Two low-power optical data transmission ASICs for the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter readout upgrade

Abstract

A serializer ASIC and a VCSEL driver ASIC are needed for the front-end optical data transmission in the ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter readout phase-I upgrade. The baseline ASICs are the serializer LOCx2 and the VCSEL driver LOCld, designed in a 0.25-µm Siliconon-Sapphire (SoS) CMOS technology and consumed 843 mW and 320 mW, respectively. Based on a 130-nm CMOS technology, we design two pin-to-pin-compatible backup ASICs, LOCx2-130 and LOCld-130. Their power consumptions are much lower then of their counterparts, whereas other performance, such as the latency, data rate, and radiation tolerance, meet the phase-I upgrade requirements. We present the design of LOCx2-130 and LOCld-130. The test results of LOCx2-130 are also presented.

Advances in nuclear detection and readout techniques

“…The optical module used with the GBT at LHC is a Versatile link transceiver (VTRx) [479], operating at rates up to 4.8 Gbps. It can support a transmission length of 150 ms, featuring radiation-resistant, magnetic field tolerant, low-power, and low-mass front-end components.…”