode to produce a signal output;
• a modulator for modulating said circuit driver for intensity modulation of the source output according to the data to be transmitted over the optical transmission link;
• an optical fiber amplifier optically coupled to receive the modulated output of said source, the output from said optical fiber amplifier coupled to an optical transmission medium of the optical transmission link;
• the improvement comprising operating said laser diode source at a low power level to permit said source to operate at temperatures in excess of 100.degree. C. and at baud rates in excess of 1 Gbit/sec without any applied cooling, said coupled optical fiber amplifier providing for higher power levels for transmission of the intensity modulated data.