A monolithic edge-emitting semiconductor diode array chip (100) comprises
a one-dimensional array (70) of diode emitters (50), such as laser diodes, superluminescent diodes or semiconductor optical amplifiers. Semiconductor layers are arranged on a conductive substrate (1) and include active region layers (14) arranged between upper and lower cladding layers (12, 16) and separation layers (4, 5) arranged between the conductive substrate (1) and the lower cladding layer (16). The diode emitters (50) are formed by respective ridges (9) that are separated by trenches (25) which are sufficiently deep to penetrate into the separation layers (4, 5). Each diode (50) has its own upper and lower contacts (22, 24) that allow each diode (50) to be independently drivable with a current source driver circuit connected to push a modulated push current through its associated diode and/or a current sink connected to extract a modulated pull current through its associated diode.