Aging and environmental tolerance of an optical transmitter for the ATLAS Phase-I upgrade at the LHC

The dual channel Miniature optical Transmitter (MTx) is developed for the ATLAS Phase-I upgrade requiring durable performance in the Large Hadron Collider environment. The data transmission has achieved 8 Gbps per channel with a custom-designed LOCld laser driver and 850 nm VCSELs packaged in transmitter optical sub-assemblies (TOSAs). The performance of the MTx opto-electronics is evaluated. Accelerated aging tests of the VCSELs were conducted in a chamber at 85 °C, 85% relative humidity, with TOSA and bare-die samples prepared in non-hermetic condition. Radiation tolerance of the VCSELs was investigated with 30 MeV and 70 MeV protons. The radiation induced effects in data transmission were investigated for light-power degradation and parameters of eye-diagrams.