With strategic advantages over LEDs and EELs, VCSELs are extending the possibilities of consumer and scientific applications.

• To compensate for their elliptical output, EELs require more complex optics to focus and shape light.
   
• VCSELs have a lower operating voltage and threshold current than stacked junction EELs.
   
• The array-based nature of VCSELs provides more inherent reliability. VCSELs do not have the failure modes of traditional laser structures such as dark line defects.
   
• Since VCSELs can be implemented in arrays and have very long wear-out life, they are not vulnerable to catastrophic optical damage like systems based on a single or few LEDs or EELs. With an array of 200 VCSELs, the system still has 199 light sources if one fails.
   
• VCSELs can be modulated very quickly, leading to extremely fast rise/fall times and short pulse widths – directly beneficial to sensing and imaging techniques that require fast light pulses or high frame rates.