Design and Assessment of a Circuit and Layout Level Radiation Hardened CMOS VCSEL Driver

Author

Leroux, Paul ; Lens, Steven ; Voorspoels, Reinhard ; Van Uffelen, Marco ; De Cock, Wouter ; Steyaert, Michiel ; Berghmans, Francis

Author_Institution

Katholieke Hogeschool Kempen, Geel

Volume

54

Issue

4

fYear

2007

Firstpage

1055

Lastpage

1060

Abstract

The radiation hard design of a 155 Mb/s, 0.7 mum CMOS driver for a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) is presented. The circuit features enhanced tolerance to radiation induced shifts in the device characteristics by employing a replica-based feedback mechanism. The layout was achieved using an in-house developed radiation hardened component library. At a low dose rate of 4.5 Gy/h or 450 rad/h, the output current remains constant up to at least 3.5 kGy. At a dose rate of 21 kGy/h, the output current of the driver drops by 10% at a dose of 3.5 MGy and breaks down completely at 5.5 MGy.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; nuclear electronics; radiation hardening (electronics); radiation hard design; radiation hardened CMOS VCSEL driver; replica-based feedback mechanism; size 0.7 mum; vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser; CMOS technology; Driver circuits; Electromagnetic interference; Laser feedback; Lenses; Optical fiber communication; Optical transmitters; Radiation hardening; Surface emitting lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; CMOS; laser driver; optical transmitter; radiation hardening; total ionizing dose (TID); vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2007.901195

Filename

4291747