Proton Irradiation Effects in Oxide-Confined Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) Diodes
Recent space experience has shown that the use of commercial optocouplers can be problematic in spacecraft, such as TOPEX/Poseidon, that must operate in significant radiation environments. Radiation--induced failures of these devices have been observed in space and have been further documented at similar radiation doses in the laboratory. The ubiquitous use of optocouplers in spacecraft systems for a variety of applications, such as electrical isolation, switching and power transfer, is indicative of the need for optocouplers that can withstand the space radiation environment. In addition, the distributed nature of their use implies that it is not particularly desirable to shield optocouplers for use in radiation environments. Thus, it will be important for the space community to have access to radiation hardened/tolerant optocouplers. For many microelectronic and photonic devices, it is difficult to achieve radiation hardness without sacrificing performance. However, in the case of optocouplers, one should be able to achieve both superior radiation hardness and performance for such characteristics as switching speed, current transfer ratio (CTR), minimum power usage and array power transfer, if standard light emitting diodes (LEDs), such as those in the commercial optocouplers mentioned above, are avoided, and VCSELs are employed as the emitter portion of the optocoupler. The physical configuration of VCSELs allows one to achieve parallel use of an array of devices and construct a multichannel optocoupler in the standard fashion with the emitters and detectors looking at each other. In addition, detectors similar in structure to the VCSELs can be fabricated which allows bidirectional functionality of the optocoupler. Recent discussions suggest that VCSELs will enjoy widespread applications in the telecommunications and data transfer fields.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 4279
- Report Number(s):
- SAND99-0597C; TRN: US0101496
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: RADECS 99 (Radiation and Its Effects on Components and Systems), Abbaye de Fontevraud (FR), 09/13/1999--09/17/1999; Other Information: PBD: 11 Mar 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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