Radiation-hard/high-speed array-based optical engine

TL;DR: In this article, the authors have designed and fabricated a compact array-based optical engine for transmitting data at 10 Gb/s using only core transistors in a 65 nm CMOS process to enhance the radiation-hardness.

Abstract: We have designed and fabricated a compact array-based optical engine for transmitting data at 10 Gb/s. The device consists of a 4-channel ASIC driving a VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) array in an optical package. The ASIC is designed using only core transistors in a 65 nm CMOS process to enhance the radiation-hardness. The ASIC contains an 8-bit DAC to control the bias and modulation currents of the individual channels in the VCSEL array. The DAC settings are stored in SEU (single event upset) tolerant registers. Several devices were irradiated with 24 GeV/c protons and the performance of the devices is satisfactory after the irradiation.