Radiation-Hardened, High-Data-Rate Fiber-Optic Receivers for High-Energy Physics

Future particle physics experiments at the high-energy frontier such as the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, (HL-LHC), International Linear Collider (ILC), or Multi-TeV Muon Collider, will all require silicon detectors capable of reconstructing charged particle trajectories with high accuracy in the presence of extremely high luminosity (1035/cm2/sec in the case of the HL-LHC). The large amounts of data required from silicon detectors in these experiments require large parallel or very high-speed serial data links. Vega Wave Systems is currently developing radiation-hardened, high-data-rate, VCSEL-based miniaturized parallel optical transmitters for High-Energy Physics. The proposed program would develop the complementary high-data-rate receiver to complete the radiation-hardened optical link. The requirements of these links include high radiation hardness, low mass, low power consumption, immunity to thermal effects, high reliability, and low single- event upset (SEU) rates, which are not achievable with commercially available optical links. In this SBIR, Vega Wave Systems, Inc. will design and fabricate a low-cost, high-data-rate receiver using silicon optical bench technology that is tailored for the requirements of High-Energy Physics. In addition to the needs of the High-Energy Physics community, there are several main- stream commercial applications for 400Gbps transmitters based upon silicon optical bench technology. Optical data communications links at 400Gbps are just now starting to be developed for data center and premise network applications. Active optical cable markets are growing rapidly and moving to much higher data rates to serve next generation flat-screen TV markets and server farms. In all of these applications, the size and manufacturing advantage gained by using silicon optical bench technology will be important. Commercial Applications: The devices developed in this program will enable improved high-data-rate communications for 480 Gigabit per second and higher speed optical links. Key Words:Parallel Optical Links, Optical Data Links, Optoelectronic Packaging