Petter Westbergh successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled "High Speed Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers for Short Reach Communication" on May 20, 2011. The opponent was Prof. Kevin L. Lear, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA. The FORCE team wishes to congratulate him.

The thesis is focused on extending the maximum possible data transmission rate for directly modulated multimode VCSELs operating at 850 nm towards 40 Gbit/s. By tailoring the epitaxial and component design, it is demonstrated that VCSEL technology is capable of high speed performance far beyond the limit of today's commercially available devices.