Radiation-hard Miniature Parallel Optical Links for Next Generation High-Energy Physics Experiments

Future particle physics experiments at the high-energy frontier, such as LHC, HL-LHC, ILC, CLIC or Multi-TeV Muon Collider, will all require silicon detectors capable of reconstructing charged particle trajectories with high accuracy in the presence of significant high occupancy. These experiments will impose stringent demands on the data links to transfer the data from the silicon detector to the data acquisition system, either just for readout purposes or for triggering purposes, or both. The large amounts of data required from silicon detectors in these experiments require large parallel or very high-speed serial data links, which become cumbersome and physically impractical in large detector arrays. Recent radiation tests indicate that fiber optic receivers will not meet the radiation tolerance requirements for next-generation experiments. To address these needs, Vega Wave Systems will develop a high-speed (10-40Gb/s), radiation-tolerant optical receiver for trigger and data extraction. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The devices developed in this program will enable improved high-data-rate communications for 40 and 100 Gigabit per second optical links. In addition to the benefits to High Energy Physics, these devices will enable the development of more radiation tolerant communications for nuclear energy applications.