A very high reliability fast bipolar IC technology for use in undersea optical fiber links

The recent advent of undersea optical fiber links, although increasing the repeaters span by an approximate order of magnitude, is accompanied by a correlative increase in systems complexity. This poses a tremendous challenge to device manufacturers not only for novel types, like light emitters and receivers, but also for more conventional parts like the fast bipolar digital IC´s required for such operation. The purpose of this paper is to examine some key issues in terms of IC design and technology tradeoffs, as well as selection, qualification, and surveillance procedures in order to met the quality and reliability standards demanded for parts bound to have a failure rate λ in the low 10^-9range.