To improve the reliability of 980 nm laser diodes, we produce 4 μm ridge waveguide laser diodes with current non-injection regions near both facets by He ion implantation technology, and a conventional device is made from the same wafer for comparison. After long-term aging, all conventional devices are disabled within 1500 h, and all the devices made by He implantation work well after 3000 h. Failure analysis for devices by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), results shows that catastrophic optical damage on the facet, the quality of indium solder bonding and the stain of facets have direct impact on the devices′ reliability.