Study of the Radiation Hardness of Vcsel and Pin Arrays

The silicon trackers of the ATLAS experiment at LHC (CERN) use optical links for data transmission. VCSEL arrays operating at 850 nm are used to transmit optical signals while PIN arrays are used to convert the optical signals into electrical signals. We investigate the feasibility of using the devices at the Super LHC (SLHC). We irradiated VCSEL and GaAs PIN arrays from three vendors and silicon PIN arrays from one vendor. All arrays can be operated up to the SLHC dosage except the GaAs PIN arrays which have very low responsivities after irradiation and hence are probably not suitable for the SLHC application.

K.K. Gan, et al · 2009