In this article, a self-terminated oxide polish (STOP) planarization technique is utilized to fabricate high-temperature and high-speed 1.3 mu m AlGaInAs/InP ridge-waveguide laser diodes (LDs). The as-cleaved LDs fabricated by this STOP technique exhibit a threshold current of 8.5 and 57.5 mA, and a light output power of 27 and 2.4 mW at 100 mA for 0 and 130 degrees C, respectively. The characteristic temperature (T-0) is 85.5 K from 0 to 80 degrees C and 54.1 K from 80 to 130 degrees C. The full width at half maximum of the lateral far-field angle is 34 degrees for the conventional ridge LDs and reduces to 22 degrees for the LDs by the STOP technique. The 3 dB modulation bandwidth at 100 mA of the LDs can reach 16.9 at 20 degrees C and 10.9 GHz at 90 degrees C. (c) 2007 The Electrochemical Society.