Research

We assess the viability of a state-of-the-art 100G/200G commercial optical coherent DSP ASIC (16 nm FinFET CMOS technology) for space applications through heavy ion testing to (1) screen for destructive SELs and (2) observe for nondestructive heavy ion SEEs on the ASIC. The ASIC was exposed to heavy ion radiation while operating both optically noise-loaded uplink and downlink to an optical “ground” modem. There were no destructive SEEs observed from the heavy ion radiation test campaign.